Ace Combat 8: 87 From the Press, Steam Players Push Back

An average of 87 from the press, 99% of critics recommending the game, and on Steam one review in four advising against it. On October 3 at 14:21, the Steam store page showed 6,906 positive and 2,201 negative reviews, or 75.8% favorable out of 9,107 reviews in all languages (taken from Steam’s public API, the interface that feeds the page’s counters).

The pattern echoes that of Silent Hill: Townfall, where the press applauded and Steam players much less so. For Ace Combat 8, the gap comes from elsewhere: among the negative reviews I sampled, very few go after the flying itself.

The game is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox. The Steam page lists a release on October 1, 2026, the community wiki gives October 2, and Deluxe pre-orders opened three days of early access from September 29.

What the press praised

OpenCritic listed 74 reviews on October 3, with an average of 87 and 99% favorable reviews. PC Gamer gives it 92 out of 100 (Nova Wright, September 25). Forbes gives 9 out of 10, DualShockers 9.5, Shacknews 9, GameSpot 8.

TheGamer tested the PC version. Nazmul Roosevelt, on September 25, gives it 4.5 out of 5: a campaign of about fifteen hours, visuals rich enough to make you stop and admire them, and the most accessible entry in the series for a newcomer. Its flaws: tough late-game fights and an audio mix that needs tuning.

These reviews came four days before the September 29 early access. ThePCEnthusiast (Peter Paul, September 26) then listed 89 on OpenCritic across 34 reviews, with 100% favorable reviews, and on Metacritic 86 for PC, 87 on PS5 and 90 on Xbox Series. The average lost two points while the number of reviews went from 34 to 74. The article also quotes reviewers who find the mission structure repetitive and the story occasionally heavy-handed.

September had already seen a perfect score: Onimusha Way of the Sword landed its first 10/10.

What the negative Steam reviews hold against Ace Combat 8

The sample covers the 40 English-language negative reviews that players rated most helpful, posted between September 28 and October 1 on the Steam reviews page. A keyword count gives the following breakdown, since a single review can pile up several complaints:

• 13 reviews mention Ace Combat Zero, the pre-order bonus;
• 14 mention crashes or the « UE Error 01 » error;
• 9 lament the lack of support for flight sticks and joysticks;
• 8 target Denuvo (the copy protection) or the anti-cheat;
• 4 criticize the monetization of the online mode.

Six of these 40 reviews contain none of the keywords searched for.

Ace Combat Zero, the store promise that was changed

Several reviews quote the store’s former text: Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War was presented there as « a standalone application separate from the ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE full game ». The same reviews quote the current text: an add-on content executable launched separately, which requires the base game to be installed. On consoles, Zero remains a game in its own right.

The Ruling Desk (October 1) puts a number on the constraint: about 140 GB to install for a 3.2 GB game, with no achievements or cloud saves of its own, a real obstacle for Steam Decks with limited storage. Bandai Namco cites « licensing restrictions and platform-related considerations », without promising any change.

One player sums up the mood: « We were promised Ace Combat Zero as a separate app on Steam, not as a DLC of a 150gb game with no separate achievements. Honor the original deal, like you did for console players. » Another, who had voted negative, switched to positive on October 2, once pre-orders had closed: « the game itself – Ace Combat 8 – is actually good ».

Crashes, controllers and anti-cheat on PC

The crashes come back in specific forms. « Unplayable. UE-Error 01 after mission 3. » This player says they finally got through the mission in six tries, then apparently fixed the problem with the -stompmalloc launch option. Another reports that the game used 19,346 MB of memory on their laptop; two reviews report crashes or a failure to start with Intel graphics cards.

On controls, one review reads: « the only HOTAS this game supports is the AC8 licensed one that works with the console version ». A HOTAS is a stick-and-throttle set, the reference gear for flight-sim fans. Another player finds that the 55-degree field of view pins the camera against the canopy. On the protection side, a Linux user reports that multiplayer does not work because of EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat, the anti-cheat installed with the game), and others mention an anti-cheat that is active even in single-player.

The studio responded in part. GamingBolt (Varun Karunakar, September 30) writes that Project Aces is aware of the crashes on Steam and advises updating graphics drivers, checking disk space and enabling Windows virtual memory. The article notes that the announcement addresses neither flight sticks nor Zero as a separate application.

The game, defended even in the negative reviews

Several negative reviews praise the game before advising against it. One player writes: « the campaign is one of the best in the series and the writing is actually solid », then calls the performance « abysmal ». Another: « On paper it’s an absolute banger: the gameplay, sound design, and visuals are all top-notch », before moving on to the crashes.

So the two scores measure different things. The press reviews predate early access and judge first the flying itself, the campaign and the staging. A Steam score also records the installation, the pre-order bonus, controller compatibility and stability across thousands of configurations. That is a deduction from the dates and the reviews I read, not a figure published by a third party.

Press scores don’t predict sales either: Marvel’s Wolverine sold 1.9 million copies in three days with a 77 on Metacritic. For Ace Combat 8, the Steam score depends on the first patch: as of September 30, the studio’s announcement mentioned neither flight sticks nor Zero.