Black Skylands: Origins shows you the ropes ahead of the main game release. Learn the basic mechanics and meet the main cast of characters of this open-world adventure!
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I really wish Steam had a "sideways thumb" option, but for lack of a better choice, I'm gonna have to make this a negative review to bring attention to my criticisms. This game is very promising, but it has important flaws at its core that need to be addressed if it wants to go beyond being "above average". Let's start with the movement. The character itself moves around fine, an out of combat "sprint" button would be appreciated for navigating around the base more swiftly but that's a minor gripe. The dodge roll is... serviceable. It doesn't work quite as well with M+KB as I imagine it does with a gamepad, which is something that many devs overlook. The grappling hook is good when it works well, but nightmarish when it doesn't. Here's the issue; you use it to move to and from your ship and other pieces of terrain. But it doesn't "work" on everything, most noticeably on the ship, which has several "no grapple" zones (represented with an X popping up) where attempting to grapple to or through them will result in failure. The issue is, oftentimes you find yourself trapped underneath them, a position which is nigh impossible to escape from due to your hook instantly colliding with the zones, leading to extensive damage or death. The hitbox for the hook seems a bit too big (so does the hook itself, but that's unimportant), and it also tends to grab onto useless destroyable objects when you're trying to use it for combat or movement, which is pretty bad. The movement of the ship is a lot more problematic, as a lot of people have pointed out. Low acceleration, deceleration and poor speed control are an important factor, though the biggest issue is probably the steering. Instead of actually steering your ship, you seem to use some sort of "rudder-like" mechanic where you're forced to steer into the opposite direction after you turn if you don't want to continue steering infinitely. This sucks, and doesn't behave enough like an actual rudder to be able to pass as "realistic". It could be there to allow some sort of 'cruise control' where you'd let the airship spin in wide circles while you man the guns and shoot at something, but that's not something you can do, nor is there any reason to do it, and the controls are nowhere near tight enough for that to be executed in a satisfactory manner. Navigating your ship is marketed as a "challenge", but it's little more than a chore at its hardest, and generally just feels poorly designed. The combat also needs an in-depth revision, as it's not currently very good. On-ship combat boils down to having two rather awful broadside guns, and the only "air exclusive" enemies are small creatures that are usually better dispatched with your character's arsenal. If the full game is going to have a few ships to choose from and progress through, I think giving a frontal gun to whatever the starter ship is will be a lot more accesible, and actually incentivize players to use it and learn how to best play with it. So far they're only useful at near point-blank range, where their three thin, spreading shots can manage to hit a single target and actually do some damage, otherwise they're little more than "steering aides". Ground combat is flawed too, though it feels a bit better so far. Still, I'm here to list all the issues with it. The AI is absolutely awful, for starters. It patrols an area mindlessly, and when you step onto its detection cone it functions on a very simple loop of looking for an unimpeded shot and moving about randomly while trying to stay in range of you. Or attack, fold, attack ad infinitum for the melee enemies. This is a huge issue when you're using the hook and melee attacks on them, as they'll simply stand in the spot and take it, continuing to shoot you, instead of reacting in any way. Coupled with the really slow bullets, it means the combat is devoid of any inherent challenge, the only dangers being that you can run into said bullets accidentally and that there's no invincibility period between hits. Otherwise, your worst enemy will be forgetting that melee attacks cancel the rather long gun reloads, as the only other conceivable danger these guys could pose would be a large amount of enemies in a small enough arena, and that I thankfully haven't encountered. Stealth, which is a bit wonky, aggravates this even further, as it's so mindnumbingly easy that its, well, mind-numbing. Tedium will be your enemy if you (ab)use stealth, as you wait for enemies to turn around in order to grapple and instakill them. Guns also need a bit of a balancing pass, though that's dependent on the whole combat being overhauled first. With that said, the general feel of the combat is decent, TTKs felt a bit too high but that's bound to change along with the combat, and hopefully when attachments are working they'll add a bit of spice onto the game too. The graphics and music were nice, though a lot of the characters seem to have almost the exact same facial features across the board, with hair being the only way to differentiate them if you were to put all their heads side by side. Characters in general didn't feel interesting or important, and that compounds with the story feeling generic and uninteresting too, but it's hard to judge that well in a demo. Having to go halfway across the map just to gather materials felt like a chore, but hopefully the 'Forts' feature the demo mentions will alleviate that. The fuel mechanic felt chore-ish too, buying a second canister eased that, but overall it seems a bit pointless, more like a minor moneysink than something actually impactful to the game.
