Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings

A clever twin-stick shooter with a roguelike twist and impressively deep customisation. [Issue#333, p.61]

Airheart will appeal to those who enjoy learning a game’s systems by trial and error. The bizarre-sounding concept of skyfishing is ridiculous when first seen, but quickly feels almost natural.

Airheart is a touching, beautiful game that starts off excitedly but quickly loses it's momentum unless you enjoy excessive amounts of repetitive content.

Simply put, the core experience of Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings is unconventional and addictive. That being said, the fact that it only contains the one single-player mode and that grinding is a necessity make it feel like less of a game than it could have been.

Airheart does something unusual: it marries shooter with rogue-like in a dieselpunk aesthetic… and it works pretty well. It may be a little bit repetitive but its charming world is a joy to explore.

Airheart - Tales of Broken Wings is an intense twin-stick shooter that at times will have you on the edge of your seat. However, Airheart is let down by the vast amount of grinding it takes to reach its endgame, and with minimal story elements peppered throughout, it's hard to see a lot of players following through right to the very end.

Probably the only sky pirate fishing twin stick shooter you'll ever play. Airheart offers an interesting scenario and a reasonably good, but not remarkable, game.

Airheart presents an interesting idea with hints of brilliance, but fails to deliver a game with staying power. Whilst the upgrade system is satisfying, it’s let down by repetitive gameplay and UI issues that get in the way even when playing with the endearing crafting system.

It’s completely up to the players whether they want to invest in Amelia’s daily chore or not. Maybe the game should be perceived as something of a snack, taking it for a spin once in a while. After all, each flight is as short as you want it to be. Give it enough time and maybe one day you’ll catch the mythical sky whale. In doing so, Airheart tries to teach it’s not the goal that is the most important but rather the everyday life and work you make around while going for it.

Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings is a game whose crafting mechanic is a lot more interesting than the rest of the gameplay. It doesn’t feel broken, it just feels like the flying gameplay is secondary to the inventive crafting.

Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings has potential but without a solid story powering it forward and lots of tedious grinding, you’ll struggle to see it through to the end. While the game is visually stunning and at least exciting in principle, Airheart never quite takes flight.

With simple controls but somewhat awkward combat, it has a lot going for it, however, Airheart lacks an explanation of crafting and the stakes for returning home are far too high, making it too great of a punishment to be enjoyable.

Airheart is by no means terrible, but it is better for short bursts of gameplay where its flaws can come out less prominently.

While I found the methodical approach encouraged by Airheart interesting, I burned out on its gameplay loop