The Falconeer - Review
Launch games for consoles generally come in three flavours, you have the technical showpiece that offers a lot of visual prowess but usually lacks a bit of depth, now you also have the cross generation game that hits old and knew it doesn't really take advantage of than you and then you have those games that are unique in that they are on other platforms but shine in the absence of hundreds of other titles on new hardware. that is where the Falconeer sits, if this was released purely on last Gen it may not have made a big impression, but as one of the launch titles for the Xbox series X it made an impression.
Story wise the game is broken up into multiple chapters, with each chapter placing the focus on a different faction, the order in which you play these factions is entirely up to you, though if you play them out of order some of the story beats may not make sense. The prologue serves up as a tutorial, giving you information about the world and how to play, it's a solid addition and serves its purpose very well, but as a prologue it is also quite short. Once you are done with that and jump into chapter one you can start to explore the world and really soar, both literally and metaphysically. I use the latter one because there are countless moments in the first few missions with things become special, be it soaring through a giant chasm with the ocean rising up either side of you or riding the air currents through a lightning storm, each moment manage is to portray a true sense of flight, which is really impressive.
Of course you are not playing as the bird, you are a Falconer, a soldier who rides on Falcons the size of aeroplanes, and as you take to this guy to complete whatever mission you've selected or just for free flight, there is a sense of grandeur to experience. In terms of flying there's really only a few things you need, the left stick and the left trigger and bumper, all the other buttons are extras; everything on the left of the controller is used for flight. The left control stick does the steering, pretty self-explanatory, the left bumper allows you to speed up or pull off dodges and bank turns, depending on what you need at the time and then the left trigger allows you to break and then divebomb the water. The combination of inputs is not massive and it doesn't need to be because as you're flying, each action of movement lets you lean into the flying rather than fighting you.
Speaking of fighting as you are a soldier you will engage in combat, almost consistently and as such, you do you really need to start considering how the fights will play out in the longer run rather than the short term. I say that because you engage in fights you will have multiple enemies to deal with, most of the time on birds such as your own and they are as nimble and as deadly as you are. The game provides a pretty ample lock on system for you so you don't have to be pixel perfect with your shot but you do need to aim and what the game does provide is a second reticule to show you where you need to be aiming, it actually makes use of the space invaders approach, you don't shoot for where they are you shoot for where they will be. Each time you enter into a combat situation, you have to balance out your ability to fight with your Falcons ability to fly and that's where the stamina metre basically comes into play.
As you saw through the sky, speeding up or climbing to great heights requires stamina and your bird can only have so much before tires out, it's also used to pull off dodge rolls so having stamina is a very important thing. Obtaining it is pretty simple you just need to glide down, with the sharper the angle the faster it fills up, now it doesn't have to be over a long time, little glides down will help provide enough to at least survive combat. The reason why the stamina is important is purely because when you're carrying items for some missions, if you can't dodge or speed away from an enemy more often than not your cargo will be destroyed, if that happens mission over, start again. It takes a bit of getting used to, to manage the climbing and descending, especially when in combat but the game gets out of your way to let you figure it out, but there are times when it should help you out a bit more.
This is perhaps one of the biggest flaws of the Falconeer, when you engage in combat, the enemies will circle you, as you might expect, and the more that you they circle you, you will in turn have to try and circle them back. If you have members flying with you from your faction, they can assist pretty well, but when you're on your own trying to navigate an open expanse of sky and sea, whilst attempting to take down one or two enemies that is circling can be tricky business. The game does provide two lock on assists, one let you keep an enemy in your sights, so if you lose sight of them when they appear in your view you can see them targeted. The other however keeps the camera locked on the enemy was also attempting to keep you in the shot and there are moments when enemies are far away that it does work, but if they're too close it ends up feeling more like the spinning of a centrifuge and you've got the first person view inside.
The biggest downside for the game though is that the world is probably a little too empty, it's not devoid of things there are plenty of ruins, settlements, battlements and other things to locate, but you generally can't interact with most of them. If you land at a settlement that is not part of your main faction, folks there will generally say they can't talk with you, though you can learn about the lore of that particular settlement. When you discover battlements you can engage them in combat if they are an enemy facility but it's also once you've cleared them there's nothing else you can do with them. Soaring through the air is an amazing feeling, but as your bird will constantly alter its own course sometimes you may lose direction from where you are aiming and result is that you're constantly readjusting, which takes it a little bit of the magic out of flying.
One element that is magic is the game's presentation, mostly on the visual side but a little bit with the audio as well, all of the screens that are being shown in this review were captured either via the in game photo editor or just buy a regular screen snap and not one of them have been modified. There's no in-game modification using the photo tool, there's no post processing via a computer, these shots are all in game, as you will see them when you play. A lot of the visuals show just how little there is in the game, but you can see that when airborne it really doesn't matter too much. While the birds flying through the air are incredibly well done, the people not so much, they aren’t bad designs or poor execution, they just seem out of place to the rest of the world. They actually aren't, at least as far as characters go, they do fit this style of everything, but I found there was a disconnect between the characters that were speaking and the setting that they were in.
Something else that was a little broken, was the voice work, again it wasn't inherently bad it just didn't fit with the world and most of that comes down to characters being all over the place. In one location you have somebody that has a Scottish accent, if you will and another has a very British accent, but we're meant to think that these from the same settlement. In another instance most of the Pirates have Scottish slash Irish accents, which can make them hard understand when you're in combat. None of the voice work is bad, but again it just doesn't fit and I felt every time people were speaking they really didn't understand the character they were trying to play and it just pulled me out of the experience. The game score is honestly very minimal, it's not in a bad way it is actually very well utilised, the more that you play the more this will make sense to you because when you're flying you are not hearing a massive orchestral piece and to help sell that the music dials back and you're just in that moment, but when you engage in combat or mission the music is a bit more intense it's a bit more connecting bringing you closer to that experience.
The Falconeer is a game that is hard to recommend but if you give it a go you will find a little bit of magic in it. the reason it's hard to recommend is because there is just not enough to do, to vary things up and when you're not doing a mission and you want to explore there's very little to discover. But when you are flying and just being in that moment there's something truly special about it, the fact that this game was made by one man proves that if you have a solid idea and the skill to back it up, you can make a really impressive game and that's what this is impressive.
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by Xbox
The Pros
+Visually stunning, from the first flight to the 100th dogfight it is incredible
+When you're flying the active controlling the bird starts to become second nature after awhile due to its simplicity
The Cons
-This is honestly not a lot to do in the game, missions are fine but they tend to be bit repetitive
-Trying to engage in combat in a one-on-one situation can be frustrating especially when the camera has a hard time tracking the enemy
