The Falconeer Reviews
Check out The Falconeer Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 26 reviews on CriticDB, The Falconeer has a score of:
There’s something fascinating about video game solo projects. From Cave Story, to Stardew Valley, to the grandaddy of them all, Tetris, there have been a plenty of great video games primarily developed by just a single person. That said, for every great success, dozens of mediocre solo projects have simply been forgotten to the sands of time. Enter The Falconeer, a high-flying adventure from Tomas Sala, previously best-known for the fan-favorite Skyrim mod, Moonpath to Elsweyr.
The Falconeer is a resounding success in every major area. It's a gorgeous game that plays like a dream and has more ambition than most games of its type. It has a nice, fair challenge to it and helps ease players into the action by wisely teaching you without going out of its way hold your hand beyond the early going. It's got an intuitive design and is a must for anyone who loves games like Panzer Dragoon Orta or Crimson Skies. Anyone in the mood for a new dogfighting-style game will instantly fall in love with The Falconeer.
As mentioned earlier, you can definitely lose hours just repeating side missions without even noticing and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The core gameplay is a really enjoyable experience, even something to chill out and relax with. Flying across a vast ocean with a Mongolian throat singing soundtrack is a genuinely relaxing gaming experience.But there is franchise potential here. There’s a spectacular sequel waiting in the wings with a small team assisting the incredibly talented Tomas Sala (of Moonpath to Elsweyr fame) and a budget to match the ambition on display.
A great balance of peaceful flying and exciting combat.
The Falconeer is an interesting take on the aerial combat genre putting players in the saddle of large birds and setting off across a flooded world in search of balance between warring factions. While the story and world do feel incomplete the flight combat does a good job of staying entertaining.
The Falconeer sets players in a gorgeous setting with a storyline that keeps you entertained and intrigued, but falls short on both the amount to do and in keeping the gameplay as interesting as the story.
The Falconer is one of the launch titles for the Xbox Series X (XSX) console and gamers have been eager to see how it plays on this next-gen machine. While
The Falconeer is an ocean-world fantasy aerial combat RPG that combines classic dog fighting mechanics and acrobatic twists and turns with an awe-inspiring open environment and bestiary of fantastic enemies in land, sea, and air.
On balance, it’s not a world-beater, and you probably won’t be passing up Cyberpunk 2020 or any of the other massive must-play holiday titles for it. But it is interesting and if you, like me, are a moving antique that remembers many vague impressions of games you played for two or three days and never found again, it will make you feel like that. It’s probably not as good as you remember, but what is?
That being said, considering that The Falconeer was developed by a single person makes it a far more impressive effort. And despite its pitfalls, it’s a solid entry in the combat flight simulator genre that’s more than worth checking out.
While it has its fair share of flaws, a compelling world that is rich with secrets and lore, alongside beautiful graphics and engaging flight controls, help The Falconeer stand out and stake its claim to your attention.
The Falconeer is at its best when you’re finally able to hold your own against the many dangers that await you. Working your way up to that point feels far too slow, as many of the side missions are repetitive and the falcon moves way too slowly when you’re traversing from place to place. When the story ramps up, and you’ve invested the time to improve your pilot and its falcon, you’re finally rewarded with an interesting, mostly fair and fun experience, where the world-building meet...
The Falconeer boasts an intriguing story and a hauntingly beautiful setting, but is hampered by repetitive missions in an empty open world.
I find myself a little perplexed by The Falconeer. I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, but it almost felt like I was doing so in spite of how I felt about the gameplay. I do think The Falconeer is going to find an audience that loves it wholeheartedly, but also that there will be plenty of others for whom this falls a bit flat too.
There’s something beautiful about one-man developers. Maybe it’s the passion that’s so clearly showcased in their work. Maybe it’s the understanding that what they create is something you could create if you had the patience, the talent, the drive. Maybe it’s just the wildly creative premises. Tomas Sala’s one-man project The Falconeer delivers on almost everything its preview promised. This game combines pretty cell-shaded graphics, an enormous sprawling world, and a fascinating story of political strife and economic terrorism. That’s pretty impressive. Too bad the dogfighting controls were actively fighting me for my entire playthrough.
Bumpy design turbulence blunts The Falconeer's ambition.Whether this is more a criticism against the Xbox Series X|S list of new games or a praise [...]
The Falconeer may not nail the “perch” as well as one may hope but this unique air combat game offers enough unique combat and flying mechanics to make it worthwhile despite its story and mission variety issues.
The Falconeer offers up an incredibly well-crafted world with a deep mythology that's begging to be explored further. Gliding over the open sea on the back of a falcon is pure fantasy, but while the game’s dogfights can occasionally be thrilling, they can soon grow rather repetitive. Samey missions and a lack of options in combat ultimately mean that The Falconeer doesn’t quite stick the landing.
Far more than the combat—whose charm ebbs away on a tide of repetition after the first few hours—the draw of The Falconeer is its suggestion that, while we may be shaped by our stories, they don’t pin us down, that the mere act of living is to take flight from the past.
It’s a lovely looking game, but The Falconeer just doesn’t entertain like it should. From its repetitive missions to its story that you’ll quickly stop caring about, it fails to capture your attention in the long term, while occasional frustration in combat puts a bit of a downer on the gameplay. Just flying around in its world can be quite a calming experience though. Silver linings and all that.
We want to emphasize that 5 will always be the “average” number, not 7. So by far, it’s 50% great and it’s also 50% bad.
A generic fantasy setting, confusing story and boring gameplay means The Falconeer fails to impress.
There is something magnificent about flying that us humans get all caught up in. This fascination probably comes from the fact that we can’t naturally obtain flight ourselves and we do love things we can’t have! That’s why we flock to games like The Falconeer to get our flying fix. To soar, twirl, and feel like we’re freefalling with the grace that only a bird has.
Falcons are an important part of my culture and heritage. They represent the finesse and grace that is often associated with the sport falconry. The Falconeer has these majestic creatures front and center, albeit enlarged dramatically. Although the game’s presentation matches the grace of a falcon, below the surface it...
Since my first few hours with The Falconeer, I’ve been tempted to express the sentiment that it has tremendous sequel potential. The only reason I hesitated to lead with that is the worry that it could be taken the wrong way; it could come across as damningly faint praise, or a recommendation that people give it a miss, ironically making a sequel far less likely. I mean it in a positive sense, though. There’s something exciting here, and I want to see more of it. I want to see its ideas developed, its possibilities expanded. I’d like to have more to do outside the story, more interaction with NPCs, more weapons and equipment and tactical options. Specific interactions with the falcons you ride, or other riders even. But then gosh, it’s hardly fair to give its creator Tomas Sala a hard time for, y’know, being mortal. And it’s definitely unfair to knock a solid game because I want more of it.
The game is far from perfect, with a narrative structure that muddies an otherwise intriguing story and a slight lack of mission variety. But ultimately, this game achieved something massive: It feels original! The Falconeer kept me constantly coming back for more with its open-world aerial combat and the excitement of unlocking additional missions so that I could keep exploring the world. The Falconeer dares to be bold and offers a unique experience that shines in its combat throughout its 10+ hours of gameplay, even if some aspects miss the mark.