Aether & Iron Review
The Big Floating Apple
Developer Seismic Squirrel's debut title Aether & Iron does plenty of things to stand out from the RPG crowd. While drawing inspiration from tabletop adventures, it certainly isn't short on ideas, as it combines an alternate history 1930s decopunk setting with an intriguing turn-based combat system replicating car chases. Its fine use of noir stylings within its story and narrative helps give players an engaging experience, even if there are some missteps along the way.
Aether & Iron is set in an alternate 1930s New York City that has been transformed by aether technology and a gravitational anomaly called the Well, around which float the city's numerous islands. The game takes place primarily in the Lowers, the almost lawless islands that are each run by powerful Barons with their own philosophies as they rule their parcels of land. This is in contrast to the Uppers, where the city's wealthy and elite live with a clear view of the sky. Even within the Lowers, there are various castes; for example, the Aethoneers, who are crucial for keeping the islands afloat, are often looked down upon by regular citizens.
The game follows Gia Randazzo, a smuggler still coming to terms with a mission gone wrong that resulted in the death of her beloved uncle, with her actions in the aftermath putting a further stain on her reputation. While working a job in the Uppers, she comes across scientist Nellie in the aftermath of a bombing attack on her workplace seemingly connected to her research on the Well. With her research indicating that the Well is expanding and likely to swallow up the Lowers, Gia agrees to help Nellie, which puts her into conflict with the Barons running the particular islands, but also nets her allies elsewhere.
[caption id="attachment_176110" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Rhiannon Moushall's narration as Gia really helps sell the noir inspirations.[/caption]
Aether & Iron features an initial prologue before three main acts and a fairly brief finale, running for around twenty hours in total. The vast majority of the game follows the game's main storyline, with only a small selection of minor diversions in the form of optional character-related side quests. The story itself is well written and the cast in general is very strong as the motley crew comes together and forms tight bonds, usually informed by past struggles that get revealed or detailed naturally over the course of the game. The storytelling is helped by strong voice acting performances across the board, minus some technical hiccups, with the game itself fully narrated by Rhiannon Moushall as Gia, really helping to sell its noir atmosphere.
Each of the main acts features its own main path with an introduction, middle, and end. They are individually very enjoyable and work well together to offer a cohesive journey for Gia and company, with the endings of their self-contained arcs proving very satisfying. Unfortunately, the overall finale is rather less successful; its twist is not all that surprising, and the way the conclusion itself plays out is all a bit sudden compared to the rest of the game. It at least solves the main objective of the game itself, and while it leaves open a few questions and plot threads, none of them are in need of a pressing answer, and the possibility of the developer returning to follow them in the future is quite welcome. Nevertheless, while the ending doesn't fully stick the landing in the same way each act does, it doesn't detract from the highly engaging journey to get there.
Story sequences see Gia investigate locations and participate in conversations and events. Choices during dialogues and events impact how quests can play out and the fates of certain characters, usually with various skill checks attached to them, and fully investigating an area will often present additional options for Gia to handle the current quest objective. Each skill check involves the roll of two six-sided dice, with the result and any modifiers added together and compared against the target score. The game readily displays the chances of a successful check, with double ones or double sixes guaranteeing success or failure. Gia can also carry around various items of use that work either as direct bribes or gifts to unlock dialogue options or get out of sticky situations, or which allow dice to be re-rolled. In its regular mode, save scumming for favourable dice rolls is readily an option, but the game also includes a single-save option that removes the option to save scum and a permadeath mode. Quests never get very complicated, and there's not much to do outside of the story, but the balance of player choices, skill checks, and events helps the game tick along nicely.
[caption id="attachment_176105" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dice rolls are used frequently during story events and conversations.[/caption]
Aether & Iron features a novel approach to strategic turn-based combat, taking the form of car chases. The party of up to three each drives their own vehicle as the streets zoom by, using their turn to move up and down the progressing grid and attack foes (or bystanders) as necessary. Each turn generally sees the enemy go first, followed by the player, before any hazards or changes to the road, such as it splitting into two or lanes ending, activate. The way the scenery is always zooming by works nicely to ensure that, despite being turn-based, it feels like the action is happening. Except where a mission actively requires their survival, there doesn't appear to be any penalty for defeating bystanders, which players can do to their advantage.
Positioning is oftentimes the most important part of combat. It impacts what defensive and offensive moves might be available, whether any forthcoming threats -- indicated on the grid -- need to be moved away from, and even how and when players want to defeat foes, as any in the lane behind a defeated enemy will take damage when they crash. Each turn, a combatant gets a certain number of action points (AP) determined by their vehicle and any buffs or debuffs, which they can use to move and undertake actions. Each action has an AP cost, as does the direction of movement: it costs far less AP to move backwards (i.e. slow down) than it does to go forwards (accelerate). Available actions are determined by each car's equipment, such as weapons or auxiliary tools, and character skills. Generally, each action can be used once per turn.
[caption id="attachment_176104" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The game's approach to combat is novel, turning car chases into strategic turn-based combat.[/caption]
The game doesn't overuse its combat, with story events and skill checks arguably being a larger focus, which helps make each combat its own occasion. By and large, it is effective, with certain encounter designs creating good excitement and great satisfaction when players figure out a strategy that leaves them with minimal damage. However, there are also some encounters that are much less interesting and a bit annoying. One particular misstep comes in the game's finale, as it suddenly throws out a punishing three-stage final boss with no healing in between that many players will likely need to have a dedicated setup for.
As players complete quests, skill checks, combat encounters, etc., they earn experience points for the party. Upon each level up, players earn a skill point that can be spent to upgrade each character's skills. There are nine skills in total, divided into three disciplines; Gia has access to all nine, while all other party members cover two of the three disciplines. Each skill has a linear set of upgrades, with every odd node providing an additional +1 modifier to dice rolls involving that skill while they are in the party, while each even node offers a new combat skill. These dice boosts stack across the active members. Elsewhere, players can obtain a reasonable selection of cars and equipment, but various restrictions mean that players aren't given a whole lot of freedom in how they can customise each car for combat, and trying to find a use for newly-acquired weapons often isn't worth the time.
One of Aether & Iron' s biggest strengths comes from its music. Christopher Tin and Alex Williamson provide an appropriate jazz-heavy orchestral score that fits right in with its setting and is delightful to listen to. The strings, brass, and percussion all get their chances to make an impact on the music when called for, and it goes a long way towards making the game a pleasurable audio experience.
[caption id="attachment_176106" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Where we're going, we do still need (translucent) roads.[/caption]
Meanwhile, the visuals are effective if unspectacular. The art style and designs are nice to look at, but there's just not a whole lot going on in the presentation, and the combat action becomes a bit rote after a time. One area the game struggles a bit is on the technical front. The performance can be a bit rough at times for those with lower spec PCs, and the UI is definitely not the greatest. While the game does support gamepads, it makes certain menus even more awkward to navigate, sometimes requiring the use of the mouse and keyboard to bail out of them. There are also occasional issues of repeated or misread dialogue.
Aether & Iron is the sort of game I like to see exist. It populates a novel setting with an interesting cast of characters and uses them to build upon a solid gameplay structure, while trying out plenty of its own ideas. There are definitely flaws within, but despite these, it's ultimately a very enjoyable game to play through, and I would be very happy to continue Gia Randazzo's story in the future.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
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