Have you ever woken up and just HAD that urge to commit war crimes? Fly into a crowd of enemy planes, take them out one by one while you hear your enemies cry in utter despair, begging someone to tell their parents how much they love them before they're completely obliterated by missiles? If so, first of all, what the ♥♥♥♥ is wrong with you? But, boy, do I have a treat for you, because Ace Combat 8 delivers it in spades.

Okay, maybe not so much in the war crimes department. The game still wants you to feel bad as you take down an entire squad of untrained cadets or burn people alive inside gigantic metal coffins, because it'll make damn sure you hear as much as possible about your enemies' final moments. So maybe the game wants you to feel bad, but Conan would approve.

The gameplay is a staple of the franchise: you hop into one of the 30+ real-life aircraft or futuristic prototypes and rain hell upon your enemies. Whereas previous games featured ultra-responsive aircraft, this one has a slightly heavier feel to it, as if each plane's weight actually matters. But not so much that you can't enjoy some insane stunts and completely disregard G-forces.

The missions are pretty diverse, despite ultimately resorting mostly to taking down everything in your path. What changes quite a bit, though, is WHAT you're taking down. One mission has you fighting in a standard dogfight arena, another has you protecting the slowest boats ever designed by mankind, another has you taking down huge airplanes, and yet another throws huge land ships at you.

The pacing is also something that deserves praise, as each encounter slowly ramps up, and there are some really surprising missions you wouldn't have expected. Be ready to load up your plane for what looks like a primarily air-to-ground combat mission, only for the game to go "nu-uh" and spawn a bunch of flying weirdos in jet-black planes who keep blasting loud chants over every open channel, like that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ online who wants to listen to bad music so YOU have to listen to it, too.

The whole game feels amazing to play, though, and has some of the best clouds in any game. Which wouldn't mean much in most games, but when they're such an intrinsic part of the experience this time around, you really feel their presence in every mission. Especially when you're chasing a bandit who starts darting around the clouds to break your lock-on, and you can feel the weight of the clouds as your systems start filling with water and icing up. When you finish a tough combat encounter high above the clouds, slowly descend, and finally realize it was raining for the first time... it's glorious.

The game also has a lot of replayability, mostly through unlocking named Aces, which are special pilots who, despite their name, aren't all that much more difficult to take down but will reward you with new plane skins. They all have their own little backstories, too. Oh, and they only appear on Veteran difficulty and above.

I love all the small dialogue changes depending on how well you perform, how quickly you do it, how many allies you protect, and so forth. It might not seem like much, but it feels good when you bum-rush a group of enemies, obliterate them in seconds, and have the game acknowledge your efforts with a well-done.

It's not an RPG, though, where a veteran pilot will show up with burning hatred because you stole his sweet roll in a previous mission, nor will it really create alternative paths, which some older Ace Combat fans might miss. Still, the developers did what they could within the game's linear structure.

You do have to grind quite a bit to unlock everything, and some decisions affect later missions. For example, if you focus too much on one line of aircraft, you might find yourself stuck with the oldest carrier-based plane ever designed for a mission that demands that type of aircraft. I did enjoy replaying older missions, but it can involve quite a bit of grinding.

The story itself is okay, I guess. I don't know what to say other than that it's just like every Ace Combat game before it: one nation minding its own business while another decides it wants to take your land because... well, just because.

It does have some pretty good characters, though, with most of them having their own little story arcs, even the minor NPCs. My favorite is Kestner, a marine who initially despises you because your predecessor failed to save his ship. However, he slowly begins to trust you, and you can't help but respect him and his squad of immortals, as they begin calling themselves. They rush headfirst into the worst meat grinders imaginable in their efforts to win the war, armed with nothing but sheer spite and a great deal of courage.

Having said that, the game has a lot of weird-sounding dialogue, which might not be a problem if you're an anime fan. In fact, the whole game is pretty anime-like, with its hugely melodramatic combat sequences. I enjoyed it and thought it was part of the charm, but it can get grating, especially if you watched the little live-action show and thought its dialogue was weird, with all those "Dawn will come" phrases. It's not much better here. The main villains COULD have been fleshed out a little more, too.

I think the best thing about Ace Combat is that the game doesn't forget that it's, well, a game. It tries its best to entertain the player with everything it's got, and I can't help but appreciate that. I love the series, and I was expecting something fun, but this game surpassed those expectations at every turn.

Well, except for the online play. I didn't try my hand at it, nor am I particularly interested in it, although I've heard it's currently having some issues.