Something is going on over at EpiXR Games. Possibly the most prolific studio in terms of Xbox releases, they have also been known for changing virtually nothing with each release. Its Aery series is much like its Paper Flight series, which is much like that of the Murder Diaries series. But with Aery – The Lost Hero and Paper Flight – Beyond Time, both released within a week of each other, clearly some changes are being made.
Aery – The Lost Hero abandons the usual blocky, knife-sharp polygons for something slighter higher fidelity. It’s not as photo-realistic as Paper Flight – Beyond Time, but clearly more time has been spent on sculpting Aery – The Lost Hero. Suddenly, we have textures and style creeping in. It almost looks modern. Even the parrot, who has been a mainstay for the Aery series for so long now, has had a HD makeover and become a… crow?
As is customary with EpiXR Games, these changes come with a cost. As a developer, they don’t sit on a change like this, allowing it to bake and perfect over the course of months. Oh no, they push it out as soon as humanly possible. There’s a release schedule to maintain. So, while Aery – The Lost Hero looks undoubtedly better, possibly the best that an Aery game has ever looked, it is slathered with compromises.
Compromise #1: levels aren’t all that big. If you’ve been given the job of modeling a town to a new standard, it becomes so much easier if you change that town to a hamlet. Bring the number of buildings down to a handful. Job done. The result is a reasonably cramped, claustrophobic arena that loses the joy of soaring around as a parrot, sorry, crow. In fact, you will be ploughing into windmills and turrets rather than carefree flying.
Compromise #2: levels are reused to a ridiculous degree. We fluttered through the same medieval village location four times: twice in the day time, once on fire, and a final time with fireworks lighting up the sky. You can’t trick us, EpiXR Games. When almost half of your levels are the same level with different weather, we see through what you’re doing.
Compromise #3: all the other levels are completely devoid of landmarks. The remaining six levels (which is in itself a compromise, as the past few releases have offered twelve levels) are all forests and lakes with a slight remix of the types of trees. Sir is bored of pines? How about palm trees this time? No? Well, would sir like a mangrove? While we are budding arborealists, changing up the trees with each level isn’t going to get us whipping out the big scores.
Compromise #4, and the last one, we promise, is that there’s the most half-hearted story trying to piece these repeated moments together. It would be leagues better if it wasn’t there. Because the plot goes something like this: your village has been attacked by a dragon, so you need to find a wizard. So, you head to a lake to find him, but he’s not there. And he’s not in the next level. Or the next level. Or the… you get the idea. It’s the ‘’Sorry Mario, the Princess is in the next castle’ scene, but played completely straight.
Perhaps we should be glad that there are no game-breaking bugs this time out. At no point were we blocked by an invisible wall, nor did the game crash unexpectedly. There was no missing level or broken achievement. This is the most robust Aery for some time, with only a single gameplay bug that we encountered: the respawn spots are oddly placed this time round, and it’s entirely possible to find yourself facing a tower that you can’t evade. All you can do is restart the level. Which isn’t quite game-breaking, we suppose.
We were very careful to state ‘gameplay bug’ in the above paragraph, as there are graphical glitches, and they are off the charts. With a new art style comes new pressures on the Aery engine. Pop in is ludicrous, challenging for the worst we’ve ever encountered. In the lake levels, there is a grass texture that it clearly can’t deal with, and the game basically spasms and falls over. It’s too many blades of grass for it to handle. In some of the bigger levels, you need height to see the feathers you might have missed, but there’s no point in trying: a fog of polygons stops you from seeing more than a few meters in front of your beak.
The positives are the same as they have always been. Aery – The Lost Hero is a blissful experience, and you won’t find a more calming way to spend two hours on the Xbox, give or take some fatigue over the levels. There’s a new soundtrack on offer, which is just as good as the last, and is a breath of fresh air after hearing the same tunes for about a dozen games now. And there’s 1000 Gamerscore (all of them accessible this time) for very little effort, so the achievement vultures can start circling.
But did it have to come with so many compromises? We’re getting a little tired of booting up a new Aery to find that minor improvements are stapled to major issues. Aery – The Lost Hero looks better than any Aery before, but it’s also a regurgitation of the same levels, often in a row. We’re not inclined to open the beak and accept it this time.
