Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review Roundup and Metacritic Score

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve review scores so far

The first wave of reviews for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is in, and it's the best critical reception the franchise has had since 2019's Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. According to Metacritic, the PS5 version holds a Metascore of 88 (from more than 60 critic reviews), Xbox Series X sits around 88 (from a smaller early sample of reviews), and the PC version is a touch lower at 86. That puts the game's Metacritic average in the high 80s across every platform it launched on. Over on OpenCritic, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve carries a Top Critic Average of 87 with roughly 98% of critics recommending it — among the best-reviewed games of 2026 so far.

Developed by Bandai Namco Aces Inc. (PROJECT ACES) on Unreal Engine 5, Wings of Theve is the franchise's first mainline entry in seven years, following a multi-year gap since Ace Combat 7. Critics have consistently called out the aerial combat, the campaign's presentation and music, the roster of flyable aircraft, and a surprisingly emotional story centered on an ace pilot defending the fictional Federation of Central Usea from invasion. The most common criticism is pacing in the roughly 30-hour campaign, with a handful of reviewers noting the story gets muddled in its back half — relatively minor knocks for a franchise comeback this long in the making.

Note: OpenCritic currently reports a blended Top Critic Average rather than a strict per-platform breakdown, so the figures above combine OpenCritic's overall score with Metacritic's per-platform Metascores, both sourced directly from the aggregators on October 4, 2026. Scores can continue to shift as more outlets publish reviews.

Release date and Steam early access timing

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve's worldwide release date is October 2, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, according to Bandai Namco's official announcement. Note that the Steam and PlayStation storefront listings themselves show "October 1, 2026" — a timezone artifact common for simultaneous global launches, where Bandai Namco's US-Pacific-time storefront date reads one calendar day earlier than the rest of the world. For search purposes, both October 1 and October 2, 2026 refer to the same global launch window.

Owners of the Digital Deluxe Edition got in early: Steam early access opened September 29, 2026, three days before the general release, giving Deluxe buyers a head start on the campaign and Ace Combat Online multiplayer. This is the same structure Bandai Namco has used for prior big launches, and it means some of the earliest review and reaction data — including the first wave of Steam user reviews — was already flowing in before the official release date.

The launch arrives in the middle of one of gaming's busiest release stretches this year; for context on what else is competing for players' time and budget this month, see our coverage of Star Wars: Galactic Racer's October 6 release and Gears of War: E-Day's early access editions.

Platforms, price and editions

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Per the official PlayStation and Xbox store listings and Bandai Namco's own pricing, it ships in two editions.

All pre-orders, regardless of edition, include a digital copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, playable at launch. On Steam, the base game is listed at $69.99 with full controller support flagged on the store page, and separate paid add-ons for the F-14A aircraft and cosmetic set are also sold individually for players who skip the bundled editions.

What critics are saying

The critical consensus forming around Wings of Theve centers on a few consistent points: the dogfighting feel fast and readable even in large multi-aircraft furballs, the campaign's presentation (lighting, cloud work, and music) is a clear step up for the series on Unreal Engine 5, and the roster of licensed and fictional aircraft gives long-time fans plenty to unlock and customize. Reviewers aggregated on OpenCritic describe it as a "triumphant return" for the franchise, with several outlets scoring it 9/10 or higher. The most repeated critical notes are about pacing in the back half of the roughly 30-hour story and some incoherence in how the plot resolves — not uncommon for a long single-player campaign, and not enough to meaningfully drag down aggregate scores that remain in the high 80s across every platform.

It's worth stressing what these scores represent and what they don't: Metacritic and OpenCritic aggregate scores from outlets that reviewed the game ahead of or around launch, each working from build versions supplied by Bandai Namco, and individual review text (not just the number score) is the better source for whether the campaign, multiplayer or customization systems matter most to a given player. Readers deciding whether to buy should treat the high-80s aggregate as a strong signal of overall quality rather than a guarantee that every system in the game is equally polished — the PC performance and controller issues below are a good example of a dimension that a single top-line Metascore doesn't fully capture.

