FRIST_008 Falcon Age Review

A tamagotchi about an eagle. The machines have won, subjugated people and rule the world, and to them people are nothing more than animals or slaves. I played in VR on a Quest 2 as Ara: the chick's mother died, and now it's your pet, and together you'll take revenge on the robots. Ara escapes from prison to start an uprising, but her grandmother sends her off to learn how to feed her falcon. The beginning was not bad: the theme of factories versus nature is raised in an interesting way. And then the grind begins: bring chickens, bring lizards, bring rabbits, bring five ostrich heads, and there are only two ostriches in the location, so for the rest you go who knows where and wait for them to respawn. Side quests have to be done two or three times for an achievement. The main story doesn't save it either. Gameplay: a typical light RPG in an "open world" that is actually pure corridors (at least you run through them fast). You raise your hand, the bird brings an item; from an item and meat with the same properties you craft food, and the recipe is always two to one. The farm: you grow, harvest, craft, sell, and buy clothes with passive bonuses. The falcon learns commands and evolves, and the heroine holds the now huge bird on her arm as if nothing's going on, even though eagles like that weigh 6–7 kilograms. Saving is a whole separate story: you have to raise and lower a lever at a well. I didn't figure that out, went looking for guides and lost an hour of progress. Combat: 80% of the time you're just waving a magic wand. The second half of the game is more interesting, because you get a whip: you pull a robot toward you, call the falcon, lift the enemy and hit it. You hear a million hit sounds, but only the first one actually lands; the rest is just for show. The difficulty is baby-level, and you have to put up with all of this for about four hours. The graphics and models are weak. On the Quest 2 the game isn't optimized: in 360 mode your body drifts one way and the camera another. If you take a step or turn more than 30–45 degrees during a pause, there's a 50% chance you'll have to run to the well to save and restart the game. Workaround: turn off 360 mode, go to the main menu, return to the game and turn the mode back on; if it happens again, quit the game completely. You can turn off VR mode and play on a screen, but then it's just a mobile game. And in VR there's no challenge, no physics, no hand collision, no tactile environment: you can't pick up anything at all. If you're a bird lover, probably 7–8 points. For everyone else, no.