Xbox Reviews

Review for AereA

⇒ Review: AereA ⇐

A lot of people say that music guide them in life, I completely agree with that. The same can be said about AereA, music totally shapes and gives life to this game project. The musical apotheosis halters quickly by the disappointing game design. Let’s read more about that in this AereA review! 

Who doesn’t want to move a heavy crate with a slow moving character?

THE GOOD

  • AereA is absolutely killing it with one thing, the fantastic music. Atmospheric and bone-chilling is a way to describe it, to be honest it’s the one and only thing that keeps the game afloat. You would think that Triangle Studios would do everything in its power so gamers can fully enjoy the soundtrack, guess again… while in combat each and every attack gives you the same incredible frustrating weapon sound. Each. And. Every. Time. It’s like the dev doesn’t want that you listen to the music. Anyway, my biggest congrats for composer Deon van Heerden, I wish all games featured your work.
  • A world fueled by music, interesting concept! I was hoping to see a little bit more about the lifestyle in AereA but learning about the world’s history and how music plays a big role in this was fascinating to behold. Summing it up, without the rhythm of the music the world wouldn’t exist. It makes you wonder how we would be without music, the world would be much more empty…
  • The love for music is visible in every aspect, from the lute mage or Cello knight, instrumental boss designs, story related quest items and more. It’s a shame that such a great concept isn’t used to full potential.
  • You will get the most fun experience with AereA’s co-op ability, even though the review score and overall opinion about the game is pretty low I can still recommend buying this game if you want to play an easy game with your child or non-gamer friend. You won’t find much other easy-to-play game on Xbox One.
Music can be found in every aspect, pay attention to the music notes when firing an arrow.

MIXED FEELINGS

  • Visually the game starts pretty good, all of the four playable characters look original and totally fit the musical world from AereA. I would totally buy the character figurines for example, this clearly shows that Triangle Studios has the talent to come up with something great. All guitar strings break however with the uninspiring level design and lacking graphics. Levels are a combination from closed doors that force you to backtrack in lifeless desert plains or caves with lava. Bored moments is the game’s biggest issue and environment visuals are on the list of reasons. That said, the music instrument design for bosses is brilliant.
Visually the environments look pretty … awkward. Take a look at that weird rock for example.

THE BAD

  • AereA is a serious stripped down Diablo game, it plays a little similar with unique, but often boring  twists.  The biggest issue is the repetitive and way to easy combat. You literally kill everything with one hit, even the more “harder to kill” looking  monsters. Bosses require a few more hits but you’ll never face a big challenge. The only time you decide to die is when you want to go back to the airship when you finished another been there done that quest, why? Because movement is ridiculously slow in this game. It takes ages for your character to move around the map, resulting in a lot of yawn-moments.
  • Early on the game tells you to find other students for extra quests, quests that aren’t part of the main story. When in control, I immediately started searching for these “students”, disappointingly enough only one could be found in the entire place. Spicing it up even more is the total lack of distinguishable tasks, all of them are boring track this down or kill this much enemies.
  • Another big frustration I wanted to point out is the unresponsive controls for ranged fighters. Three of the four playable characters are ranged fighters so most players will have these issues. Aiming from far or even short-range is a much more difficult tasks than it should be. Frequently I was misfiring when I thought I was going to hit the target, you could say that I’m a noob but I really felt it was because of the controls and not my AereA combat skill. Luckily the game is easy enough so it won’t cause any real gameplay issues but it is annoying nonetheless.

Not even the great music and musical background can save AereA, a shame because it has huge potential to become something entirely different. Still worth buying if you want to play an easy game in the local co-op mode but for most gamers just buy the epic soundtrack and leave the game unheard.

The four characters are masterly crafted, a shame that the same can’t be said about every visually aspect of AereA.

 

 

 

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