We tested for a few hours the playable demo of The Falconeer, a game for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S planned for next November 10 and that aims very high in the independent scene
To talk about The Falconeer, we must first talk about Tomas Sala, its creator, director, programmer and main creative force alone. The Dutch developer is not exactly a newcomer to the video game industry; In 2001, in the midst of an unedifying panorama in his country for the video game, he co-founded Little Chicken Game Company, determined to carve out a niche in a disinterested panorama in this industry. The beginnings were hard, with a lot of commissioned work, advergames (games made for advertising purposes) and all kinds of products that don’t usually appear in video game magazines but are the bread that keeps countless studios afloat around the world. As they were consolidated, they were finding their own voice and beginning to produce their own titles, with a marked objective in mobiles and F2P. Sala’s facet as a programmer and artist is noted in several of these titles in which he has participated as part of the team or alone, although it is in Oberon’s Court, a canceled RTS set in the Arthurian legends from which many elements of the current one are born. The Falconeer. In addition, the developer is solely responsible for the total conversion of Skyrim: Moonpath to Elsewyr, a brilliant and very downloaded work in which for the first we saw what a jungle could look like with a base designed to recreate snowy mountain landscapes.
As a result of this multidisciplinary interest and the experience accumulated in 18 years of career, Tomas Sala launched himself in a solo project to combine two of his passions: flying games and 17th and 18th century landscapes dotted with boats, a constant in a nation so tied to the sea as Holland. Weaving these and other influences has shaped this The Falconeer, one of the most prominent games at the Steam autumn fair -which serves to give visibility to some of the most interesting projects planned for the next six months-, and also one of the games that will serve as the indie spearhead for the launch of Series X | S, with an advanced version released simultaneously with respect to the also present version of Xbox One. Through the demo playable in compatible we have been able to play a few hours and everything aim for a title with great potential.
Beautiful landscapes
The first thing that stands out about The Falconeer is, without a doubt, its aesthetics, its soft colors and pronounced angles, its cartoon style, the degree of detail in the recreation of water and clouds, both essential elements of the landscapes seen in this demonstration and that will carry the game in the media until its launch. It is a title that quickly seeks to enter through the eyes, which it achieves and enhances thanks to the beautiful animation and the achieved sensation of flight. The very act of controlling our warbird is a real pleasure from the first moment we put our fingers on the control, rounding off the pleasant sensations that it generates from the first minute.
The flight mechanics are simple and effective. From a third person camera we can comfortably see our mount and its surroundings. With the sticks of the pad we control direction and height, with the consideration that climbing or performing maneuvers that require the force of our wings to consume an energy that we can easily recharge by allowing ourselves to plummet. With the triggers we can fire a weapon that needs electrical storms to recharge, which complements our ability to collect mines to drop them on our enemies. The combat style sought is clearly inspired by games based on World War I, such as the Red Baron de Sierra / Dynamix of 1990 and its slightly dizzying aerial dog-to-dog encounters full of dramatic turns, with the added caveat that when riding on a bird, we can perform a series of maneuvers that would be impossible for an airplane, giving a distinctive air to the action.
All this is set on wide and open scenarios with freedom of movement, which distances it from rail shooter approaches such as Panzer Dragoon. We are facing an open world, with its own dynamics and an interesting network of interests, clans and NPCs that will shape our campaign. There is an interesting background to explore in this world with giant rideable birds where the ocean dominates everything, cornering men in modest island settlements. We quickly know the geopolitical context of this place, with an Empire in low hours, a group of free houses of greater or lesser strength and an increasing number of pirates and bandits who become strong in the face of the weakness of the established order, allowing us to live several points of view and face our destiny with a certain freedom, accepting missions from different sides and accumulating resources that will translate into improvements and mutagenes to improve your falcon and provide it with new abilities with which to deal with other supernatural and mechanical threats that cross the skies .
Flying the next generation of Xbox
There is less than a month left for the launch to occur and The Falconeer has all the elements to be one of the indie sensations with a new generation vocation. Graphically it looks great, its playable base looks ambitious, the story and world-building look promising, the soundtrack is full of quality and atmosphere of Scandinavian legend … and, above all, it plays extraordinarily well even in this unfinished state. . Its leading role in the first batch of games designed for the Xbox cosystem has not gone unnoticed either: 4K and 60FPS in native mode on Xbox Series X (1800p and 120 FPS in “high performance” mode); 1800p and 60 FPS on Xbox Series S (1080p and 120 FPS in “high performance” mode); and 1080p and 60 FPS on an Xbox One S are some of its technical characteristics in an exclusive version on the console that will use Smart Delivery to obtain the best possible version depending on your hardware. The appointment with the skies is set to November 10 for PC, Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One.