Why PC reception is rougher than console

While critic scores are strong across the board, early Steam user reaction has been noticeably choppier than the console reviews. Multiple outlets tracking the Steam reviews in the days after early access opened reported complaints in three main areas: frame-rate drops during heavy aerial combat sequences, a lack of granular graphics options (several PC players noted the settings menu looks tuned for console parity rather than PC hardware variety), and ray tracing that cannot be disabled, which eats into VRAM on older or budget graphics cards. Controller support has also drawn criticism from flight-stick and HOTAS users, who report that only specific hardware combinations are recognized and that remapping options are limited.

Bandai Namco has acknowledged crash reports on PC and published troubleshooting guidance recommending updated graphics drivers, sufficient free disk space, and clearing virtual memory. Despite the rockier PC launch, the game reportedly topped Steam's bestseller chart in its first days of early access — a sign that the rough edges haven't dented commercial momentum even if they've pulled down some user-review averages relative to the critic scores.

PC system requirements

The PC version's official requirements, listed on the Steam store page, go a long way toward explaining the rougher performance complaints described above: the game mandates a hardware ray-tracing-capable GPU and an SSD, and there is no way around the ray tracing requirement in settings, which is the specific complaint several Steam reviewers have raised about VRAM usage on older or budget cards.

A mandatory hardware ray-tracing GPU and a 150 GB SSD install are demanding asks for a franchise that has historically run comfortably on modest hardware, and it's a likely driver of the gap between the game's high-80s critic scores and its choppier Steam user-review tone. Bandai Namco's own troubleshooting guidance for crash reports — update graphics drivers, free up storage, and clear virtual memory — points to a launch that is still being tuned rather than a fundamentally broken PC port.

How Wings of Theve fits the Ace Combat series

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is developed by Bandai Namco Aces Inc., operating under the PROJECT ACES banner that has helmed the series since the PlayStation era, and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the first mainline numbered entry since Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown launched in January 2019, making this a seven-year wait for a full successor (the franchise saw spin-offs and ports in the interim, but no new mainline campaign). That gap is part of why the review scores matter so much to the fanbase: Ace Combat 7 itself was well-received at launch, and Wings of Theve's high-80s critic average suggests Bandai Namco has kept the series' critical momentum rather than stumbling on the comeback. The move to Unreal Engine 5 is also the most significant technical shift in the series' history, which is reflected in both the praise for its visuals and the heavier PC hardware requirements described above.

Campaign setting and multiplayer

Wings of Theve is set in July 2029, after the fictional Federation of Central Usea (FCU) is overrun in a rapid invasion by the Republic of Sotoa, with most of its territory occupied and its military scattered. Players take the role of an ace pilot fighting to turn the tide. Beyond the campaign, Bandai Namco has billed Ace Combat Online as the series' most expansive multiplayer offering yet, including the franchise's first dedicated online lobby system and co-op modes with cross-platform play between PS5, Xbox and PC.

If you're weighing Ace Combat 8 against other October releases or deciding whether a subscription service covers it, it's worth comparing total spend across this month's slate — see our breakdown of PS Plus vs. Xbox Game Pass pricing for context on day-one subscription availability (Ace Combat 8 is a full-price release and is not currently part of either subscription catalog).

What to watch next

Expect Metacritic and OpenCritic averages to keep moving slightly as more outlets publish full reviews in the days following the October 2 worldwide launch, and expect Steam's overall user-review tag (currently hovering between "Mixed" and "Mostly Positive") to stabilize once Bandai Namco ships its first post-launch patches addressing the reported performance and crash issues. For official patch notes and any price changes, the Steam store page and Bandai Namco's newsroom remain the most reliable sources.

In short: if you're asking "is Ace Combat 8 worth buying," the critic answer right now is a clear yes on every platform, with Metacritic and OpenCritic both landing in the high 80s and the vast majority of reviewers recommending it. The caveat is platform-specific — console buyers are getting the smoother experience so far, while PC buyers should check their GPU against the ray-tracing requirement above before purchasing, and may want to wait for a patch or two if frame-rate stability matters more to them than being first in the cockpit.

Written byJonah Reyes

Jonah Reyes leads Pandromeda's gaming coverage: console and handheld hardware, release dates, pricing changes, patch notes and the business moves behind the biggest franchises. He sources every date and price from the platform holders and publishers themselves, and says plainly when something is still only a rumour.

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