The Falconeer Review – Birds, Guns, What’s The Difference? (Xbox One)

What I’ve seen to be compared to strictly Ace Combat, and other aerial combat games due to its mechanics, gameplay, and overall theme of soaring the skies and taking out all enemies necessary to defend or achieve a goal. My first impression of The Falconeer before even thinking about doing a review just from screenshots and clips of the game gives me a different vibe however. There’s a bit of a magical feel and darkness to the theme of this adventure just by looking at the art and I couldn’t wait to dive in on a falcon for this The Falconeer Review.

The Falconeer, the time-consuming, but beloved new take on the aerial battlefield by Tomas Sala and Wired Productions blends aerial combat with elements of war situations making you feel like you should be flying a plane, not a bird with magic and unlimited ammo.

However this doesn’t take away from the originality of The Falconeer as it feels unique and special throughout.

The Falconeer Classes

When you start the prologue of The Falconeer you are introduced to the world of the falcon riders and the enemies of them. You will face enemies in the shape of airships and even other falconeers as well as others.

Before you take down some aerial foes, the prologue starts you by asking you to “Select Your Origins” prompting you to choose your appearance and clan.

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However once you complete the prologue, learn the basics, and continue on to the next part of the map you will discover different classes From Falconeer to Mercenary and more there’s a total of 4 classes. These four classes are as follows:

• Falconeer
• Mercenary
• Imperial Freelancer
• Mancer Seeker

The difference between these classes are the weapons and birds you will start with at the start of this class. When cycling between these classes, you can compare stats such as speed and weapon damage.

Personally, I chose to stay as Falconeer most of the time to try and clear the game as a single class, although you are given the option to change classes every level.

What Does Each Map of The Falconeer Contain?

When you select a map, you will see all available objectives for you to complete throughout The Great Ursee.

These objectives range from Story Missions to completing more simple tasks for Traders and other NPCs and even smaller challenges that require you to complete other tasks to unlock.

Completing these objectives will earn you currency to spend with traders to give your warbird upgrades such as increased weapons and abilities.

From the NPCs, before you start a specific objective on a map, you can select exactly what objective you wish to complete. Some characters will give you a specific objective while others may have several challenges and rewards for you.

Going for a 100% completion of the game, personally I am driven towards completing all side missions possible before moving on to the Story Missions that advance the story itself.

Learn to Fly Your Warbird and Earn Title of The Falconeer

White it may not be clear while playing, you can certainly feel the mechanics of your speed and wind resistance and such while flying. While flying at a normal pace you will maintain energy. Diving you will gain energy used for maneuvers such as rolls or dashes.

While flying you will also notice updrafts in the sky that are almost appear as wind tunnels. Staying high and using less energy when not battling enemies is best as it gives you an advantage of potential enemies below.

Overall, the flying feels at times like you’re fighting the wind or just not making much progress even while looking at the map. Over time I learned not too fly too high as it makes the journey between islands longer just looking for an updraft. Half of the adventure of The Falconeer is to admit the art and beauty of this world created by Tomas Sala.

The game guides you through all of the basics but it feels a bit clunky at times when trying to land or during other actions when you have no idea how to do it. Typically, The Falconeer only feels this way when you must interact with the water or transport items from one location to another.

You can find all things on the mini-map, regardless of if you’ve discovered them or not. If something is undiscovered, it will have a question mark displayed. You can also see events on the map as well such as thunderstorms and updrafts.

The Falconeer displays tutorials on actions, however sometimes they come across the screen rather fast so pay close attention until you’re truly comfortable with every aspect of the game.

Since you don’t need to do anything in particular to make your bird fly, as you’re traveling from place to place you may notice letting your bird fly without your input causes the bird to truly cruise.

I thought this aspect was really cool instead of just having the bird fly a completely straight line without the player doing anything different.

Doing this you’ll also see wildlife and beautiful landscapes, pirate and civilian waypoints as well as other secrets and landmarks you may not find otherwise.

There’s even a Photo Mode for those truly magnificent shots you want to capture.

Your bird will also fly into nearby storms, absorbing their energy from the lightning.

Know Your Enemy, Falconeer

For some reason, even if you have a certain faction selected, your faction will change if you open fire upon a friendly ship, even if on accident so be cautious.

This can happen due to the fact that every object’s health is displayed the same, regardless of what team they are on. As you’re flying around, completing missions, and start to acknowledge your surroundings, enemies and allies.

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During this review of The Falconeer, I was immediately interested when highlighting an enemy as you will see various stats and information about this NPC and other notable objects and objectives within your surroundings.

The Compass, as part of your HUD that shows some of this information is called, will display everything from your mission directive at the very bottom to your bird’s energy and health as well as everything else above that.

The information displayed in this upper layer is everything from your current objective, a yellow crosshair on the compass, to hostile enemy units and friendlies.

Meanwhile the remainder of your HUD, displaying enemy or friendly specific stats, will show that NPC’s name, as well as their health, a sub target’s health and more information.

Enemies will be displayed on the right side of the HUD while allies will appear on the left side, yet another intricate feature i’ve grown to love during this The Falconeer Review.

When you discover an enemy, especially a boss, it will come across the screen the same way as discovering a new part of the map.

Overall, I enjoyed the entirety of what The Falconeer provides such as tackling each area of the map how you please and not being forced to an entirely linear campaign, as well as the thought being every aspect of the game.

I truly enjoyed my time creating this The Falconeer review but I couldn’t end it without further mentioning the art and overall world and environment from the oceans and what’s beneath them to what’s inbetween the stars created by Tomas Sala and finalized by the Wired Productions team.

The Falconeer is a bit much to get used to, but once you do it can be easily enjoyed to the fullest.