The Falconeer

The Falconeer has some smaller issues, but those are easily overlooked when you take into account this was made by one person. The story is pretty interesting even though the missions aren’t, and the voice acting can be a little annoying at times. But exploring The Great Ursee for new locations, dogfighting with challenging opponents and discovering that thin line of balance between offense and defense is all very rewarding. I was expecting the game to be beautiful, but I wasn’t expecting the combat to be so challenging and deep. It was a wonderful surprise.

The Falconeer absolutely excels in story and presentation. Sure, its aerial combat gameplay might lack impact or variety, but with such an interesting and visually stunning world, it’s easy to overlook such shortcomings.

The Falconeer is fascinating and compelling in many aspects, despite its repetitiveness.

The Falconeer delivers a solid and gratifying aerial combat experience withing an intriguing and mysterious world. While its RPG component feels underdeveloped and characters end up being too anonymous, it's definitely a game to try for lovers of the genre.

The Falconeer is an interesting aerial combat game which, however, is weighed down by several burdens that do not allow it to shake off the monotony that arises from its own ambition as an open world.

The Falconer succeeds in its exploration which is wonderful, however its repetition and frustrating combat mechanics creates a whole new challenge for the gamer. Lastly, this new world will take most gamers around 10 to 12 hours to successfully complete and its creator Tomasa Sala should be commended on creating a brand new and engaging world with its own rich culture and dynamics. Interestingly to say the least!

With a distinct art style, gorgeous animations, and intriguing lore, there's enough in The Falconeer to justify a playthrough, but most of its enjoyment doesn't shine through until the last couple of hours.

The Falconeer is a beautiful game with an intriguing setting that engaged me throughout my playtime, but the dogfighting disappoints and there’s just not much to it otherwise. It was created by a one-man studio so this is quite an accomplishment, but the fact remains that the final experience falls short of greatness.

The Falconeer is a game with great ideas, but also with a mission system that ends up being repetitive and boring too soon. However, it is not a bad game. It offers a great quality in flight physique, and great visuals. In addition, it was made by a single person, which is undoubtedly a merit difficult to match, especially for the quality of many of its options. It is not a game for everyone, but for those who enjoy air combat games.

It’s not the most accessible game around, but this quirky bird-borne aerial combat game is definitely one of the most imaginative games in the Xbox Series X/S launch line-up.

Perhaps it would have been better to aim for something smaller and more manageable instead of engaging in the creation of a vast but empty world.

The Falconeer is a small but surprisingly ambitious game that will impress those that are curious with its artistry, and if you are willing to pack a little extra patience and tolerance of its more glaring flaws, you’re likely to have a good time. Fans of old-school air-combat games such as Ace Combat and Crimson Skies in particular should consider giving it a shot.

While the combat may not be super engaging, and the story is a bad egg, the gorgeous world of The Falconeer on Xbox is a triumph. Paired with the spectacular music and breathtaking feeling of flight, this game provides what feels like an exceptional concept rather than a complete game.

The Falconeer brings to life a fantastic and beautiful open world where we can fly everywhere riding our giant falcon. Dogfights between the clouds while an interesting story between different factions is defining our actions. We just miss more interactions with the world around us and to be able to change the story with our decisions.

The world of The Great Ursee is dramatic and looks gorgeous with its pleasing sunset vistas that really pop thanks to the game’s brilliant use of HDR. However, The Falconeer does fly too close to the sun in some areas. A largely forgettable and at times confusing story will be a disappointment to some, while inconsistent collision detection and a lack of mission checkpoints create frequent disappointing turbulence. Faults aside, for a game that’s been created by one person, and is one of the cheaper Xbox Series X|S launch day titles, you should definitely consider picking up The Falconeer along with your new console.

In some aspects The Falconeer is a fascinating exporation adventure. But you also encounter repetitive action and balancing problems. Nonetheless you can experience intense dogfights in a neatly presented water world.