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I do like the game so far and the idea/concept behind it has a lot of potentials. However, there is some annoying stuff I encountered while playing. I find the movement of the ship not that great. It just does not react to your inputs well enough. You cannot dock without crashing. It is probably intentional but I don't think I am getting used to it. Grappling hook: I don't know if I am using it correctly because you can never reach the other side. My character just kinda stops at the middle. But I somewhat solve this problem by just spamming the jump & hook button. Not the best solution though. The game looks great. I always find these art styles lovely and beautiful. The soundtrack is great as well and fits well to the atmosphere. There are some bugs that I have encountered but that's to expect. Story: The story is generic and is nothing revolutionary. Someone attacked you / your base and killed everyone you love, you try to gather your men and build up your power and take revenge. Sounds just like any other game. (It's just a demo, so i don't know how the game will be when it's released but that's the story so far.) Even though there were many annoying and exhausting moments for me I overall did enjoy that game and I will keep an eye on it.
The game looks awesome, but (obviously) being still in development have some issue. I'm gonna list here my pros and cons: I played using an Xbox 360 controller for computer. THINGS I LIKE - the gameplay takes the farming management elements of Stardew Valley and add elements from Top-Down Shooter games (thanks to Funreaver for letting me know the correct term for it) and looks very interesting, - the farming elements are not overly complicated, click on the farm, choose seed, done, - the story looks interesting, (basic but interesting) you have your classic steampunk world, no modern tech from what I can tell (I mean computer and electronic devices) and the usual overlord that oppress the people to do everything for him while he pillages left and right, obviously something will happen and the protagonist is gonna wants to exact revenge and try to take down the overlord. Like I said it's very basic but with this kind of games I think It's good, - the graphic looks very good looking, a more polish version of the one used on Stardew Valley less pixelated. - I like that they used an invented language similar to the similish used in the sims PROBLEMS - doesn't run very smoothly and crashes a lot - the main character doesn't run very smoothly either, - the ship is nearly impossible to maneuver (sometimes seems like it has a mind of its own) and with just a small push left or right goes into a spiraling nightmare, - every time you need to kill monsters looks like you are back on the ship spiraling without control because the pointing systems is very bad, CONCLUSION Overall the game is not bad but it needs to be way better when they release it and they need to address the above-mentioned issues but do I recommend it? No, not with all the issue that have right now. Hopefully the developer can change my mind upon releasing the full game. LITTLE FOOTNOTE: Since I had problems in the past with reviews I'm gonna make something very clear: This is just MY personal opinion on the subject and MY personal experience with the game. Nobody HAS to agree with me so please ... think before you post something stupid and hateful and try to be nice about it for once. Ok? Have a great day everyone, stay safe and Happy Gaming.
