One feeling which did keep returning time and time again during the playthrough was the simplicity, and therefore repetitiveness, of the missions. Some of the visuals can really be striking, with colours like you see here doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
Barrel-rolling to avoid incoming fire only gets you so far: approaching enemies with stealth is often the safest way to go, while you can pick up mines from the sea and drop them on targets, with a precision of placement required. Switching targets also never seemed the easiest task in the world despite it coming in one of the earliest of the game’s combat tutorials. The controls certainly take some getting used to – you need to position your falcon so that enemies are placed within a highly unsteady crosshair that darts across the screen due to a not-too-reliable locking-on system.
#THE FALCONEER REVIEWS SERIES#
The physics of the air-based gameplay mean that offence consists of a series of swooping flurries, interspersed by a near-constant u-turn as you attempt to get enemy forces in your sights. You can, however, play the game’s four chapters in any order, though don’t expect the story go on and on – each of the chapters covers the same events, but told from different perspectives. It’s a storytelling mechanic that quite clearly nods to the Star Fox series, which Nintendo fans will only be pleased with, given that there is still no sign of another game in a series last seen in the love-it or hate-it Star Fox Zero. That comes despite friendly and enemy characters appearing in a pop-up window to the corner of the screen to call out to you or to scream out in anguish as you soar over the seas. Just head to an island perch to speak to the merchant. There are numerous perks and items to buy between or even during levels. Much like Windbound was crying out for more life and personality to interact with on its islands, The Falconeer contains the sense of a living and breathing world to the cutscenes which occur between each level.
#THE FALCONEER REVIEWS FULL#
Things do look impressive and full of wonder, with islands and crags appearing from the sea as the clouds part while you draw near, but the lack of an ability to physically detach yourself from your mega-bird makes things somewhat more underwhelming than they ought to be. This is all based in the air, and the perches you pass on friendly islands which provide the on-screen prompt to land serve for little else than to give you access to a menu screen from where you can take in some story, advance to the next level, take on side-quests or purchase items and perks to improve your combat potency. While for the uninitiated, The Falconeer can initially be seen to be promising a combination of airborne action and free-roaming land-based movement, don’t go in expecting that. Prepare to take part in some epic airborne battles. The game world is set across a vast open sea, much like in Zelda: The Wind Waker (or even the more recent Switch release Windbound, but that wasn’t nearly as memorable), dotted with islands giving home to friendly tribes, enemy forces and other secrets which can be uncovered through simple exploration. This one has you playing as a Falconeer (naturally), a pilot-of-sorts whose mode of transport of choice is an enormous bird of prey which can for some reason fire projectiles as if it were a Tommy Gun. That’s a quote (which to be honest, I may have just made up) which rings true in the premise of The Falconeer: Warrior Edition, a Switch arrival of a game which was a launch title for the Xbox Series X – that may well be a first-of-its-kind port.
0 kommentar(er)
