Friday’s review wave belongs to Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Bandai Namco Aces’ long-awaited sequel lifts its embargo a week before the October 2 launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and the early scoreboard is unusually tidy: Metacritic’s PS5 tally is already sitting around the high 80s from roughly fifty reviews, OpenCritic’s Top Critic Average is tracking the same band with a near-universal recommend rate, and the disagreements are about cutscene length and unfinished multiplayer impressions rather than whether the flying works.
Our NGC Rating averages 12 published critic scores we could verify and normalize to a 100-point scale (out of ten times ten, out of five times twenty, percentages as written). Polygon’s roundup and a couple of unscored write-ups are left out. IGN’s 9/10 is included as the provisional campaign score the outlet actually published while multiplayer testing continues. The result is 86, Great, a touch under the warmer aggregator snapshots because this sample is smaller and includes several solid 8/10s alongside the 90-plus cluster.
| Outlet | Published | Score | Normalized bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC Gamer | 92 | 92 | |
| DualShockers | 9.5/10 | 95 | |
| GamesRadar+ | 4.5/5 | 90 | |
| IGN | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Forbes | 9/10 | 90 | |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4.5/5 | 90 | |
| The Outerhaven | 4.5/5 | 90 | |
| Push Square | 8/10 | 80 | |
| ScreenRant | 8/10 | 80 | |
| Creative Bloq | 8/10 | 80 | |
| TechRaptor | 8/10 | 80 | |
| CGMagazine | 8/10 | 80 |
Excluded: Polygon (roundup only); TechRadar and TheSixthAxis (no numeric scores found); The Guardian (full-marks mentions in secondary roundups not independently verified as a numeric grade). IGN 9/10 is provisional pending multiplayer.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve — the flying is the consensus (PS5 / Xbox / PC)
Seven years after Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Project Aces puts you back over Usea as the manufactured legend “Wings of Theve,” flying with Joker Flight from the carrier Endurance after Sotoa’s invasion. Across the reviews that matter, the dogfighting is the easy agreement. PC Gamer’s Nova Wright opens at 92 and calls the weather and handling a real step up from High-G turn spam, describing cloud cover as mechanical cover rather than wallpaper. IGN’s Will Borger, still provisional on multiplayer, says the campaign marries “exceptional air combat” with a melodramatic but moving story and one of the year’s best soundtracks. GamesRadar+’s Scott McCrae awards 4.5/5 for mission variety that builds into finales he compares to the series’ most bombastic stretches, while Push Square’s Stephen Tailby lands at 8/10 and still calls it the most sure-footed Ace Combat has felt, with Performance mode prioritising a stable 60fps on base PS5.
Where critics separate is the new first-person deck and hangar storytelling. TechRadar and several middle-band reviews argue the cutscenes take too long to repay the drama, and CGMagazine’s 8/10 specifically flags an “incoherent and impenetrable” campaign even while praising the action. Warmer outlets counter that the radio chatter, wingmen, and propaganda theme finally give the melodrama a human centre. DualShockers goes 9.5/10 for that aviation love letter, and Forbes’ 9/10 leans on a more visceral cockpit feel than Ace Combat 7. Almost nobody is calling the game broken. The argument is whether you want thirty missions of refined arcade flight enough to sit through the slower narrative passages, and whether you should pay full price before live multiplayer scores settle.
Read the reviews: PC Gamer (92) · IGN (provisional 9/10) · GamesRadar+ (4.5/5) · Push Square (8/10) · DualShockers (9.5/10) · Polygon review roundup · OpenCritic
What the scoreboard means next to Ace Combat 7, and who should buy before October 2
Individual reviews describe the clouds and the cutscenes well, but they rarely put this launch next to the rest of the series or the storefront clock. Stacking the published aggregates with Bandai Namco’s official edition notes gives a clearer buyer map:
| Reference | Score / note |
|---|---|
| NGC Rating (12 verified scores) | 86 |
| Metacritic PS5 (GamesRadar snapshot, ~52 reviews) | 87 |
| OpenCritic Top Critic Average (early) | ~88–89 |
| Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (Metacritic, series context) | 86 |
| Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (series high, Metacritic) | 89 |
| Platforms at launch | PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (cross-play online) |
| Standard price (US / EU list) | $69.99 / €69.99 |
| Deluxe early access | Sep 29, 2026 (3 days early) |
| Pre-order bonus (all editions, before Oct 2) | F-14A + Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War port |
| Campaign length (critic reports) | ~18–30 hours across 30 missions |
| PS5 performance notes (Push Square / Sixth Axis) | Performance ~60fps; Quality ~30fps; DualSense haptics praised |
| Player type | Buy-now call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Arcade flight fans / Ace Combat 7 owners who loved the campaign | Buy or pre-order before Oct 2 | Critic consensus on dogfighting, mission variety, and soundtrack is strong; Zero + F-14A vanish after launch day without a pre-order. |
| Story-first players who bounce off long cutscenes | Wait for a sale or sample streams | Multiple 8/10s and TechRadar-style write-ups say the narrative drag is the main tax on an otherwise great flyer. |
| Online / live-service curious | Wait for post-launch multiplayer reviews | IGN, PC Gamer, GamesRadar, and others had limited lobby time; 100-player Air Base and ACE Pass systems are still ungraded. |
| Deluxe buyers who want early access | Lock in by Sep 29 window | Digital Deluxe (and higher packs) unlock three days early on Sep 29; Standard owners wait until Oct 2. |
That pairing points to a clean split. If Ace Combat 7’s arcade loop is what you still miss, Wings of Theve is the October 2 purchase the scoreboard is endorsing, and the Ace Combat Zero pre-order port is a real deadline rather than marketing fluff. If you mainly care about whether the new online suite sticks, or you already know you skip long briefing scenes, there is little reason to rush a seventy-dollar Standard copy before live multiplayer grades and day-one patches land. Either way, this is not a thin score dump: the critic fight is about how much story friction you will accept for some of 2026’s best-reviewed aerial combat.
NextGenConsole exclusive, September 25, 2026. Scores and links point to the original outlets; aggregates can still move as more reviews land. We have not hands-on tested the game.