The good stuff
- A campaign that delivers frequent, memorable Ace Combat set pieces and emotional moments
- Exceptional soundtrack and sound design that elevate missions
- Flight feel: heavier, weighty planes with satisfying gun and missile impacts
- Squad commands and wingman AI return and matter tactically
- Vast aircraft tree and customization options for varied playstyles
The rage fuel
- Multiplayer feels grindy, imbalanced and wrapped in predatory progression
- PC issues reported: high RAM usage and driver/crash cases for some configs
- Lobby/UI and online matchmaking are unintuitive and awkward
- Some missions (including the finale, for several reviewers) feel underwhelming or bloated
The campaign: pure cinematic airplane joy
If you came for the single‑player, AC8 mostly delivers the best Ace Combat campaign in years. Reviewers who know the series point out that the game synthesises decades of franchise ideas — wing command from Ace 5, weightier handling, dynamic music cues and genuine emotional beats — into a long, confident run of missions that crescendo instead of fizzling out. The mission variety is broad, the aircraft feel purposeful, and you genuinely care about your carrier crew in ways earlier entries often skipped.
The writing leans into melodrama and anime‑level stakes; whether that charm hooks you depends on taste, but many fans say those tonal choices finally land, producing the most satisfying story moments in the series since the PS2 era. If you loved Ace Combat for theatrical highs and music‑driven set pieces, the campaign will give you exactly that.
Flight model, missions and the soundtrack — the money shots
The controls strike a different balance than AC7: planes feel heavier, launches and high‑G turns hit with satisfying inertia, and the reintroduction of meaningful parts and two special‑weapon slots forces real loadout decisions. That weight makes positioning and missile work feel earned, rather than a twitchy joystick parade. Multiple reviewers praised how gunplay finally feels tactile again.
Beyond the feel, the audio team deserves separate praise: the OST and sound design are repeatedly called 'god tier' and 'absolutely badass' — not mere ambience, but active storytelling tools that lift even straightforward missions into cinematic moments. If you already buy games for music, AC8 pays you back in full.
Multiplayer: potential, but wrapped in grind and clumsy UX
Here’s where the smile curdles. Multiple veteran players report that online is an undercooked experience: lobbies feel like a slow, awkward digital mall, matchmaking is poor, progression is artificially gated, and rewards for time invested are stingy. Emergency sorties and scrambles are good ideas, but they show up infrequently and the reward cadence leaves you grinding blueprints, currency and XP at a pace that promotes paid shortcuts.
The cosmetic hub and floating avatar were intended as social flourishes but many find them superficial and slow. Several reviewers say the multiplayer feels like a separate game designed primarily to sell cosmetics, season passes and rare blueprints rather than offer a satisfying co‑op campaign extension. In short: if you play for SP, you’re fine. If you bought the full package hoping multiplayer would extend the joy, expect to be patient or annoyed.
PC reality check: crashes, RAM and platform quirks
On PC the picture is mixed. A number of players report high RAM usage, driver‑related crashes, and scenes that tank frame rates on some hardware. Others report smooth, 60+ FPS play on high settings. That inconsistency maps to a small but visible cluster of reports about texture streaming, cutscene stutters and RAM use north of 30GB on some systems.
For Linux players the situation can be worse: some users report multiplayer being blocked under Proton/EAC scenarios — a real problem if you run SteamOS or Proton. The sensible advice is to check recent stability threads or patch notes for your specific GPU/driver before purchase if you’re on a non‑standard PC setup.
Community gripes and a couple of insider jokes
Fans are delighted, but they're also loudly annoyed about the online economy. One long‑time follower compared the multiplayer monetisation to a 'hairy wart growing on the game's neck' — it looks fine from a distance but keeps making the whole neck itch. That line captures the feeling of enjoying the campaign while resenting the store that tugs at the edge of your experience.
And yes, the hub can get weird: one reviewer joked that the lobby felt like Tekken 8’s avatar mall got stripped of charm and repurposed to make you pilot a blank‑staring mannequin to buy skins — which, if you’ve walked an in‑game avatar five pixels to the shop to buy paint, hits painfully true. Also, if you ever wanted to liberate a city that suspiciously resembles Toronto and fly past a CN Tower cameo while your squad sings about hometown pride, someone on Steam already did it and loved it — so bring popcorn and a sense of civic guilt.
Worth your time?
If you buy only one thing, buy the campaign. Project Aces poured the series’ best instincts into AC8’s missions, music and characters: it finally feels like decades of Strangereal lore and set‑piece design came together. The flight model is weighty in all the right ways, wingmen and squad commands actually matter, and the story leans into melodrama with sincere payoff rather than just winking at it. That said, online is an awkward side project: progression is slow, matchmaking and lobby UX are clumsy, and the pay‑first cosmetics / season structure actively harms the experience for anyone hoping to just jump in. On PC you’ll also want to check current reports about driver and memory issues before plunging. Recommendation: campaign = buy now; multiplayer = wait for improvements or patch notes addressing progression, stability and the lobby flow.