Falcon Age Reviews
The titular falcon in Falcon Age is awesome. Sadly, it's also about the only good thing the game has going for it.
Falcon Age is a first-person adventure game developed by the small, Seattle-based studio Outerloop. Your journey begins by awaking in a prison cell on a fictitious planet, colonised by an organisation known as the Outer Ring Community (ORC). ORC has stationed robots to farm the planet for resources and uses its inhabitants for manual labour. You play as one of these inhabitants, Ara, whose days consist of monotonous material gathering under the watchful eye of the enslavers. A chance encounter with a baby falcon allows you to escape from the regime and begin your training as a falcon hunter. Fighting alongside her people, Ara plots a rebellion against ORC to reclaim the land that was once theirs.
The concept of taking care of a bird of prey during a rebellion is highly appealing for bird lovers. Unfortunately most expectations of bird care and the intriguing story of Falcon Age were not met. What could have been an immersive game ported smoothly from VR, was the exact opposite with poor game mechanics, a weak ending that made playing this feel pointless and a complete waste of time. What works in VR does not always translate into an ordinary non-VR title, and Falcon Age should have remained a VR exclusive and not be released on the Nintendo Switch.
There's a good game lurking somewhere within Falcon Age. Interacting with your pet falcon in VR is an enchanting joy, so it's a shame that it's surrounded by a repetitive game structure, lacklustre visuals, and controls that are neither here nor there.
All in all, this is a title that was most likely meant for VR only but made a standard version to appeal to a wider audience. While it’s fun, it just doesn’t adapt well outside of VR.
Falcon Age has some extremely interesting ideas at its core, but never gives them the chance to shine. It tells the story of an indigenous woman fighting back against colonial oppression by training a falcon in line with her cultural traditions, but hides the best parts of its premise behind repetitive combat and boring presentation. There are moments when Falcon Age let me feel the bond between my character and her bird or see the culture she was fighting for, but never enough to be satisfying.
Although Falcon Age is far from perfect—with an overly ambitious story and an annoying amount of backtracking—it has a lot of heart. Outerloop captures the themes of oppression and captivity well and creates an ending that reflects this while keeping the game light-hearted and friendly. Falcon Age is a short, but sweet, experience for all ages that pet lovers will particularly enjoy.
It foils its early potential by shifting focus from its avian star to a narrative and world that lack charm and excitement.
On its own, Falcon Age for the Switch is still a fun experience, but when held up against its VR sibling, it’s an objectively lesser game. Nevertheless, we’d still recommend giving it a shot if only for its remarkably unique premise; after all, it’s probably the closest most of us will get to owning a pet falcon.
First-person adventure Falcon Age was built with love but has some oddities more noticeable when not played with the PSVR headset.
Falcon Age is a quaint tale of tradition being overtaken by progress with a bittersweet ending. It's $19.99, which isn't that bad of a price, yet the game feels slightly short with its cliffhanger ending.
Novelty in games is always a good thing, new experiences are welcome and you never know what may become a break out hit or revelatory gameplay experience...
Overlooking my issue with the narrative for Falcon Age, this single-player roleplaying action game has a pretty decent adventure with a relatable main character. Players will have a blast raising and bonding with their own falcon, and the combat feels very intuitive with the use of different items and snacks that you can feed your falcon. If you’re looking for something different, Falcon Age is definitely a game to add to your library.
Falcon Age was a joy to play, I loved looking after and interacting with my new found friend. Its design and personality made it feel real, especially in VR. The VR implementation was flawless and I would even go as far to say that this is definitely the way to play the game.
Falcon Age is a game with so much potential that doesn't quite do everything it could have. Still, it's a fantastic, fun, story driven-experience and a must-play with PlayStation VR.
Falcon Age gets its animal interactions right. Bonding with the falcon is an incredible experience, but the rest of the game just feels like going through the motions. Falcon Age suffers from following too much of a "video game" formula where it doesn't need to, which makes those elements noticeably stick out as sour points in something that is otherwise remarkable. There's still a magic here, but it's weighed down by unnecessary baggage that feels disconnected and separate from the central conceit of the game.
Falcon Age makes good use of the unique features of VR and conveys a very special feeling thanks to the relationship with the falcon, but the gameplay has more shadows than lights.
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Falcon Age is far from perfect but its charming interactions with the falcon and the fairly easy to understand gameplay makes it an easy recommendation for PSVR owners.
Falcon Age is visually stunning. It is very obvious a lot of this games focus has gone into animating the falcons movements while still and in flight. Everything about this beautiful pixel bird is incredible however the game play and world lacks that same attention to detail. So if you enjoy straight forward story that has little distraction or just love the idea of having your own faithful companion I highly recommend Falcon Age.