Think about a Nineteen Thirties New York the place know-how had been created to drift elements of town into the sky, flying automobiles have 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 stay up for, and even acquired a while fingers on to discover a picturesque bar within the clouds, tackle a mysterious man in automotive on automotive fight, and discover our residence 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 rapidly escalates as each Gia and Nellie are thrown into hazard and essential 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 right down to nothing however clouds beneath, the inside decked out as you’d anticipate a speakeasy of the time, however with a ‘Neo-Decopunk’ aesthetic.
When requested about what led to the thought of merging the previous, of Nineteen Thirties New York with a futuristic idea like that of Aether, the easy response from Whitney was that “we all know that we wish to have one thing stunning, however was completely different.” Whitney additionally supplied up his love of films like 2004’s Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, although he jokingly accepted that he could be within the minority for that.
Seeing the gleaming skyline of town it jogged my memory of the Metropolis of Superman’s Silver Age. Stunning skyscrapers that let you know that it is a secure and wonderful place to stay, 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 full of flowery phrasing and an inside monologue that exposits with out feeling prefer it’s spoonfeeding info to the participant.
Further Voice & Textual content Choices On The Means
It 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 needed to write down in a method that may make you are feeling, he laughed referencing the road “strolling a knifed edge with naked toes” and the way even now the considered that made his toes curl in response.
At varied factors in dialog you will be prompted with selections, these could be of no consequence merely transferring the dialog ahead, may solely be doable in case you have a sure merchandise, or could possibly be settled with a speech test.
A component of the speech checks that I beloved have 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 problem stage of the test. You could be making an attempt to idiot somebody, get some further info out of them, or press your luck with an intimidating assertion.
The Selections… 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 troublesome test that I failed. This did not result in any quick destructive repercussions however as a substitute 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 aspect to this new character I hadn’t seen but and endeared me additional to her.
I requested about what sorts of destructive repercussions there could possibly be, and in the event you failed sufficient, if there have been “fail states” the place you’d need to revert to a save. The reply I acquired was fairly shocking as there may positively be situations 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. When one occurs it is one thing monumental sufficient that it might make the entrance web page, Whitney defined that internally they “view them as hidden collectibles.”
The alternatives that you simply make through 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 in the event you knew precisely what you have been doing it might take about three playthroughs to see all the pieces, however I am guessing in the event you’re getting in blind it’d take rather a lot longer.
Because of the method you not solely work together with the world, but additionally choose up and develop relationships with completely different characters and factions of Aether & Iron there are presently ~16 completely different endings. These aren’t all wholly distinctive however very similar to a recreation like Fallout has endings for particular person character tales, faction plots, and the general recreation every of the permutations can lend to 1 one other.
Time To Hit The Street
Outdoors of exploration and interrogation when making your method throughout town there are occasions that may immediate corresponding to highway fight.
Right here the fight is turnbased, performing on a grid the place each flip you will have a sure variety of actions you’ll be able to carry out. You may ram your automotive or unleash a shotgun blast, or just shift from lane to lane.
A neat factor of motion is that whereas shifting lanes left and proper you will expend some extent of stamina, however going up and down (accelerating and decelerating) you will have full freedom.
Different dynamic components of this fight have been different drivers on the highway, that you possibly can use to get inbetween your self and whoever you are going through, and in addition lanes that seem and disappear throughout fight. Identical to actual life you could be requested to merge or shift lane in order to remain on the highway, you should definitely concentrate!
Rooted In Historical past
An fascinating side of Aether & Iron for historical past buffs is that there are specific characters and components which are rooted in the true 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 corporation 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 staff hopes to create “a world that others really feel so immersed in that once they stroll away they proceed to play of their heads.”
TechRaptor was in a position to preview Aether & Iron at Summer time Recreation Fest 2025