The Falconeer review: “Taking flight above an empty world” - underwoodthints

Our Verdict

The Falconeer boasts an intriguing story and a hauntingly beautiful scene, but is hampered by reiterative missions in an empty open world.

Pros

Twisty political machinations and intriguing traditional knowledge
Beautifully inexplicable world

Cons

Campaign is hampered by repetitive mission intent
Public world design has petite to offer
Aerial combat remains as well simplistic

GamesRadar+ Verdict

The Falconeer boasts an provocative story and a hauntingly beautiful setting, but is hampered by repetitive missions in an empty open world.

Pros

+
Twisty political machinations and intriguing lore
+
Beautifully mysterious world

Cons

-
Campaign is hampered by repetitive mission design
-
Open world design has wee to tender
-
Transmitting aerial fight remains also simplistic

The Falconeer is an insubstantial combat secret plan against a backdrop of acrylic-painted skies and Game of Thrones-style intrigue. Its one-note gameplay ensures that its waterlogged setting isn't the winner it could be, but the hope to learn more about its richly imagined cosmos kept Maine interested throughout my 19 hours with the game.

You are the titular Falconeer, a gun-toting pilot gripping the reins along the back of a massive bird and running errands for a emcee of island nations in a weewe-covered world. Most of the game involves flying resolute an area to accomplish some goal, getting ambushed when you reaching your destination, then dogfighting your way back. The flight of stairs controls feel gracile and your bird controls with a light touch.

Fast Facts: The Falconeer

Release particular date: November 10
Weapons platform(s): Xbox Serial X/S, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Tomas Sala
Publisher: Connected Productions

Combat is less stupefying and is generally pretty one-short letter. In nearly aerial combat games you can switch betwixt your main flak and a more powerful special. But, in The Falconeer, you single deliver a basic nip (which feels disappointingly peashooter-ish) and, occasionally, the chance to order your wingman to shoot a target for you. This lack of complexity makes the missions feel reiterative over time. Your moveset just isn't dynamic enough to vindicate the hundreds of dogfights you'll blaze through crossways The Falconeer's moderately lengthy campaign.

That said, the game is buoyed past its vibrant world and rich sociological storytelling. This is a game that - hence the Game of Thrones comparison - is invested with in showing every incline of its global's story, casting you as an agent for change on opposing sides of a conflict. To wit, I actually lied up top. You're not just performin arsenic united falconeer. You're really playacting as several falconeers. The game switches perspective as it progresses, putting you in the shoes of different soldiers hailing from divergent islands with distinct cultures across the massive Ursee. Regardless of which House you're working for in a bestowed chapter, The Falconeer's gameplay is the same. You take in main missions to advance the plot, and ingest happening side missions to rack up currency that you can use to improve your fictional character's weapon and stats.

Pee, water, everywhere

The Falconeer's world is almost wholly covered in urine, and missions a great deal find you flying ended long stretches of information technology, traveling from your home to a conterminous island and acquiring in food waste with pirates operating theater rival factions along the way. The islands that acid the water are populated by cities, each with its own culture which is fleshed out with some surprisingly capital lore. Cleftspire, for example, the home of the illustrious Sign Mercier and its iron mines, is organism consumed from within As Mercier's service demands eat away at its iron and shrink the island to a fraction of its old self. Or the Saladmounts, the wealthy family that has made a fortune on pound, hewn from the monumental mushrooms that bloom in places crossways the sea. Just about memorable, though, is The Cakehole, a mysterious trench that runs crosswise half the length of the Ursee. The gravity-defying wound causes a dip in the water, but is not filled with water itself; scorched and haunted, instead, away gravel and dead trees.

From a narrative perspective, The Falconeer is just American Samoa intriguing, with classified betrayals and outrageous backstabs among the Ursee's key players. I was especially affected by how well unmatchable moment in the aboriginal game landed. After your Falconeer, representing the mining island of Dunkle, runs into pirates piece on the way to make a delivery to a close island, the island's representative blames Dunkle for the attack and refuses to do business with you loss presumptuous. The capricious unfairness of the decision and the authentic outrage with which your wingman replies to the slight help sell the emotional bet of the political machinations the game's story is built happening.

But, The Falconeer has a few overlarge issues that ready-made denudation its story much of a chore than it should have been. First, and most fixable, its checkpointing system is decidedly old school. Missions are often lengthy, multi-step affairs, which task you with piloting your falcon across great swaths of Ursee. But, happening the default option trouble setting, your falcon is flimsy and battles can move back sideways really quickly. To a higher degree at one time, I died past accidentally glancing off an enemy aircraft, and lost 15 minutes of onward motion as a lead. I often set up myself making it through the first few steps of a mission, then quickly having my hopes dashed as I messed up in the final bit. You hind end knocking the difficulty down to easy at any time, and that causes your falcon's health to regenerate at a some faster tread. But, it besides removes much of the dispute and tenseness from the game's dogfights, thusly it's a bit of a suffer-lose site.

And not enough to fight in

Secondly, and more damnatory, The Falconeer's world of water is largely empty. It's a stunning setting, to be sure. The sunshine on the water and the hazy clouds have a painterly quality that constantly impressed me. Sometimes the sky is caliginous and red; sometimes the sun is shining against light, translucent clouds. Some of the more epic battles took place during the black of night, with only the glow of bombs and energy ammo to illuminate the darkness. And the music has a dark, persistent synthiness that perfectly captured the lonely feeling of a thunderstorm approaching.

Mood aside, though, on that point just isn't much to practise. Side missions fall into a few different categories (go vote down a specific enemy, go find a specific object) but on that point's lowercase form among them. That's basically all there is to do. Assailable-world games run to be at their best when they nates offer a balance of briny and side content; enticing you backward and forward between the stuff you should be doing and the stuff you deprivation to take a come apart and goof around with. Merely, in The Falconeer, the only affair that felt like it was worth doing was the main missions. The Ursee does contain intriguing landmarks and you will find assuredness things if you pack time to explore. Simply, there is little incentive on the far side that to adventure off the critical path. And, anyhow, you may enjoy the world more if you allow the intense story to reveal its secrets to you in context.

Those problems notwithstanding, The Falconeer is a moody, impressively accomplished piece of fantasy. I just regard that the complexity of its gameplay could twin the depth of its world. Instead, expect to pass plenty of time wading in the shallows.

Reviewed on PC.

the falconeer

The Falconeer boasts an challenging story and a hauntingly beautiful setting, but is hampered aside repetitive missions in an empty naked world.