Played via the UK PSN release on a PlayStation 4 Pro.
This game is a perfectly fine way to spend an afternoon or evening - it's relaxing and soothing but with the occasional frustrating platforming section and an opaque plot making it difficult to recommend to most folks.
The flying mechanic is probably the best feature here with an easy-to-grasp-yet-rewarding-to-master controp design - it feels extremely satisfying to fly between islands and swoop between structures and plant life, trying to avoid crashing into surfaces so you can maintain your bird form for as long as possible. Moving on ground can feel painfully slow in comparison, especially in the temples where you're unable to fly - having a sprint option would have been appreciated here. Jumping can lead to outright frustration however and is probably the weakest feature of the control scheme, being a tall jump that leaves you unable to adjust your trajectory as tightly as you'd like. This combined with some platforming that doesn't make itself clear due to low-lit environments can result in slightly frustrating falling down a gap leaving you to have to make your way slowly back up to where you were.
The artstyle and presentation of the game is fine I think - each of the menus are very simple offering very little outside of appreciated control tweaks while the overall aesthetic of the game adopts the oh-so-popular low poly style that indie games love to utilise. It looks fine here and is elevated with a good lighting system, but when comparing to other "lonely wanderer" games like Journey or The Pathless it feels like it's missing something to make it wholy unique. The sound design is similarly ok, with appreciative feedback on actions and ambient environment noised but the soundtrack often devolves into sounding like someone fell asleep on a synthesizer. It can be relaxing, and the kick of ukelele and percussion when you're flying helps keep your attention a bit more but it often has the unfortunate effect of feeling like an endless droning and the intro area feels one of the worst examples of this.
The narrative could be the make or break for a lot of people depending on your tastes however - you're given vague objectives from a handful of other villagers but it's up to you to explore the world, finding the spirits of long dead people and the scriptures and stone tablets left behind. I usually like this style of story telling, giving me an excuse to properly explore the world of the game and look in every nook and cranny but it often goes in contrast of the flying mechanic, making you fly past every single floating island in the hopes you'll find something and then struggling to land when you're going at a million miles an hour. As such you rarely want to land and you find yourself skimming over the smaller islands to more thoroughly look through the larger ones.
It all culminates in a disappointing ending too, with the world building and relationships you forge with people and creatures resulting in a 10 second cutscene of not much happening before the credits roll. I tried piecing the lore of the world together as best I could and I could probably take a guess as to what happened, but the lack of clarity to it all and with no real resolution provided was just disappointing.
I believe there were a couple of glitches too, with my system crashing once (thankfully the autosave feature helped me out) and a scene in a cave with stone tablets that gives you the hint to ask another character for help deciphering them, but you never get the option to do so. The 10-20 second loading screens were a little tiring too but I've experienced worse.
Overall AER is an ok game - the flying mechanic is very much the main attraction and if you enjoy storytelling via what you find scattered throughout the world rather than cinematic cutscenes you'll find something to keep you entertained for a few hours. But it's not without its frustrations and the overall ok presentation leaves AER feeling a little forgettable at times.
This game is a perfectly fine way to spend an afternoon or evening - it's relaxing and soothing but with the occasional frustrating platforming section and an opaque plot making it difficult to recommend to most folks.
The flying mechanic is probably the best feature here with an easy-to-grasp-yet-rewarding-to-master controp design - it feels extremely satisfying to fly between islands and swoop between structures and plant life, trying to avoid crashing into surfaces so you can maintain your bird form for as long as possible. Moving on ground can feel painfully slow in comparison, especially in the temples where you're unable to fly - having a sprint option would have been appreciated here. Jumping can lead to outright frustration however and is probably the weakest feature of the control scheme, being a tall jump that leaves you unable to adjust your trajectory as tightly as you'd like. This combined with some platforming that doesn't make itself clear due to low-lit environments can result in slightly frustrating falling down a gap leaving you to have to make your way slowly back up to where you were.
The artstyle and presentation of the game is fine I think - each of the menus are very simple offering very little outside of appreciated control tweaks while the overall aesthetic of the game adopts the oh-so-popular low poly style that indie games love to utilise. It looks fine here and is elevated with a good lighting system, but when comparing to other "lonely wanderer" games like Journey or The Pathless it feels like it's missing something to make it wholy unique. The sound design is similarly ok, with appreciative feedback on actions and ambient environment noised but the soundtrack often devolves into sounding like someone fell asleep on a synthesizer. It can be relaxing, and the kick of ukelele and percussion when you're flying helps keep your attention a bit more but it often has the unfortunate effect of feeling like an endless droning and the intro area feels one of the worst examples of this.
The narrative could be the make or break for a lot of people depending on your tastes however - you're given vague objectives from a handful of other villagers but it's up to you to explore the world, finding the spirits of long dead people and the scriptures and stone tablets left behind. I usually like this style of story telling, giving me an excuse to properly explore the world of the game and look in every nook and cranny but it often goes in contrast of the flying mechanic, making you fly past every single floating island in the hopes you'll find something and then struggling to land when you're going at a million miles an hour. As such you rarely want to land and you find yourself skimming over the smaller islands to more thoroughly look through the larger ones.
It all culminates in a disappointing ending too, with the world building and relationships you forge with people and creatures resulting in a 10 second cutscene of not much happening before the credits roll. I tried piecing the lore of the world together as best I could and I could probably take a guess as to what happened, but the lack of clarity to it all and with no real resolution provided was just disappointing.
I believe there were a couple of glitches too, with my system crashing once (thankfully the autosave feature helped me out) and a scene in a cave with stone tablets that gives you the hint to ask another character for help deciphering them, but you never get the option to do so. The 10-20 second loading screens were a little tiring too but I've experienced worse.
Overall AER is an ok game - the flying mechanic is very much the main attraction and if you enjoy storytelling via what you find scattered throughout the world rather than cinematic cutscenes you'll find something to keep you entertained for a few hours. But it's not without its frustrations and the overall ok presentation leaves AER feeling a little forgettable at times.