It's one of many nods in The Falconeer to the Bas-Lag novels of China Miéville (in this case, his eerie nautical epic The Scar). The Mancers are the creators of the Maw, a watery canyon running the length of the Ursee, as though left that way by an absent-minded Moses. 'They're not interested in running the place, but they are steering it towards a certain goal.' 'They fly on dragons and they have more exotic ships.' The Mancers are the Ursee's Machiavellians, playing all sides against each other, bestowing choice gadgets on those who carry out their designs. 'They're kind of nerdy, but they've got their marketing down, so they look really badass,' Sala comments. The 20 best indie games you might have missed in 2019 The most sinister are the Mancers, a high-tech monastic order comparable to the Brotherhood Of Steel in Fallout. Perhaps the strangest faction is a group of exiles who ride flying seabeasts, strapping cockpits to the spines of eels and manta rays: even their ports are constructed atop giant crabs. 'I might have seen too much Adam Ant when I was younger,' Sala notes of their outfits. There's an imperial faction modelled on the British and Napoleonic empires of the 19th century, all bristling ironclads and gleaming brass. Other defences can be turned against their owners – sea mines, for example, can be scooped up and hurled at clifftop artillery, providing they don't explode in your talons.Įach faction is crisply defined by its ships, costumes (there are animated character portraits redolent of Star Fox) and architectural style. Some islands are decked with barrage balloons, plucked from the beaches of Saving Private Ryan to deter the would-be Stuka. Classic arcade sims such as Wing Commander aside, Sala has taken copious inspiration from vintage war movies. These skirmishes are most gripping when they border on overwhelming, with projectiles crowding the screen and AI wingmen yelling at you for instructions. A lock-on lets you pinpoint individual pieces on larger targets, whether to sabotage a dirigible's engines or set off a chain explosion by destroying a turret. Steering your bird in third person, you stoop to fill up an energy bar that is drained by gaining height, boosting and performing evasive rolls. The Falconeer's air combat feels as graceful as its art direction. 'Even though you're in the air all the things you really need to confront are always below the ocean.' Tomas Sala Ports are where you'll buy ammo such as armour-piercing lightning rounds – stored in neon canisters on your mount's back – and take on missions that range from bounty hunts through racing and fishing to escort missions and area defence. Each faction has its home ports and story objectives within the grander narrative. Presided over by a mysterious shaman narrator, they form a tale that ultimately deals with the origin of this world. The Falconeer's story is broken up into five memories, one for each faction vying for possession of the ocean and its trove of submerged, long-forgotten technologies. If this ocean harbours bleak truths, it is also a place of wonder and adventure – to say nothing of ancient relics and bubbling conspiracy. The world's mood and texture are continually changing, as day gives way to night and duelling falconeers are swallowed up by storms (which serve as a risky but convenient energy source for your weapons). Leviathans burst from the waves, tempting you to fly beneath them. Bottle-sized, gold-trimmed sailboats trundle from port to port. It's a heaving grey monster, at first glance, sucking at the edges of cramped island towns and fortresses. The game's ocean itself speaks to this duality. 'Even though you're in the air, being lofty, elegant or combative, all the secrets, all the things you really need to confront, are always below the ocean,' Sala says. But it's also a work of introspection, comparable to Jo-Mei's Sea Of Solitude – a game that seeks answers and catharsis in the depths. Primarily, it's an open-world air-combat game in the spirit of Crimson Skies – a blend of World War dogfighting and briny steampunk, in which ace pilots do battle aboard giant falcons, hurling fireballs and lightning.

The Falconeer is a work of deceptive levity. 'It's always that interplay.' Sala eventually abandoned the game of darkness in favour of one that lives this interplay between bird and darkness, the joy of release and the memory of pain. 'But it's also about dealing with your past.' Birds are symbols of aspiration, Sala notes, but in order to really resonate, that symbol can't be fully separated from what it's trying to escape. 'It represented a much lighter stage of my life,' Sala goes on.

The falconeer fishing