The Falconeer review

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X|S

Aerial combat games are not what excites fans the most today. In past generations, games like Ace Combat were big releases that got everyone’s attention, but today the style seems somewhat abandoned. The Falconeer comes to fill that gap in a different, quite original way, coming from the mind and hands of practically a single person. In the end, Falconeer is a cool game but with certain flaws that can be understood, but not ignored.

For the launch of the Xbox Series X and S, The Falconeer was one of the most shown games and had the most marketing. It’s no wonder: it is a game that certainly has more positives than negatives, but unfortunately that excessive marketing may have done harm. The Falconeer is, in fact, a simple game. Cool, but simple, and with important flaws that hold back its potential and don’t let the game shine as it should.

The first thing that grabs your attention right away is the look. Falconeer has a very unique graphic style, and this is an area where the game definitely delivers a phenomenal experience. The game’s performance on the Xbox Series X is perfect, running at a resolution and frame rate without any problem. The visual effects are incredible and everything has a very distinctive style. It’s the kind of game that you take one look at and know which it is.

Looks alone would not be enough, so the good news is that The Falconeer has a cool story and very well developed, interesting characters. The game tells the story of a war between factions for control of the great ocean and its islands, cities and monuments. The campaign has a different structure, in which you see the same story unfolding from the point of view of each faction, and you can do so in whatever order you want from the start. The game has a lot of text, a lot of dialogue, but it’s all well written and makes you want to know more.
Unfortunately, when it matters, which is when playing, The Falconeer makes mistakes that stain the experience. The whole game revolves around aerial combat missions, which range from simple battles to missions with slightly different objectives. The variety, however, is small, and after a short time playing the types of objectives start to repeat too much. In addition, the worst part is the lack of checkpoints during missions: sometimes you are playing a mission for fifteen minutes and die in the last part, only to have to start all over from scratch.

The gameplay is… okay. Neither bad nor good. The giant falcon you fly during the game can be customized, equipped with new weapons and new passive abilities, but in the end, to me the flight is somewhat slow. It lacks that sense of speed, so important and present in other games of the genre. In addition, it’s hard to aim, and although after a few hours of play you can get used to it, the controls never became something truly natural to me. The game does what is necessary, no more and no less.

Taking into account that the game was made by a single person, except for the sound part, it was expected that not everything would turn out perfectly. The Falconeer shines in the story, the characters and the visuals, but the lack of checkpoints in missions and the gameplay that sits on the fence between being good and bad make the experience mediocre. It is worth trying, The Falconeer is certainly a game worth getting to know, but manage your expectations.

Played on an Xbox Series X.