The Falconeer tries to fly so high from very early, but as the hours go by, its structure ends up holding back any hint of excellence and it is reduced to simplicity, which is a shame considering how interesting its planning is. The control is precise, the narrative context is rich and absorbing, but flying is not as satisfying as it could be, clouded by a mission design with repetitive and insistent patterns. The magic is short-lived, despite being a brief and enjoyable experience on the artistic level.

The Falconeer is a beautiful indie game, full of promising ideas, but gets too repetitive after a couple of hours. There´s a great story behind the aerial combat, but it feels underdeveloped.

The Falconeer is an eye-catching experience and the controls are smooth and fluid; but when the hours and missions accumulate, repetition takes its toll on us and the game fails to break the basic pattern in its design and dogfighting.

The Falconeer is beautiful and quite enjoyable, but it gets repetitive. It’s a shame its gameplay is a bit flawed, since it can be fun and original.

The presentation package of The Falconeer is quite good, especially on XSX, but that alone couldn’t overcome the struggles I was having with the experience otherwise. I appreciate the effort that went into making this, especially seeing as it was practically done by a one-man studio — but neither the lore or the gameplay really grabbed me and held my interest for long. I could see where more adept and/or forgiving players in this genre would have a better time than I did, though, so if the game sounds interesting to you, it’s worth keeping an eye on, especially given it costs less than half of some of the other launch games.

With all of the good, there ends up being just as much bad. It’s easy and hard to like this game. Having a mission that hinders your ability to progress the story because it’s entirely luck-based is also a real shame. If given a few tweaks, it could have really shined as an outstanding flight combat entry. The heaviness of the bad mechanics is too much to allow it to soar high.

I want to love The Falconeer, and I do love it in a way, but I cannot recommend it. Despite the quality of its art style and the peacefulness that exudes when you fly over its endless ocean, it’s a tedious and plodding experience. Combat, which comprised the vast majority of the game’s runtime, is inaccurate and weightless, making all of your successes and failures feel arbitrary. And yet, the game makes you want to come back to it, as if by some ineffable witchcraft. I desperately wish this were a better game than it is, rather than an amazing looking game let down by its frustrating combat and boring sandbox experience.

The sea world of The Falconeer is definitely easy on the eye and its aerial battles thrive in their arcadey simplicity. On the other hand the large difficulty spikes and the complete absence of checkpoints have a significant impact in the joy that someone can have from its simple yet effective gameplay.

The Falconeer starts off as a fun, original take on aerial combat but quickly turns into a boring exercise in repetition that even a mysterious and interesting world can’t save.

Far more than the combat—whose charm ebbs away on a tide of repetition after the first few hours—the draw of The Falconeer is its suggestion that, while we may be shaped by our stories, they don’t pin us down, that the mere act of living is to take flight from the past.

The Falconeer is an undeniably beautiful game with unique storytelling and jaw-dropping environments, but repetition ultimately keeps it from being great.

The Falconeer tries to be a legit dogfighting game and it plays the part to an extent; but there isn't much holding it all together. I feel like I've said this often in 2020, but I wouldn't mind seeing the developer take another crack at it, because there's a lot of good groundwork here.

It’s a satisfying experience as you glide gracefully over the ocean, but too often the dogfighting and bombing runs play out as erratic scrambles.

The combat missions are where The Falconeer falters, the controls for quickturns and dives never as responsive as they need to be. [Issue#353, p.120]

I don't hate The Falconeer. I don't even think it's a particularly terrible game. There are great ideas here, and in the aesthetic department, it's a resounding success. However, it just needs more. It needs more polish, more reason to keep playing, and more reliable controls to navigate its interesting setting in. I would love to revisit this world at some point, and I hope that the dev can find a way to keep me more engaged next time.

The Falconeer has grand world building ambitions that never come to pass. Its narrative lacks a proper set-up, or a satisfying payoff, as the gameplay seems entirely disconnected. The poor control scheme, occasionally frustrating difficulty, and repetitive missions make for a forgettable launch game on Xbox Series X.