From Aery to Windborn
I’ve been following EpiXR Video games’ ‘Little Chook’ video games pretty intently, just about for the reason that launch of the very first Aery – Little Chook Journey again in 2019.
Since then, because the years have handed, issues have advanced barely. Aery has most undoubtedly been the prime sequence, the primary focus of EpiXR, however they’ve managed to wrangle out a number of different franchises, with Lifetime of Fly working as an umbrella for the Homicide Diaries, Paper Flight, Paper Airplane Area and Paper Sprint video games.
Mainly, each a kind of has you taking management of a flying protagonist, left to soar excessive into the sky, as enjoyable overtones play out. I’ve not performed each single a kind of video games, however I’ve actually frolicked with the overwhelming majority of them; some are good, some are, frankly, not.
And now we have now Windborn: Journey to the South. I don’t suppose I’m being too harsh to say that it’s the worst of the lot. It’s the one which has pissed off us probably the most, anyhow.
Customary EpiXR Video games stuff – however totally different
Taking Flight with a Flock
In Windborn: Journey to the South you are taking cost of somewhat chook (shock horror), flying excessive above quite a lot of landscapes (a seaside setting, farmland, an icy-world and extra), every signifying a distinct stage. Nothing to shock there you might suppose, as that’s what EpiXR have supplied with each single a kind of video games talked about beforehand. The distinction then? The allowance for a change of title and – probably – debut of a brand new sequence? Effectively, you aren’t the one little chook on this huge open sky. You could have buddies. A flock to tag on to.
Your aim in Windborn: Journey to the South is to observe your fellow avian buddies by way of a sequence of rings, every opening up a pathway to the following. Retaining in contact with them will, in the end, see you occur upon an finish ring, a closing aim, earlier than you might be left to flap your approach to a brand new stage; 11 of that are current in complete.
Irritating Flaws: Visible Glitches and Gameplay Annoyances
Alongside the best way, velocity increase rings assist assist your flight, and flying by way of these ensures you’ll be able to nearly sustain along with your flock. Fall too far behind, take a mistaken flip, and your mates will attain their nest, leaving you battling a brief timer. If the clock ought to hit zero, Windborn: Journey to the South pushes you again to the beginning of the stage, left to try to show your self as a part of this flock as soon as once more.
On the floor, that sounds superb. It takes the solo adventuring of Aery and gives some form of companionship; a purpose for being, a have to fly. In observe although, Windborn: Journey to the South just about fails to ship.
In actual fact, we’ve walked away from our 90 minutes or so with Windborn: Journey to the South totally irritated by an entire lack of polish and care. Bear in mind how we mentioned this was the worst of the EpiXR Video games titles we had performed…
Simply observe these rings. If potential…
Windborn’s Technical Points and Stage Design
11 levels make up the straightforward marketing campaign that’s current in Windborn: Journey to the South, though solely 10 truly play out after one another. To entry the ultimate stage (the one one with out an achievement connected, seemingly tagged onto the top and not using a care), you’ll want to go into the menus, the extent choose display screen, and decide it out from a listing.
Whether or not you want to play Stage 11 although will most likely be dictated by how the earlier ten levels work. In case your expertise is something like ours, that will likely be a case of discovering extra failure than success.
Why? Effectively, let me run by way of issues for you, so you will get an angle on how Windborn: Journey to the South performs.
Stage 1 is completely superb, and also you’ll fly by way of it with ease, rising excessive, diving deep, barrel-rolling with all the liberty you want, all as you hit these rings, pathways evolving there on out. However then issues take a flip.
Stage 2 is terrible, with extra visible pop-in and hesitant graphical drawings than we ever care to see. We failed that stage a number of instances, largely as these all-important rings did not materialise, leaving us misplaced excessive within the sky, unable to trace our route or hit an finish aim.
The identical occurred in Stage 3, and 5 (with one ring popping in an entire jungle of timber that had been close to impassable), in addition to ranges 6, 7 and 10. The visible pop-in being about as unhealthy as we might ever think about.
Weirdly, ranges 4, 8 and 9 had been a lot much less trouble, largely because the landscapes and requirement for Windborn: Journey to the South to populate the world with background property was much less intensive.
No matter, we’re making that a couple of 40% hit price on whether or not the levels in Windborn: Journey to the South can be satisfactory with none type of trouble. In our eyes, that’s fully unacceptable. Think about that this took us 90 minutes or so to finish, and every stage is over in round 5 minutes, and also you’ll quick see how the variety of frustrations had been all that padded out our Journey to the South.
Weirdnesses proceed as Stage 10 is accomplished and the sport chucks you again to the primary splash display screen, all as the ultimate achievement pings, 1000 Gamerscore within the bag. Maybe EpiXR don’t need us to play Stage 11? Who is aware of.
The place you off to?
Silence within the Skies
When you do handle to battle your means by way of, you’ll discover that, other than that visible pop-in, Windborn: Journey to the South is clean sufficient. Your little chook is simple to manage, and while we see zero purpose to profit from some barrel-rolls, and inverted controls ought to 100% be switched on by default, guiding this man by way of the rings is easy sufficient. Till these rings vanish, reappear after which vanish once more, after all.
There are additionally annoyances in any hit reactions and must you get too near the remainder of your flock, might effectively end up being pinged this fashion and that. At one level, as we approached a stage finish, clock counting down, we mysteriously whacked into one other chook, received thrown into the ceiling of the stage, left to glitch on the spot for few seconds. One other event noticed us pushed again a number of rings earlier, possibilities of finishing the stage gone.
It’s solely in these collisions with different birds the place any sound results come to the fore, and even then Windborn: Journey to the South depends on a easy old-school beep-boop to indicate a collision. Other than that, there’s not a single sound to come back from this little chook’s adventures; not even on the flap of the wings. Though, and we predict we imagined this, we might have heard a flap as soon as. That’s bizarre too, as a result of we quickly dived into the settings to change off the ultra-repetitive, phone-hold soundtrack that was accompanying our flights. However to play in close to utter silence simply compounded the weirdness of the sport.
A Disappointing Flight with Technical Turbulence
You’ll be glad when Windborn: Journey to the South is over, absolutely understanding why EpiXR have determined to separate this from the in any other case respectable Aery sequence. With visible pop-in that’s off the dimensions, whether or not you’ll be able to full a stage with out trouble and annoyance very a lot seems like it’s within the arms of the avian gods. And no quantity of zen-like promise will ever overcome that.
Necessary Hyperlinks
Windborn: Journey to the South Takes Flight on Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/windborn-journey-to-the-south-takes-flight-on-xbox/
Purchase Windborn: Journey to the South on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/video games/retailer/windborn-journey-to-the-south/9PPTBGBWZ06F