Overall I think this game has potential but it needs improvements, I understand this is just a beta / demo version so I´ll try to give some useful feedback For starters , the game suffers from what it feels like lack of scope control . It wants to be a ship simulator , a combat game and a story-driven game all at once and as a result none of the three end up quite working. 1-Combat: My main gripe with the combat is that the most effective way to control recoil is to stand still , which in concept is not a bad thing , it works in game like cs-go or rainbow six siege but this game clearly benefits from speed. The devs seem confused as to what kind of combat feel they want since at the same time you have a hookshot and a dodge roll that allows you to move around the screen but because of the way the recoil is done this options aren´t incentivized. Instead the best tactic is to shoot still and just move a little bit when a projectile comes your way.One of the ways I would add if the devs want to keep the recoil system intact is to add an option in which you hold down the right click to reduce the projectile spread considerably and maybe it increases damage a little bit but it slows you down considerably , that way you have an interesting choice between moving quickly and dodging projectiles(which should move faster by the way) and shooting precisely but being more likely to get hit by enemy projectiles. 2-Ship Navigation: The Ships control feels slippery , they are using a system in which the ship doesn´t move to where the nose is pointing instead it moves a little bit forward to the direction you are pointing and if you rotate the ship its still gonna move in that direction.This is most noticeable when you are trying to dock the ship on a port but you end up taking damage and bouncing off the dock because the brakes take forever to stop the ship. One of the good ideas they use is that shooting your ships cannons moves your ship a little bit to the opposite direction which is quite useful to do fast manouvers.Another problem is that the space between landmarks is quite big without anything meaningfull in between but I´ll give it a pass on this one considering is just a demo and that can be filled afterwards. 3-Story and mechanic introduction: The story is quite generic but thats not that much of a problem. The real problem is that they have a generic story that is being shoved in to the players face without any choice so you get annoyed quite quickly with it. I understand is a demo and they need to do some exposition but I still think is too much. I hope that in the final version you will start the game actually playing and discover the story as you go instead of a long cinematic that tells an uninspired story.The mechanic introduction ties with this as well , the npcs tell you all of the mechanics like you are a 5 year old instead of letting you discover them or guide you subtly to learn them , One quick fix to this is make the tutorial for the basic stuff optional (shooting mechanics, dodge roll) or make it a quick pop up in the screen instead of making you go to speak to the NPC so that he can tell you a basic mechanic in order to do any story progression. If I came out to negative about this game its because I want it to be better. I thinks it has great potential and I really looking forward to its release. Despite all of the problems I have mentioned I really enjoyed the time with this demo even though I actually couldn´t finish it due to a story progression glitch
Spoils ahead btw. First off I want to address comments about the ships handling from various users, I personally enjoyed the ships handling after using it for a while, however tight corners are still a beast of their own unless you abuse the guns to turn. So lets start with ship movement: Pros: + Guns partially turn the ship (can be abused to accelerate the ship slightly?) + The ability to keep the ship going in one steady direction when you manage repairs, cool downs, using your gun to fend off enemies coming from behind all while the ship continues to move forward. + Hot take, it still feels fun boarding a ship with a grappling hook every time Cons: - Overly long and empty navigation depending on the route you end up going through - Stopping your ship is an absolute pain, I'd really like it if there was a "breaks" button. - I'm sure this will be addressed in the final game but as of now there's no ship to ship combat and I was kind of hoping to go all guns blazing on some other ships Neutral: / The ship guns feel useless for the most part, if I can use my own gun with enemies that chase, isn't that cruise control infinitely better than using the guns themselves? The next thing I want to address is the ground combat, which is most of what this demo showcases (besides the ship movement.) One of the things I really like is the approach taken to placing the enemies in specific areas. Pros: + Stealth is an option + Certain guns are useful for certain situations but only at times Cons: - Ranged combat feels shaky - Enemy bullets lack impact - Some guns can feel straight up useless in a lot of scenarios Neutral: / Stealth is the objectively better option with easy (and faster) kills, I think stealth should be a bit more difficult of an option because of how it works (and how enemies are positioned) in this game / I also think some enemies should fire slightly faster The next thing I want to mention is the map, there is at least one island for each resource refilling once every two days, these islands are filled with those falcon dudes which is interesting in concept however I do wish that they incorporated different types of challenges within getting these resources. So here are some map pros and cons. Pros: + Clear UI with marked danger zones and direction + If you enter a danger zone fights often feel action packed and fun + I don't know this for sure but it appears as if enemies are less likely to spawn near a location marked with an icon so you can choose to take a dangerous short route or an easy long route, fuel could also be a factor in this too! + The town was a fun place to put in lore Cons: - I never find myself in a situation where I'm low on fuel, due to both ship consumption rate and gas locations being far too convenient. - For the most part the map feels vacant, and I guess that might have been what they were going for but I'd at least give the player something to do on a long journey from one icon to the other (ex: increasing enemy spawn rate outside of danger zones, random unmarked structures, etc.) to give them more things to play around with and overall put more time into the game. Additionally this would also reward exploration but none of this is needed per say, it would just make the world feel more fun