Aether & Iron

The writing is a bit cringeworthy on occasion, which makes the characters less than believable. The setting per se is great and very creative, but the game is trying to sell itself as something it is not. This is not a turn based tactics game with occasisonal story elements. This is a pretty linear interactive novel with a weird car-fighting minigame attached to it that usually feels completely out of place because 99% of all dialogues happen outside of cars. It's really in no way a car-focused game, so the fighting mechanic being ONLY about car chases feels super off, as if someone had an afterthought that we need a bit more than just dialog. If you expect depth to the fighting or any kind of challenge, it's probably not your kind of game. It's not a BAD game, mind you, it's just not a game I would recommend.

A visual novel with enough game mechanics to elevate it over most others, and a story enjoyable enough and well voice acted to make me not want to skip forward to combat. Games that have soul are rare enough these days, and I feel this has just that.

[h2] Exceeded my expectations [/h2] Wow, where do I begin? I bought this game looking for something different and found myself with an amazing story that truly got me "hooked" since the beginning. Voice acting is great, I love how it takes inspiration from Disco Elysium to create a fun leveling system that alters your choices, path and chances to succeed in different activities and missions. The turn-based combat is fun and simple.

The game is essentially a visual novel with some TRPG combat tacked on for a change of pace. The story is good enough to get it a thumbs up, and there are a few genuinely emotional moments throughout the game. It incorporates a "Disco-like" system of skill checks in conversation, but it is not well implemented. The only difference between a failed check and a passed check is that passing will reward you with xp and sometimes an item. The story doesn't change, and in a few cases it looks like the exact same dialogue gets displayed after the check regardless of whether it passes or fails. Choosing to specialize in one or another style of skill check changes very little about the story. Similarly, there are very few real choices in the game, and the ones that do exist mainly just affect the ending slides. The overall story will always play out the exact same way. The combat is pretty easy now, and I lost maybe two fights the entire game. Apparently it started out much harder and the devs did a balance patch to tone down some of the bosses. I'm a little disappointed, and wish I could have seen the hard version. Still, the reason it's easy is because there are a lot of different options and team builds you can combo together to win it, so it's very fun trying out new things to see what works best. I got it on sale, and recommend waiting for one before buying.

I have fallen for this game hard, The characters are all different and the game bring a unique spin on the Decopunk theme. That being said if your looking for a deep RPG then this is not for you at time of posting the RPG mechanics are minor, The battles can be repetitive, and the choices don't have a major impact on the plot. That is not however why I love this game. I do know the Devs are planning on expanding more in them areas down the line. The art work, The voice Acting, The story, The Atmosphere and so much more are top tier. This will defiantly be on my top games list of 2026. If you want to look for yourself I am doing a full playthrough here ---> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiTU3SlQCbAR0wB_3TSHIa0E3ZXzLcqVR

The devs tried a new thing with the combat and while at some points it either feels like it's too easy, other times it feels like it's a bit overtuned, but it all comes together quite nicely. The artstyle and voice acting is where this game does great at, with the narrative lagging a bit behind it, but i do think it was made to be somewhat cheesy by design. It's not a fantastic game, but it's good enough to warrant a recommendation for fans of the genre, and especially since it's the first game of the studio.

Чертовски стильная и адски незаслуженно обделенная вниманием игра. Казалось бы бери и покупай не думая, но дьявол кроется в деталях. Деталь номер один: помните Shadowrun 2013 года и два продолжения? Там был примерно такой же баланс, 45 минут читаешь диалоги потом десть минут тактический бой, передохнуть, и снова читаешь. И так примерно 18 часов. Я лично за, но вопросы людей в красных обзорах понять можно. Деталь номер два: в игре большой потенциал для сбора своей аэромашины мечты, много разнообразных моделей, оружия и разных гаджетов от гарпунов и огнеметов до энергетических сетей и гига-магнитов, разные виды брони, движков, а также несколько веток прокачки, что лучше выбрать: таран или прыжок через врага? Взять замедление? Выбрать машину с турелями по бокам, но без фронтальной? А может пикап с кучей гаджетов и минометом позади? Взять мощную пушку, но с кд или послабже, но доступную каждый ход? А может броневик с долбанным энергомолотом и гранатометом? Или нет, знаю, я возьму модель с пушкой спереди, поставлю самый мощный лазерный луч который режет чуть ли не карту насквозь и возьму перк на полицейский разворот, чтобы иметь возможность простреливать обе стороны! О, даааа! Вот только нужно это только ради эстетического чувства. Игра как будто очень боится сделать игроку больно, если вкачен ремонт вы просто не будете умирать. Я переигрывал финальный бой пару раз не потому что избегать атак босса было сложно, а потом что на месте удара в начале хода рандомно появлялись "мирные" машины сразу взрывались и летели в меня. Деталь номер три: стиль и история, это безусловно лучшее, что есть в игре. Тут три большие локации каждая в своем стиле и со своим антагонистом, в каждой свой мирок со своими особенностями, обществом и проблемами, прорисованы как буквально так и фигурально, великолепно. Есть капелька нелинейности, в том числе и обязательный "моральный выбор" в каждой главе, но в целом маршрут уже проложен. Но и тут все не на сто процентов гладко. Есть ощущения, что некоторые моменты дописывались либо с расчетом на будущее продолжение либо просто в спешке. Но, повторюсь, в целом, все более чем харизматично и приятно. Итог: невероятно красивая и стильная игра, но скорее новелла, чем пошаговая тактика, есть некоторые вопросы к персонажам и сюжету, но если когда-нибудь свет увидит продолжение - обязательно поиграю.

This is a hidden gem that deserves to be significantly less hidden l. Fun aesthetics, smart writing, and extremely engaging characters. Seriously, protagonist Gia is the most iconic bisexual Italian video game lead since Mario. If that’s not enough to sell you, the vehicular combat is surprisingly deep and the voice actors crush it.

What works: 1) The atmosphere and art direction in general. This quasi-steampunk feels unique; it is intriguing, it promises rich storytelling, it is unconventional yet recognizable because of the prominent noir style that fits aa detective story perfectly. 2) The story and the conflict. Even though the story is primarily set up for you through dialogue - there is little space to discover something on your own, even though there are detective-like skills - the pacing and the mystery work very well for a story about class conflict, organized crime, shadow government, nd fantastic inventions. Neutral: Combat was interesting and entertaining enough, but it got repetitive rather quickly for me. What could work better: 1) Skills and role-playing systems. Successes and failure in dialogue do not feel too important because you will get all the necessary information anyway. And dialogue changes were not significant enough to motivate me to explore all the variables. Also, it kinda encourages save-scumming because not rolling a successful check simply means "you failed" while having next to know effect on the story (besides a few big choices that are actually set up really well and feel extremely validating when you get to see the payoff) Overall a really nice game, 7/10 (if I really have to score), I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I wouldn't rush to replay it