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Black Skylands Preview (PC)

 3 years ago
source link: https://news.softpedia.com/news/black-skylands-preview-pc-533649.shtml
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Explore an open world, fight bad guys, claim your territory

Hooking people is the favorite combat move of my version of Eva. Preferably when followed by the launch of the hooked enemy into the air, where they can no longer attack her. She is almost as good when firing a machine gun or a shotgun. And if the on-the-ground action becomes too complicated that trusty hook can quickly get her on her flying ship.

Eva is the lead of Black Skylands, an open-world top-down action title. It is developed by Hungry Couch Games while publishing is handled by tinyBuild. At the moment the game is in Early Access on Steam, where it will probably remain for about one year.

The narrative is built around her and her extended family, in a world where Earth is split into floating islands. People have adapted but the easy peace between factions is shattered by a new threat. The start of the story doesn’t have any ground-breaking innovation, but everything is pretty solid, and the writing is good.

When one of the floating islands the main character can use her speed and hook to move around, with a roll and mouse-controlled weapons fire added to deal with enemies. The combat can get very hectic, but I found kitting enemies and choosing where to fight a good way to deal with groups. Some puzzles are less successful and can even veer towards frustration.

When Eva takes to the skies in her ship, she needs to manage hull strength and resources. Careful maneuvering and cannon fire will deal with enemies and there are plenty of resources to collect out there. They can then be used to upgrade home base and make her better able to deal with further challenges.

Black Skylands uses a retro style combined with a full top-down view. Basically, players only see the heads and shoulders of characters as they move around. The level of detail for the skyships and the world is also limited but the designs are lovely. I found that the presentation works well with the more languid pace of skyship exploration and battles but tends to lead to some confusion and failure in the island-based sections. There are no voices for the characters, which is a good thing for this kind of experience, and the soundtrack is jaunty and memorable.

Conclusion

Black Skylands currently offers about half the content that will be in the final release and the developers are encouraging players who engage with it to offer feedback. The skyship-focused exploration and the island-focused combat, the main gameplay mechanics, so far seem solid, if in need of a little more tweaking.

Hungry Couch Games has created an interesting world, a good story premise, and some easy-to-understand characters. The 1.0 launch of Black Skylands will be a success as long as the team manages to introduce variety to the mix and makes sure that there are some cool story twists to move towards.


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