Sky: Children of the Light

Ultimately, it’s a game best experienced for yourself, and we recommend it to literally every single person who owns an iOS device. Sky is a breathtaking, heartwarming, and incredibly rewarding experience.

Sky: Children of the Light is the latest effort from Thatgamecompany, who succeeded in creating a game that feels both like a spiritual successor to Journey and like something completely new.

The successor to beloved Journey is larger and more courageous. Sky is innovative, magical, boasting a unique multiplayer system straining to make us courteous and… good. It is simply incomparable to any other mobile game.

Thatgamecompany has created a great game with Sky, having a strong emphasis on discovery and friendship. The game regularly feels like an ode to Journey. The in-app purchases hardly affect this magic, but the bugs and sloppy controls sometimes do.

One of the most sofisticated and imaginative games for mobile platforms, Sky wants to fly high but it's stopped by unsuitable touch controls and an inconsistent framerate.

Sky: Children of the Light is a breathtaking follow-up to thatgamecompany’s previous hit, Journey, that surprised and delighted me from start to finish with its subtle story of exploration and healing. Visually, it’s breathtaking to behold on a mobile device and it delivers one of the most memorable and purely joyous multiplayer experiences I’ve had in recent memory. This is an adventure for anyone and everyone.

Sky expands on the successful gameplay ideas of the developer’s previous games, but with a greater sense of progression, replayability, and a far more involved social component. Conceptually, this new project is a deeply felt meditation on empathy and the connections between people, couched in the same unpretentious and thoughtful presentation we’ve come to expect from the studio. Sky is a refreshingly moving and robust game on the iOS platform, and one best shared with others – especially folks who might not normally pick up a video game.

While using a similar format as 2012’s Journey, developer Thatgamecompany manages to deliver an experience that feels genuinely new by implementing more communication mechanics and adding more diversity in its gameplay. At launch, the more complex package does make Sky feel less refined and not as pure as Journey, but we are excited to see how this online experience evolves from here.

Sky : Children of the Light's composition spreads elegantly both in style, sublime and poetic, as well as in content, through traditional principles, yet harmoniously breathed into it while deeply meaningful to carry such an elevated purpose. Some touchy turbulence overshadow this ideal picture, when ThatGameCompany ventures across down to earth themes, or tends to lose its lantern among the mist created by this ever-evolving universe. Its humble existential, altruistic message stays nonetheless limpid, the economic model expressing rare generosity, like an open hand.

In Sky, knowledge can be a powerful thing, an asset that makes you more useful to those who seem lost, as you lead them toward the light. [Issue#336, p.116]

Among the constellations of the mobile galaxy, Sky: Children of the Light is one of the brightest stars.

Sky is both different to everything thatgamecompany has made before but also a smart evolution of what makes its games special. It's simple to play while feeling incredible at the same time, making the act of flight exciting every time your feet leave the ground. It also features a fascinating spin on in-game purchases, locking its most alluring rewards behind the action of making friends and making a positive enough impression on them. That means you have to play a lot of Sky to eventually work towards what you want, which saps some life out of the gorgeous vignettes you're free to explore. But it's no less memorable for the ideas it presents or calming in the way it gives you the freedom to pursue them, making it another journey worth seeing through.

Sky feels like an evolution of Journey: it shares some similarities, but also adds its own personality. They also share that magic, that something unique that you can’t find anywhere else.