Think about a Thirties New York the place know-how had been created to drift elements of the town into the sky, flying vehicles had been frequent, and everybody spoke with sufficient pulp to place Humphrey Bogart to disgrace. That is the world of Aether & Iron, a brand new detective recreation, by Seismic Squirrel.
At SGF we had an opportunity to take a seat down with Tyler Whitney, Narrative Lead, and Joshua Enz, Producer, to speak about what impressed the sport, what expertise gamers can sit up for, and even received a while arms on to discover a picturesque bar within the clouds, tackle a mysterious man in automobile on automobile fight, and discover our house base.
What A World To Reside In
In Aether & Iron, gamers tackle the function of Gia, a down-on-her-luck detective who has had one too many roles go sideways. Returning to her employer, Mr Black, she’s handed the job of escorting Nellie to the Lowers.
This job shortly escalates as each Gia and Nellie are thrown into hazard and vital and mysterious paperwork that Nellie was holding shut are stolen.
The sport is damaged up into two gameplay kinds, the primary is exploration. As Gia you can work together with scenes and places, having conversations with these you come throughout, or maybe discover an merchandise or two to choose up to be used later.
My first expertise of exploration was in a bar with a glass ground, the view extending all the way down to nothing however clouds under, the inside decked out as you’d count on a speakeasy of the time, however with a ‘Neo-Decopunk’ aesthetic.
When requested about what led to the thought of merging the previous, of Thirties New York with a futuristic idea like that of Aether, the straightforward response from Whitney was that “we all know that we wish to have one thing stunning, however was totally different.” Whitney additionally provided up his love of flicks like 2004’s Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, although he jokingly accepted that he is likely to be within the minority for that.
Seeing the gleaming skyline of the town it jogged my memory of the Metropolis of Superman’s Silver Age. Stunning skyscrapers that inform you that it is a secure and wonderful place to dwell, that is ignoring the opposite places on this recreation.
After selecting up a bottle of booze and prodding the passed-out drunk, I approached the bar to open dialogue with the barkeep, a fellow worker of Mr Black.
Discover And Work together With The World of Aether & Iron
Dialogue in Aether & Iron is absolutely voiced, letting you actually get sucked into the noir dialogue stuffed with flowery phrasing and an inside monologue that exposits with out feeling prefer it’s spoonfeeding info to the participant.
Extra Voice & Textual content Choices On The WayIt was defined to me that after Aether & Iron launches on the finish of the 12 months they are going to be including Spanish and Chinese language textual content localization, in addition to working so as to add Spanish and Japanese Voices
Whitney attributed the eagerness for this style with characters like Phillip Marlowe. He spoke about how he was given reign to write down and that he then made it “flowery as hell.” He wished to write down in a approach that will make you are feeling, he laughed referencing the road “strolling a knifed edge with naked ft” and the way even now the considered that made his toes curl in response.
At numerous factors in dialog you may be prompted with selections, these is likely to be of no consequence merely shifting the dialog ahead, may solely be potential in case you have a sure merchandise, or may very well be settled with a speech verify.
A component of the speech checks that I cherished had been the inclusion of cube rolls. Every would immediate you to roll two cube, add your related stats, and any companion bonuses to attempt to meet the issue stage of the verify. You is likely to be making an attempt to idiot somebody, get some further info out of them, or press your luck with an intimidating assertion.
The Decisions… And Penalties Of Dialogue
Whereas I cleared many of the speech checks throughout my time enjoying, incomes further expertise and incomes further cash for Gia, there was one extraordinarily tough verify that I failed. This did not result in any speedy damaging repercussions however as an alternative a humorous second the place Nellie made enjoyable of Gia and her very apparent try at mendacity.
It may not have earned me expertise as a personality, however as a participant, it confirmed a facet to this new character I hadn’t seen but and endeared me additional to her.
I requested about what sorts of damaging repercussions there may very well be, and for those who failed sufficient, if there have been “fail states” the place you’d need to revert to a save. The reply I received was fairly shocking as there may positively be eventualities the place you retain speaking again and find yourself getting shot due to it.
Every of those fail states are offered with the thought of a retro newspaper spinning up in the direction of the display screen. When one occurs it is one thing monumental sufficient that it could make the entrance web page, Whitney defined that internally they “view them as hidden collectibles.”
The alternatives that you simply make in the course of the story of Aether & Iron every have various weights and a few may even result in unique branched narrative paths.
Aether & Iron is anticipated to take about 20 hours for an preliminary playthrough, and Whitney mused that for those who knew precisely what you had been doing it could take about three playthroughs to see every part, however I am guessing for those who’re entering into blind it’d take so much longer.
Because of the approach you not solely work together with the world, but additionally decide up and develop relationships with totally different characters and factions of Aether & Iron there are at present ~16 totally different endings. These aren’t all wholly distinctive however very like a recreation like Fallout has endings for particular person character tales, faction plots, and the general recreation every of the permutations can lend to at least one one other.
Time To Hit The Highway
Outdoors of exploration and interrogation when making your approach throughout the town there are occasions that may immediate akin to street fight.
Right here the fight is turnbased, performing on a grid the place each flip you will have a sure variety of actions you may carry out. You possibly can ram your automobile or unleash a shotgun blast, or just shift from lane to lane.
A neat aspect of motion is that whereas shifting lanes left and proper you may expend a degree of stamina, however going up and down (accelerating and decelerating) you will have full freedom.
Different dynamic components of this fight had been different drivers on the street, that you could possibly use to get inbetween your self and whoever you are dealing with, and in addition lanes that seem and disappear throughout fight. Similar to actual life chances are you’ll be requested to merge or shift lane in order to remain on the street, remember to listen!
Rooted In Historical past
An attention-grabbing facet of Aether & Iron for historical past buffs is that there are specific characters and components which are rooted in the actual life historical past of New York. An instance given was that of the White Wings, the group of uniformed cleaners for New York established in 1895 by Colonel George E. Waring Jr.
Every of the segments of New York which have taken to the skies in Aether & Iron perform like firm cities, with a company on the head, and certainly one of these factions is a militaristic group of cleaners.
It is by creating the world first, after which making a story that inhabits it that the crew hopes to create “a world that others really feel so immersed in that after they stroll away they proceed to play of their heads.”
TechRaptor was capable of preview Aether & Iron at Summer season Recreation Fest 2025