Neutral: / Definitely felt fun controlling the ship but with the map layout it mostly felt like I was taking a bus or a train to most of my locations with the occasional turn here in there (ship combat excluded) Finally the story, most of it was appealing but I had a few qualms with it, one of them being the exposition behind the eternal storm and the monsters in relation to it. Pros: + Character voice acting, it felt new unique and fun + The sectioning off of different groups and how they ended up in their current situation was interesting + The villains were pretty funny, intentionally or not. For example one says there is no one among our main group who can fight and a literal kid/teenager/youngperson sweeps all of them and he still calls you weak when you kill him. Cons: - Intro sequence voice acting, it wasn't bad it was just lacking impact - The only boss battle was lacking excitement, no bullet patterns, nothing special to interact with, easily cheesed. - Usually the only thing NPCs talk about is the storm, but I find that bit of the lore much less exciting due to the lack of build up behind it, I find myself interested when they talk about their own personal experiences or other places that we will likely go to in the future. Neutral: / I feel as if the story can go in a really good direction, I just feel like each element of the story needs to be properly balanced first. Additionally in my own personal opinion the supporting cast feels really dry, more so than the town npcs, but that might just be me. Overall: As a tech demo this is totally worth playing and besides adding in a break system and buffing up guns I would keep ships as is, ranged combat needs a small overhaul in order to be a preferable option for me (I usually prefer stealth anyways but I like having options) and if the supporting characters received more attention that might fix up some of the elements of the story I don't prefer. The hook is really fun to play around with though and I feel like a lot more is going to be done with it in the future. Also a few final pros before I post, + Taxi service NPC + One of the voice lines can be misheard as "Earth is flat" + Hook
Судя по трейлеру, тут намешана сразу прорва жанров: и воздушный бой а-ля Sunless Skies, и наземный (как в твинстик-шутерах, только добавляется ещё многофункциональный стреляющий крюк Бэтмена), и захват островов-[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2528290894]территорий[/url], и строительство базы в духе Stardew Valley (с капустой, курями и проч.), и разные виды оружия/кораблей с апгрейдами. Меня смущало, как это всё будет уживаться, но по демке видно, что уживается очень даже неплохо, а ко всему прочему авторы делают упор не на песочницу, а, напротив, кинематографическое развитие сюжета. Понравилось, что сложность всех сфер достаточно щадящая: пули-аптечки восполняются бесплатно, после смерти специальная птичка переносит тебя на корабль (а после взрыва корабля он появляется на ближайшей заправочной станции). Никакой прогресс при этом не теряется, враги не регенерируют. Не понравилась некоторая инвентарная суета (сбор ресурсов на карте сделан через таскание ящиков поштучно в не очень-то объёмный трюм корабля, а потом всё это добро надо самому транспортировать на базу). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2526234442 В целом, очень даже здорово, качественно и необычно, буду ждать релиз (ранний доступ стартует уже 9 июля). В демке можно без проблем намотать 2-3 часа и больше.
A demo for the full game scheduled to release in 2021; Black Skylands is an action adventure game with resources gathering and settlement-building feature. You control your character and the airship (like in Black Flag). The demo lasts for about 3.5 hours (including 1 hours for my own exploration) - it ends with you building armory for your recently rebuilt settlement. You can still play beyond that if you want to. [h1]Pros[/h1] + Interesting airship control + Interesting methods of traversal with hooks + Fine combat, with basic stealth + Open-ended, "immersive sims"-ish level design + Controller support + Dev is responsive on Discord [h1]Cons[/h1] - Settlement building is yet to see its fullest potential - Checkpoint-based save system, can be difficult to predict when/where the game saves - Needs more optimization; fans keep spinning (my spec: GTX 1660 and Ryzen 5 2600) - A bit difficult to aim with controller [h1]Expanded comment[/h1] I would like to elaborate three points a little bit: the level design, the control, and the settlement building. There is currently only one "dungeon"/mission in the demo, but it's pretty good. I did not expect the design to be "immersive sims"-lite, as in: there are several ways to complete the dungeon. Surely, ultimately you have to fight a boss, but there are multiple routes to take before that encounter. You can go through the front door like usual, or: sneak past enemies, find the back door, and kill the boss directly. I took the latter route by accident, thanks to a combination of interesting hook method traversal and airship. Speaking of traversal, the hook system allows you to slide between separate floating islands quite seamlessly. Some parts of the levels seem to be deliberately designed for you to get creative with the hooks (e.g. using your airship as a bridge). Hooks can be used in combat as well to pull your enemies Scorpion-style. The control in airship itself is quite fine, emulating a ship: you either accelerate or go reverse, and you just steer left and right. Now the con: settlement building. The demo does not give enough room for the settlement building aspect; as it is now it's pretty basic. You have a couple (about 12) plots to build pre-defined buildings (farm, garden, ranch, etc). But they are "production" buildings. No buildings for NPCs to live, i.e. actual settlement. There are only elements of resource gathering (you go to resource islands, fight enemies, take resources, go back, and build), where you can build farm for... something, and armory for your weapon upgrades. Hopefully the full game expands this feature more. [h1]Notes and suggestions[/h1] Two points: random encounters and lore/factions. The sky is vast, and while there are plenty of monsters and bandits to keep your company, it could use more random world interaction like in Skyrim (other traveling airships, perhaps taxi services mentioned in the game or traveling bandits? Merchants being attacked and in dire need of help? A horde of swarms? Etc) The lore and faction name are pretty basic (a scientist faction called "Scientist"). I have suggested an improvement for this to the dev and they are pretty responsive so far. [h1]Last words[/h1] The game has a lot of potential, is one of my most anticipated indie games in 2021.
