To say that the Falconeer is an impressive feat made by and large by one man Tomas Sala would be an understatement. This review is a shade late but that was because I really wanted to play this on the Series X and my order was delayed in arriving here. 

The Falconeer is an incredibly ambitious and pretty as hell aerial combat game that puts players in control of Falconeers, warriors who fly giant birds of prey with weapons attached to them. Its set in the world of The Great Ursee. The Great Ursee is made of mostly of water with islands scattered throughout where piracy is rampant and wars between rival civilizations break out at a moments notice.

While flying around, you’ll perform a variety of missions from picking up and delivering goods, escorting allies and raiding enemy bases you’ll learn more about the lore and backstories of this world. You’ll be put into the shoes of various characters from different factions to get the whole story and learn about their motivations from their own perspective.

The flying felt pretty great to me but I struggled to get the hang of it right away. At first everything felt a bit too overly sensitive and I’m ashamed to admit that U had to do the tutorial mission 3 times before I got through it. Flying around the world and exploring feels peaceful and serene. The visuals while simplistic are also gorgeous and captivating. Watching a storm come rolling in a real pleasure. Once you get into bombing runs or any dogfights though, it gets frantic and the sensitivity of the controls could be rather frustrating especially if you fail. Missions don’t have waypoints or checkpoints so if you die – you’re going to be stuck doing it all over again from the beginning.

From a visual perspective, The Falconeer is a real beautiful piece of art. What Tomas did as a one man team is remarkable and he has a lot to be proud of here. He’s building a new world for us all to enjoy, his lore is there and the flight and exploration is great but there are wide open spaces of nothingness which is both a blessing and a curse. You’ll appreciate the calm and serenity, but soon after you’ll be asking where do you go and what do you do next. As a starting point for a new franchise, I think The Falconeer is a great title and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Pros:
Graphics are beautiful and the framerate is silky smooth even on the One X
Interesting world lore and story telling
A fantastic launching point for a new franchise

Cons:
Controls during dogfights are too sensitive
Plenty of time wondering what comes next
No checkpoints during missions

The Falconeer is out on Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and PC now.