Gliding Through An AI Wonderland
I wish it was different, but approaching a new Aery game (and there are so, so many of them) can feel dispiriting. They’re released so frequently that we can almost hear the creaks and cries of the QA department being pushed that step too far. Game-breaking bugs threaten to appear out of nowhere.
Aery – Winter Wonderland is, unsurprisingly, no different. Its issues are not dealbreakers this time – you can actually reach the end of the game. But, worryingly, there’s a new kind of problem. As a parrot, you may be ever-moving forward in the Aery games, but it feels like the series is moving backwards sometimes.
Frosty The Suicidal Snowman
Each Aery game comes with a thin concept, and Aery – Winter Wonderland is no different. Each of the ten levels is layered in varying degrees of ice and snow. That’s not just because it’s Christmas: Winter Wonderland wants to tell a story about Frosty the Snowman, who is searching for a flower to warm his homeland.
You’re probably raising a questioning, twig-like finger already. Why would Frosty want to warm his world when he’s a snowman? Won’t his snowman friends be a little put out by this? Well, you’ve clearly thought about this more than the writers have, so shush and get back in your box.
The story allows the Aery developers to unpop their Tupperware containers and start reaching for levels to reheat and serve up once again. If you’ve played more than four Aery games, you will recognise them all. There’s the ice floe level, the medieval fort, the abandoned modern city, the Japanese pagodas, the valley, etc etc. I didn’t spot a new level in the mix (which makes sense as the cadence of Aery games seems to have increased this year – no time for newbies!). There were some snowmen and weird grey mannequins sprinkled about, so effort at least was put in.
Parroting The Talking Points
Rather positively, the cozy flying is problem-free. Aery – Winter Wonderland opts for the pattern of materialising a feather in front of the player as they need them, rather than dumping lots in the level. It works well here because – finally – the feathers are all in eyeshot of the macaw, rather than beyond the draw-distance. Not every Aery game achieves this, so we don’t take it for granted. Better still, no feathers are blocked by invisible walls this time.
Which means the core of Aery – Winter Wonderland works well. The intent is that an Aery allows the player to switch off and feel meditative feelings as they glide, and that is what happens. I can’t deny that I was even enjoying myself in these moments.
Which brings us to what worries us about Aery – Winter Wonderland. The worry is a combination of audio/story bugs and AI.
Crossing An AI Line
As you collect each feather, a snippet of story plays. It should be simple: a trigger leads to a subtitle, which is then voiced audibly. Except subtitles often aren’t triggered. The subtitle, audio or both fail to materialise, leaving a rather large gap in the narrative. Occasionally, the subtitle flickers and then gives up, as if the effort was all too much.
The audio snippet is often unintelligible. The music is so high in the audio mix that it’s impossible to pick out the words. When a quarter of the subtitles don’t play, that’s a problem. There’s no narrative safety net.
Not that the story is worth listening to, which is where we introduce AI, or at least the possibility of it. We should be clear: we do not have conclusive proof that AI has been used, but the studio’s track record of re-use and cutting corners makes them one of the most likely to embrace it. It certainly tracks, and Aery – Winter Wonderland undoubtedly feels like some corner-cutting has been used.
We’re confident that the story cannot be made by humans. Frosty’s odyssey takes him to various woodland animals who point him in the right direction. But rather than encounter different animals, he keeps meeting the same ones. In human hands, meeting a third owl might be some kind of commentary or point that is being made. But here, it feels like repetition that hasn’t been ironed out with a decent AI prompt. Two rabbits, two deers, three owls, and Frosty talking to them as if he hasn’t met any of their like before.
Turns of phrase also made us reach for the AI Slop alarm. In one sentence the word ‘Frosty’ is used three distinct times. Either it’s appalling writing or uncurated AI. Neither are particularly positive.
Then there’s the voiceover, which is distracting. Each level is narrated by a different male actor, but with subtly different intonations. Level 2 is Irish, Level 5 is a man who thinks everything is incredibly exciting. They’re vaguely reminiscent of each other, but clearly different in some way. And they each have a monotone roboticness and the rather endearing habit of missing the point of a sentence. Some lines are read as questions; others as it’s they expected other lines to follow.
So we point and scream ‘AI’ again, or at least a form of Robovoice. It’s distracting and awful, and only somewhat remedied by the audio lines not playing on occasion.
I’m not one to believe that AI is inherently bad, no matter what I’ve said above. I’d rather it was an efficiency-tool and didn’t creep into creative endeavours like voice-acting and storytelling, though, but I guess those are the times we live in.
But if you are going to use it, then use it well. Aery – Winter Wonderland brazenly includes some voice-acting and narrative slop that doesn’t pass the Voight-Kampff test. It’s so obviously inhuman that I found myself offended that it was being presented as such.
Rarely A Wonderland
And therein is the problem for Aery – Winter Wonderland. This is a series that is intended to deactivate the player, to let them lean back and switch off. But the use of artificial elements in the voice-acting and story means that we never got the chance. It was so painfully robotic that I could never lie back. It was a toaster in the soapy bathtub that I’d made for myself.
As a series, Aery already jumped the shark with its rushed release schedule and buggy gameplay. Now it’s presented with another shark – AI clearly being used for storytelling – and it looks to be jumping it too. We hope to be proved wrong, or hope that EpiXR at least gets better at it, because Aery – Winter Wonderland is horribly jarring. ‘Wonderland’ is not the term we would use.
Important Links
Aery – Winter Wonderland Takes Flight On Xbox Series X|S – https://www.thexboxhub.com/aery-winter-wonderland-takes-flight-on-xbox-series-xs/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/aery-winter-wonderland/9PF8SZNZX4WZ/0010
