We tried Airborne Empire, a video game that mixes strategy, management and RPG and that is one of the protagonists of the Steam Next Fest – Airborne Kingdom

A phrase that I really like from one of my favorite video games – and if you have ever read me, forgive me for abusing it but it is as true as a cathedral – is that half the pleasure of doing something is in the planning. A concept that reaches its zenith for many in management video games, whose best exponent is building cities or ”city ​​builder” (Sim City, Cities Skylines or Anno 1,800 to mention a few).

So those who are fans of this type of programs are in luck because today it arrives on Steamas a prelude to the next Next Fest, the demo new game focused on this premise, but that adds an appreciable amount of new features. The main? That our city flies and is mobile. You guessed it, I’m talking about Stray Fawn Studios’ latest work, Airborne Empire. I have already tried it and, honestly, apart from being a curious experience like few others, it is not limited to asking us to create a fortress or flying city; There is a world to rebuild and help its people thanks to its plot and missions. I’ll tell you what my first hours with him have been like.

Our Castle in the Air

Those who are fans of the Swiss studio’s work will already know that the main genre on which Airborne Empire is based is not something that will come again. In fact, the title that preceded this one – The Wandering Village – follows almost the same precepts (although it could be considered more of a spiritual successor from Airborne Kingdom): a mobile city or city that we have to manage with the resources that we find and try to survive taking advantage of what is where we pass without being able to stop the beast (Onbu) on which our city rests while we take care of it. In its day it was a quite original concept but somewhat frustrating due to the fact of not having direct control over it.

Well, in Airborne Empire, our city is 100% controllable, and it is like this because of the premise that the title suggests. Many years ago, the inhabitants of the world in which the game takes place (all birds) dominated a vast Empire from their flying cities, but after falling into decay, its inhabitants preferred to live their lives on the ground. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for the proliferation of the Air Pirates. This faction that is not loyal to any of the cities that the Aviaries established on earth are the masters of the skies and plunder and plunder the cities of this world at will. We embody a tribe that has decided to stand up to them by recovering the splendor of the old Empire that dominated the skies, and we build a floating city. Our task will be to travel the world, battling pirates, collecting resources to keep our home in the air, and helping the people from the surface to defend themselves from these looters.

It is an experience that, as the description of the game on Steam says, combines elements of city construction (a genre in which the developer specializes, such as the recent Wandering Village or Flotsam) with RPG elements. He does it through the missions that we can make for the cities we visit, or by trading with them to get more inhabitants for our city/flying fortress, or by obtaining materials and new technologies with which to confront pirates. As I made my first explorations with the floating city, I was able to talk to the community leaders of the places I visited, and I always learned something new about the lore of this game; one that has its charm since it has turned out to be very imaginative. Each element of the game has its explanation and little by little it is revealed how an empire that seemed unbeatable ended up in decline. And then there is the fact that from the beginning you have freedom to explore this vast map with your city.

Keeping the balance, literally

But focusing on what the basic experience of the game is, Airborne Empire is a ”city builder” that drinks and a lot of The Wandering Village. Not only for the fact that our city is mobile and floating, so (except perhaps some meteorological phenomenon like a storm) there are no obstacles as to where we can go. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues to address. We start with a tiny platform of no more than a dozen inhabitants/crew. And we have to get to work soon to prevent the pirates from appearing and taking us down.

From it, we can see the world that stretches before us and choose a course, and along the way, collect resources to build new buildings (resources that by the way we can collect while traveling or stop to stockpile them), refuel the engines that keep our base ”afloat”, and get people from the cities and towns we visit Join us for a price and help us grow.

The progression It’s not so random like in The Wandering Village, since Onbu was capricious and we had to subject our efforts to the places he wanted to pass through or go to sleep, here We are free to go get what we need when we need it. This also makes Airborne Empire a game of discovery and exploration, very much in line with titles like Raft, although much more developed with the interaction with NPCs than the previous one. But not everything is easy. To the pirate attacks, we must add deciding what we build and where in our floating city.

Every structure we build will increase the total weight of her and will change the inclination. In gameplay terms, this translates into a lower flight speed and penalties to certain buildings or the well-being of inhabitants. To compensate for this, there are technologies that we can develop ourselves or buy (as well as the materials necessary to implement them) and ensure that as we approach the domains of the air pirates, we do not have to spend many resources. repairing the damage causing or staying longer than necessary in an area that they control.

Broadly speaking, this is what I found in my first hours with this demo. A demo that is obviously green in the technical and gameplay development fields, but addictive like herself. Exploration, the continuous search for resources, and not knowing what task the inhabitants of the cities you visit will ask of you will make you bite that bug typical of exploration games that makes you wonder ”What will be there?” and you want to go investigate it. All this presented in a world with simple colors and models that are not very demanding, but that know transmit that tense calm which means constantly flying in a device that is your home, and you don’t know when it will be attacked again or if you will have enough resources to reach your destination.

In summary, a title with personality, and if you liked Stray Fawn Studio’s previous work, this one will not disappoint you. Does it stick? It’s just a demo, and it doesn’t have a release date yet, but at least we won’t have to wait long, since It is expected in the third quarter of this year. For now, we can only let our imagination fly with this demonstration.

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