The Falconeer Reviews
There is a great game buried somewhere in The Falconeer, but it's trapped behind an open-world structure that does it no favors. Every choice beyond the aerial combat seems to backfire in one way or another, and while there are numerous unique enemies with interesting details, they all zoom by the player character at 90 miles an hour, so they go unnoticed. Story beats that sometimes defy fantasy tropes would pop up and intrigue, but there's no connective tissue to string players along. Even the combat isn't fun for long when it's shoved into busywork side missions made for the sole purpose of accruing gold.
With a forgettable story and a critical lack of gameplay depth, The Falconeer fails to realize its potential.
Ultimately, The Falconeer is best when flying relaxingly around the environment. Appreciating its visuals can easily be the biggest selling point of the game. Though if you’re thinking of buying it, be aware of its flaws. The Falconeer is a visually pleasing game, but I can’t quite recommend it with its aerial combat being so lackluster.
The Falconeer has grand world building ambitions that never come to pass. Its narrative lacks a proper set-up, or a satisfying payoff, as the gameplay seems entirely disconnected. The poor control scheme, occasionally frustrating difficulty, and repetitive missions make for a forgettable launch game on Xbox Series X.
A generic fantasy setting, confusing story and boring gameplay means The Falconeer fails to impress.
The Falconeer is a gorgeous game with some meditative elements to its gameplay. But with the good comes the bad, and repetitive and frustrating elements removed any zen the game had conjured.
The Falconeer doesn't do anything glaringly wrong, and yet, the overall experience doesn't really click. The game looks lovely, controls well, and offers surprising depth considering it was created by a single developer, but an uninvolving world, repetitive missions, and combat that isn't as visceral as it should be grounds its potential. Like many flights, The Falconeer is kind of exciting when you first take off, but by landing time you just want the experience to be over.
I don't hate The Falconeer. I don't even think it's a particularly terrible game. There are great ideas here, and in the aesthetic department, it's a resounding success. However, it just needs more. It needs more polish, more reason to keep playing, and more reliable controls to navigate its interesting setting in. I would love to revisit this world at some point, and I hope that the dev can find a way to keep me more engaged next time.
The Falconeer flies its own path, hampered by sometimes frustrating controls, unforgiving difficulty and a simplistic mission structure.
I'm disappointed how the package for The Falconeer came together, as technically, it's an excellent game. There's bound to be an audience for The Falconeer, and those that will adore the mechanics of the game. In that regard, I wish it had of been on Xbox Game Pass to allow more discovery.
If you have the patience to spend a lot of time discovering the lore and upgrading your bird, you will eventually be rewarded, but otherwise you need not apply.
Water world with giant falcons is visualy charming, but almost empty and missions are stereotypical .
Review in Slovak | Read full review
It’s a lovely looking game, but The Falconeer just doesn’t entertain like it should. From its repetitive missions to its story that you’ll quickly stop caring about, it fails to capture your attention in the long term, while occasional frustration in combat puts a bit of a downer on the gameplay.
The Falconeer blends aerial exploration with dogfighting, but doesn’t stick the landing. It delivers an interesting, but middling, action-fantasy experience that's filled with gorgeous sights and clunky combat.
The Falconeer starts off as a fun, original take on aerial combat but quickly turns into a boring exercise in repetition that even a mysterious and interesting world can't save.
The Falconeer is an undeniably beautiful game with unique storytelling and jaw-dropping environments, but repetition ultimately keeps it from being great.
It's a satisfying experience as you glide gracefully over the ocean, but too often the dogfighting and bombing runs play out as erratic scrambles
Far more than the combat-whose charm ebbs away on a tide of repetition after the first few hours-the draw of The Falconeer is its suggestion that, while we may be shaped by our stories, they don't pin us down, that the mere act of living is to take flight from the past.
The Falconeer tries to be a legit dogfighting game and it plays the part to an extent; but there isn't much holding it all together. I feel like I've said this often in 2020, but I wouldn't mind seeing the developer take another crack at it, because there's a lot of good groundwork here.
This is in spite of how great the game looks, runs, and also how it sounds. The presentation package of The Falconeer is quite good, especially on XSX, but that alone couldn’t overcome the struggles I was having with the experience otherwise. I appreciate the effort that went into making this, especially seeing as it was practically done by a one-man studio — but neither the lore or the gameplay really grabbed me and held my interest for long. I could see where more adept and/or forgiving players in this genre would have a better time than I did, though, so if the game sounds interesting to you, it’s worth keeping an eye on, especially given it costs less than half of some of the other launch games.