Airship: Kingdoms Adrift Review (PC)

I deliver a broadside into the back of the main enemy ship and then try to pivot as quickly as possible to bring my forward-facing weapons to bear. My opponent has a companion who’s currently pounding my starboard side. He might break through my armor soon and once that happens it’s very easy to lose some weapons or an ammunition store.

So I get my two escort vessels, smaller and with less firepower, to harass this enemy. At best, they’ll lead the ship away, at worst, they will simply draw fire. I activate an ability to deliver more accurate fire and maneuver to hit the leading enemy in the back again. These airships might fight among the clouds, but this feels a lot like late XIX naval warfare.

I need to keep the pressure up, only expose my port if I can, keep an eye on ammunition, and maybe get close enough to get some boarding action going. It is not easy to do all this while also taking into account my two escorts and that second enemy. The sky sea is filled with opportunistic pirates who are more than capable of taking down an already weakened fleet with limited resources.

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift was developed by Revolution Industry and published by Freedom Games and Gamersky Games. I played on the PC via Steam. The title mixes tactical air combat with exploration, trade, and a story set in a complex steampunk-ish universe.

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Players will become a skyship captain, choosing to pledge their allegiance to one of three factions: the Aecerlian Kingdom, the New Viridian Republic, and the Teutonic Confederation (this does not seem to be Earth but some names reference real history). A massive war devastated much of the world but the air archipelago of Suthseg has managed to avoid the worst problems and even prosper. Floating islands and safe harbors are spread all over the place, in this universe that mixes steampunk and fantasy ideas.

The main narrative starts relatively slow and seems to focus on establishing a mercantile presence while dealing with the dangers of the region. Of course, a bigger conspiracy is afoot and will draw the player in. Airship features a lot of characters, and they love to chat with one another to reveal the political situation, introduce objectives, and give gamers hints about how to approach a situation. This universe has a lot of influences, reflected in the writing and character designs.

Mechanically, the game is focused on air vessel combat and exploration. The three featured factions come complete with different ships and approaches but for all of them, the air is actually a sea. There’s no movement between planes, everything happens on a flat plane. The airships descend to reach settlements and there are plenty of other ships moving around on trade or diplomatic missions or simply looking to board someone and liberate cargo and hostages. Suthseg is filled with flying ships and plenty of cargo balloons.

Once the player gets his ships inside the radius of a hostile fleet, it is time to fight. The mechanics are those of classic naval warfare, with an action focus. Weapon arcs are clearly displayed, gamers can always look at the state of both their and the enemy’s units, and crew have special abilities that can swing the course of an engagement. The core of combat involves avoiding as much incoming fire as possible while focusing damage on the important sections of the enemy ships.

Battles are exciting and tense. There are times when opponents lack the numbers or weapons to do any real damage. And some pirates come over-prepared, capable of destroying a player’s flagship in under two minutes. That’s when the parley option becomes important. Give them some money and live to fight and trade for at least another day.

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Exploration and combat consume resources. To replenish them, head to one of the settlements. Some are focused on the extraction of resources and gamers get the option to develop industry and create production chains. Others are big cities, complete with characters to interact with and potentially recruit. All have a friendly trader ready to replenish the fleet and extra opportunities for trading.

Kingdom Adrift also features an in-depth system for ship upgrades and fleet management. I found that getting good armor is the best investment, followed by trying out weapons to decide which best suits one’s playstyle. Visit settlements and spend money on better ships when you have them because higher-level enemies can be tough to crack otherwise.

I do think that cruise speed needs to move player fleets between points of interest faster (or the game can offer another level of time compression). Better indications of how well-prepared an enemy fleet is would help with frustration. The game also features multiplayer that can support battles between two teams of three players.

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift looks decent, especially when two fleets of airships clash in the sky sea. Zoom in close to see a variety of weapons firing and get the information needed to make solid tactical choices. Or move the camera higher to see the deadly dance, using the pause command to freeze everyone in place, assess the situation, and decide how to proceed. The interface for cities isn’t the most intuitive but works.

The voice acting is decent, although it can sometimes come across as too cartoon-like. When airships fight, I expected the various effects to be more kinetic, especially when more exotic weapons come into play. The general soundtrack is pleasant enough, although generic, and struggles to enhance the general feeling of immersion.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion