By my estimations, there have now been 19 games released in the Aery series on Xbox. You might think that’s pretty amazing and the franchise must have been going as long as FIFA. But consider that the first game, Aery – Little Bird Adventure, arrived back in 2019 and that sees an average of 4 or so games a year for this popular series. I haven’t played all those games, but I’ve worked my way through a good few of them, slacking off a little in more recent times.
But you know what? I kind of miss playing them and was curious to see what Aery – Ancient Empires would have to offer to the series. Not a lot, it turns out, but maybe that isn’t a bad thing.
For those who don’t know, the Aery games are relaxing zen-like experiences where you take control of a bird and fly around different environments, collecting orbs of light. When you’ve collected all the orbs the level is over and you move on to the next environment. There has sometimes been a loose story attached, stuff like the beginning of time, a humans’ endeavour or some focus on the Stone Age. It’s never a deep narrative though, just pushed along by a bit of voice-over at the beginning of each level.
Aery – Ancient Empires’ story first takes place in the sea, where life began. As usual, you play as a bird-like spirit who is flying through the world, discovering stories and how the human race began. We then journey through different parts of history from the early tribes of man to Roman times. Then we get into the mediaeval era with castles and villages and pass through pirate life and various islands. Finally, we arrive in the present day.
Each section of the journey tells a story visually, as you look down on a huge diorama of the life of that time. You might be able to pick out events and mini-stories frozen in time, taking in some comment on what you’re about to see.
The gameplay never changes. In Ancient Empires it is the same as usual, moving across landscapes at one speed, moving up and down, left and right. There’s a roll button too, but you’ll never need to use it.
The aim is to collect all the orbs – memory shards – which are scattered through each level. These are multiple in number, and whilst the earlier games used to show these off at the beginning, all on display, now they appear one after another which is a better system. The other good addition is that when you crash you don’t start at the beginning of the level, instead whisked back to the last checkpoint or orb collected.
Aery – Ancient Empires comes with a much better colour palette than previous, complete with some nice skies and levels. But it does have a lot of pop-in and in one sea level I couldn’t stop falling through the world. And it must be said, if you’ve played an Aery game before, this will feel familiar, what with the reuse of assets again and again. I’ve seen some of these environments before, even though they have been spruced up. There’s little change to the audio either – prepare for a calming soundtrack that will put you in a zen-like state while playing.
No matter whether you have played an Aery game before or not, you’ll find some enjoyment in Aery – Ancient Empires. Extremely similar to everything previous, you’ll still discover a very calming experience, and the chance to bag an easy 1000 Gamerscore.
