Xbox Series X Critic Reviews

The Falconeer is a beautiful game that offers a necessary freedom and escape that is much needed right now. It looks incredible, and flying around The Great Ursee feels excellent, but sometimes the combat can be tricky.

The Falconeer absolutely excels in story and presentation. Sure, its aerial combat gameplay might lack impact or variety, but with such an interesting and visually stunning world, it’s easy to overlook such shortcomings.

The Falconeer has some smaller issues, but those are easily overlooked when you take into account this was made by one person. The story is pretty interesting even though the missions aren’t, and the voice acting can be a little annoying at times. But exploring The Great Ursee for new locations, dogfighting with challenging opponents and discovering that thin line of balance between offense and defense is all very rewarding. I was expecting the game to be beautiful, but I wasn’t expecting the combat to be so challenging and deep. It was a wonderful surprise.

The Falconeer delivers a solid and gratifying aerial combat experience withing an intriguing and mysterious world. While its RPG component feels underdeveloped and characters end up being too anonymous, it's definitely a game to try for lovers of the genre.

The Falconeer is fascinating and compelling in many aspects, despite its repetitiveness.

The Falconeer is an interesting aerial combat game which, however, is weighed down by several burdens that do not allow it to shake off the monotony that arises from its own ambition as an open world.

The world of The Great Ursee is dramatic and looks gorgeous with its pleasing sunset vistas that really pop thanks to the game’s brilliant use of HDR. However, The Falconeer does fly too close to the sun in some areas. A largely forgettable and at times confusing story will be a disappointment to some, while inconsistent collision detection and a lack of mission checkpoints create frequent disappointing turbulence. Faults aside, for a game that’s been created by one person, and is one of the cheaper Xbox Series X|S launch day titles, you should definitely consider picking up The Falconeer along with your new console.

The Falconeer brings to life a fantastic and beautiful open world where we can fly everywhere riding our giant falcon. Dogfights between the clouds while an interesting story between different factions is defining our actions. We just miss more interactions with the world around us and to be able to change the story with our decisions.

While the combat may not be super engaging, and the story is a bad egg, the gorgeous world of The Falconeer on Xbox is a triumph. Paired with the spectacular music and breathtaking feeling of flight, this game provides what feels like an exceptional concept rather than a complete game.

The Falconeer is a small but surprisingly ambitious game that will impress those that are curious with its artistry, and if you are willing to pack a little extra patience and tolerance of its more glaring flaws, you’re likely to have a good time. Fans of old-school air-combat games such as Ace Combat and Crimson Skies in particular should consider giving it a shot.