This game has potential: the story is good, the art style is very nostalgic of something on the super nintendo or ps1 days. Music is good and I just like the concept of the game. Unfortunately i can't give it a thumbs up. I know it's a demo, but the combat and air flight controls need some work. I just finished Shadowgrounds, another top down or bird's eye view, game and that's how the mechanics should be, but it's not. Maybe because I'm playing on the controller, but I'm not able to strafe which is important because the character doesn't move in a fluid 360 direction which makes aiming difficult. The character moves in 15 degree segments, when aiming, I'm guessing which means I have to move to line up a shot instead of being able to hit the target from where I'm standing, if that makes sense. Flying is a struggle because the camera doesn't follow behind the ship, which means when your shop is facing down or south, the controls are in reverse. It will throw you off if you are not used to that (why would you be?). This is a problem in battle when you will be flying sideways and or back down throwing off your orientation and which button you should be pressing. Also add in the fact that the cannon on your ship has three directions. These might seem like small things, but I can only imagine when the difficulty is increased at the later levels, that being able to shoot properly will be much more important. The same goes with the airship; if there are any intense battles that require 360 movement, those controls/camera angle will get you killed. Being nitpicky here, but at the weapon mod screen, I don't see why you have to hold down the direction button to choose your mod. Being able to press the direction once, should be enough. It just makes you do two things at once for no reason. Overall, if anything, they need to fix the combat mechanics; otherwise it's a no go for me.
It is just a demo, and the main game is under development. The key question you should ask yourself while playing this title is: do you really need a pixel game running on (for me 120 fps)? The art is nice, the plot isn't something special (fighting with the bad guys). Controlling the ship is a bit hard, and the battle of the ship is very boring and annoying. The hardest part is how to dock, I just wish it was like AC, when you're near the deck, press the key and game do the job automatically. If the main game had a fair price, I'm going to buy it and suggest this title.
Black Skylands: Origins is a perfect example of a game that has everything going for it, but is bogged down by poor execution. Which in case of BS:O means one thing: just about everything you interact with requires a unique logic that doesn't match with anything else in the game. Let me explain. So, for example, to fix your ship you have to interact with a crack on it, while having a repair kit in your ship's storage. Ok, cool, understandable. So how do you refuel your ship? You interact with the fuel pump WITH a fuel can in your hands, not in your ship's storage. Ok, I guess that makes sense, but why can't the repairing process be the same? Well whatever. So how do you refill cannon's ammo? You approach them with ammo in your hands? Do you interact with them with ammo in your ship's storage? Neh, just buying ammo in the shop instantly moves it into your cannons. And this nonsense exists everywhere in the game. To skip a dialog you have to press a button once, but to skip a help popup you have to press and hold a button. And what's worst those inconsistencies even exist on a bigger scale: the way you control your character has NOTHING in common with the way you control your ship. There is exactly zero overlap between those two, even though they make up exactly 50% of the game each. Each time you switch between those two, is like switching between two games. All of this means that EVERY interaction in BS:O is preceded by you asking yourself "wait, how do I do this again?." 5/10
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