Aether & Iron review

I'm a big fan of anachronism, particularly when it adds futuristic elements to times gone by. Aether & Iron, the debut title from the team at Seismic Squirrel, does that and then some. Aether & Iron takes a futuristic floating 1930s New York City and fills it with interesting characters, an intriguing narrative, and high-speed shootouts in a way that's sure to leave an impression. 

Set hundreds of feet above the earth's surface, Aether & Iron opens with our heroine, Gia Randazzo, in a glass-bottom bar following the lead for her next mission. She would have to deliver the blissfully ignorant Nellie Reinhardt from one of the more well-to-do islands to what was essentially a slum island. After a dangerous run-in with a professional hit man, Gia is forced to start asking questions. Before long, she's embroiled in a plot that could derail her life, surface old ghosts from the past, and bring the entire city of New York crashing down. 

The story is one of Aether & Iron's strongest aspects. With a writing team that's been involved with the Far Cry and Mass Effect franchises, that should be no surprise. The story is well done, with world-building that's considerate and characters displaying believable motivations. Each island, faction, and character has been woven into Gia's world in a way that leaves an impact. 

While I consider the story to be a fun ride with some great twists, the storytelling mechanics themselves became my biggest point of contention with the experience. Playing on PC, I was able to navigate dialog using the space bar and number keys. As much of the storytelling is done via walls of character dialog text, I often found myself space-barring through to progress the narrative. That's all well and good until you hit one of the game's many decision points or skill check opportunities. Progressing that cadence could leave me making a decision I didn't intend to make, testing a skill I'm not proficient with, or have me circling dialog a couple of times. Perhaps this speaks to my impatience as a gamer more than anything else, but it's the foundation of most of my issues with the Aether & Iron. I can largely get the gist of the story beats without needing to hear every syllable of spoken dialog, and I ultimately want to get to the action as quickly as possible. That said, after I learned to calm myself a bit and keep an eye out for decision points, the storytelling became as enjoyable as the game's combat. 

It's also worth noting that some of the encounters do have wrong answers, and those encounters will end your adventure. They're not particularly common, but they can be somewhat frustrating dialog puzzles, should you encounter them. 

Aether & Iron's combat is one of the neater twists on turn-based strategy combat I've seen in a while. Each encounter will have you barreling down a futuristic road in grid-based combat. You'll move your cars around the map, shooting, bumping into other cars, and avoiding obstacles. Each turn, road conditions can change giving you a dynamic environment to work with. 

As you play, you'll get new party members. Each of them is proficient with different types of vehicles. Each of those vehicles can be kitted with different weaponry, armor, engines, storage, and so on. On top of that, each character has a variety of skill trees to upgrade. These not only grant you enhanced combat abilities, but modify special skill check dice rolls. Each party member's dialog skill checks modifiers contribute overall, so it's good to spread your team's skills out. The skill trees and vehicle modifications also give you, as the player, a sense of control over how your team is built out. It's worth noting that some of the characters felt unnecessary as party members. I completed the game and never used one while another got benched early on. They still add to the narrative, but their combat and skills were moot. 

From an audiovisual standpoint, Aether & Iron has excellent presentation. The game heavily features beautifully hand-drawn characters and environments. The jazz builds up a time-appropriate environment that keeps you rooted in the story and its world. Most impressively, the game has over 200 voiced characters, and whether it's one of your main characters or a one-off NPC, they all feel valued and well-done. There's been a lot of love and attention poured into how this world is presented. 

Aether & Iron is a fun game with a rich narrative and engaging combat. There will be some who are likely to be turned off by the tedium of its visual novel storytelling (and I get that), but anyone who can see the 15-20 hour story through will look back on their adventure fondly. If this is their debut project, I look forward to seeing what Seismic Squirrel can cook up in the next retro-future of their making.