Black Skylands Preview

Skyships are always an impressive sight. There’s something wonderfully steampunk about them, and it’s a genre that is visited far too infrequently. Luckily for me, Hungry Couch Games has listened to my pleas for more steampunk settings and duly delivered a literal war in the skies.

Black Skylands is an action-adventure game centered on a young woman named Ava. After her island is plunged into chaos by an angered species named the Swarm, she is forced to take a stand. Not just against an aggressive species, but also against a cruel leader of an opposing human faction.

Black Skylands’ opening, which doubles as an introduction for the game's world and mechanics, helps you get to grips with things at an ideal pace. You learn how to fight, how to fly and how to communicate with everyone in the town around you. Importantly, you learn about the strife amongst the leaders in the clouds. It’s an interesting setting that had me invested, and it delivers a nice twist to close the game's introduction. It sets the tone, pacing and eventual aim of the game, which is a fantastic launching pad for an Early Access game.

Fundamentally, Black Skylands is a twin-stick shooter. It doesn’t overthink it’s system, allowing itself to be understood by pretty much anyone who’s ever dabbled in the genre before. It won’t be hard to master, but it’s clear the aim is to make things fun. On top of the twin-stick shootings, Black Skylands adds a couple of sweet additions to help players whilst they’re traversing their way around the skies.

Most obvious is the chonky skyship that’s splashed all throughout the trailers. Much like the combat, the ship's controls massively benefit from simplicity. Hold a button to accelerate, pick a direction and off you go. Your only concern is keeping up the ship's maintenance. That’s making sure any holes have been patched up, as well as keeping the fuel tank full. There are plenty of petrol stations dotted around the skies, so you’re unlikely to find yourself running dry. A lovely addition is a grapple hook, helping you get around the islands you visit quicker. Not just that, but it helps get you to those smaller islands that your ship just isn’t refined enough to get to.

You’ll spend a lot of time exploring Black Skylands. Not just because of all the methods of traversal, but because the map is pretty massive for such a small indie title. Individual islands are relatively small, but they’re packed to the brim with treats you sniff out. The skies around you are filled with these islands too. Every quest you go to complete will likely see you sidetracked by half a dozen things on the way. Getting around to explore isn’t always easy though. Not only are there enemies trying to gun you down, but there’s plenty of nasty traps scattered throughout the sky that you need to dodge with your ship. Most obviously, you’re up in the air, so falling is always an unfavourable way to meet your demise.

You’ll encounter plenty of enemies in the sky as well as on land, meaning you need to turn your ship from an Uber to a combat machine. It’s probably the hardest thing to grasp in the game, often appearing slower to frantic combat experienced on lands. It’s not a bad thing, but it forces the player to take a more reserved approach. All that can be improved by developing the ship you fly. Improving weapons, armour, it all allows you to fly deeper into dangerous territory.

Despite the expectations of an Early Access game, Black Skylands does have a few issues that will hopefully be ironed out before the full release. Most aren’t too much of an inconvenience, but there are issues with the game's boss battles. On one occasion, the boss simply didn’t appear, on another they simply wouldn’t die. Alarmingly, the game insists on offering one save slot, so there’s a very real potential for locking yourself out of the game.

In all, Black Skylands already offers a meaty experience for you to sink your teeth into, despite its Early Access tag. Its setting is interesting enough, with engaging gameplay that already feels fairly polished. Heading into its full release, Black Skylands has some concerning issues that need to be stamped out, but if they succeed in doing that, the sky’s the limit.