Aether & Iron Review

Cubed3 steps into the driver’s seat of the noir-themed adventure Aether & Iron. It is a journey that delivers a mix of aetherpunk vibes, detective work, and high-paced, dynamic SRPG battles, presented in a gritty comic book art style. However, just as in the world it portrays, there can be good intentions yet poor results in its execution…

Aether & Iron first and foremost invites players into a grim world ruled by corruption and greed. It immediately sets a grim tone and goes straight to the setting’s main themes: power and its distribution. The worldbuilding is phenomenal from start to finish, with an exceptionally clever approach to revealing the world to the player. One of the more powerful and earliest examples actually happens in the very opening of the game.

In the beginning, the dynamics of the world and the life of protagonist Gia are beautifully presented. She is given a mission by a mysterious man who works at a high-grade bar frequented by the upper class. An upper class that gathers there for socialising, but also, perhaps more so, to ask for dubious favours. Gia’s latest mission is to escort a young scientist named Nellie, who is on the run after a horrible attack at the university where she works. It is soon revealed that she was the actual target of the attack, and so the grand adventure has set off to an explosive start.

Nellie and Gia travel around New York – or what remains of it. The city is no longer on the ground, but rather a group of floating islands, each ruled by a different dictator. What Aether & Iron really succeeds in is making each of these dictatorships display very different forms of power. Then it skillfully deconstructs many of said power mechanisms, which are also often wielded by the ruling powers of society.

The three fiefdoms that Gia and Nellie explore on their journey each represent a different aspect of these mechanisms: military, capital, and faith. While this, in itself, might not feel too fresh or revolutionary, as these are topics the genre has handled many times, the way Aether & Iron does it is quite interesting. Instead of everyone telling the player how bad the city and its rules are, they are constantly presented with questions and different angles.

What happens when they fall? Are there benefits to the system even if it is wrong? Why do people follow them? These topics resonate very strongly in the current day and age. One example stood out in particular during the playthrough, which was regarding the theocratically ruled fiefdom found in the game. Many people from the lowest class, aetherneers, said that they were treated better there than anywhere else. This actually made many of them grateful and loyal towards the ruler, despite not agreeing with their ways.

When writing dystopian fiction, it is way too easy to just fully go on one side of the argument, and it is refreshing to see that Aether & Iron did not do so. None of the dictators come off as moustache-twirling villains, but instead as fully developed people who just follow their beliefs. It is a sign of good writing when it is hard not to understand the reasoning of a military dictator using WMDs against his own people.

It is this sort of nuance that the media needs more of at times. Things that make us think, and things that show us that even good intentions can lead to horrible actions. It is easy to see that someone who has been backstabbed during peace negotiations later turns to warfare; however, once its effects are apparent, it is clear that it was the wrong turn. It takes the eyes off the intention to the effect, which is quite healthy in real-life’s polarised world.

It would be easy to fall in love with Aether & Iron just for the story itself, but another aspect that clearly stands out is the combat system. It involves small SRPG skirmishes where the player controls up to three cars on the road, aiming to take out the enemy or simply survive. What makes the combat system truly outstanding is its dynamism. As the battle takes place on highways, the road constantly changes. This is reflected in combat as hazards appear between turns that deal damage to anyone in their area of effect or have other interesting effects on the battle.

This is a feature the player needs to take into account during combat and turns out to be more important than the gear they have. On higher difficulty levels, to win it is not just recommended but required to make full use of stage hazards. It is really refreshing to see an SRPG that isn’t afraid to pose a true challenge. It also prevents fights from becoming repetitive, as each feels like a unique puzzle to solve.

While the core of Aether & Iron is very solid, the review copy is rife with flaws. It felt more like an early beta than anything close to a finished game. The menus are highly buggy, and when using a controller, some core menus, such as the equipment and car change screens, are impossible to use properly. The volume levels are all over the place, to the point that some sound clips were hard to hear, while others were so loud that it was impossible not to rush to adjust the volume.

There are, however, signs that these kinks in the machinery are being patched up and fixed at the moment of writing. For example, when encountering a progression-halting issue during the review playthrough, the developers fixed it within a day of the report. However, when writing a review, it is only possible to go by what is being played, not what the game will be in a couple of weeks after its release.

This touches upon one of the most annoying aspects of modern gaming: so many games ship in different states of brokenness, overly relying on patching and customer feedback to eventually deliver a good product. Hopefully, Aether & Iron has enough time before it goes live for a wider audience to get the final polish needed to do justice to its great story and combat.