Think about a Nineteen Thirties New York the place expertise had been created to drift elements of town into the sky, flying automobiles have been widespread, and everybody spoke with sufficient pulp to place Humphrey Bogart to disgrace. That is the world of Aether & Iron, a brand new detective sport, 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 acquired 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 position 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 necessary 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’ll work together with scenes and places, having conversations with these you come throughout, or maybe discover an merchandise or two to select 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 beneath, 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 concept 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 lovely, however was completely different.” Whitney additionally supplied up his love of flicks like 2004’s Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, although he jokingly accepted that he is perhaps 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 inform you that it is a protected and wonderful place to reside, that is ignoring the opposite places on this sport.
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 crammed with flowery phrasing and an inside monologue that exposits with out feeling prefer it’s spoonfeeding data to the participant.
Further Voice & Textual content Choices On The WayIt was defined to me that after Aether & Iron launches on the finish of the yr 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 approach that will 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 numerous factors in dialog you may be prompted with decisions, these is perhaps of no consequence merely shifting the dialog ahead, might solely be doable in case you have a sure merchandise, or might be settled with a speech verify.
A component of the speech checks that I liked 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 degree of the verify. You is perhaps attempting to idiot somebody, get some further data out of them, or press your luck with an intimidating assertion.
The Decisions… And Penalties Of Dialogue
Whereas I cleared a lot 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 unfavorable 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 unfavorable repercussions there might be, and should you failed sufficient, if there have been “fail states” the place you’d should revert to a save. The reply I acquired was fairly shocking as there might undoubtedly be situations the place you retain speaking again and find yourself getting shot due to it.
Every of those fail states are introduced with the concept 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 just 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 predicted to take about 20 hours for an preliminary playthrough, and Whitney mused that should you knew precisely what you have been doing it might take about three playthroughs to see all the pieces, however I am guessing should you’re getting into blind it’d take so much longer.
Because of the approach 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 at present ~16 completely different endings. These aren’t all wholly distinctive however very similar to a sport like Fallout has endings for particular person character tales, faction plots, and the general sport every of the permutations can lend to at least one one other.
Time To Hit The Street
Exterior of exploration and interrogation when making your approach throughout 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 could have a sure variety of actions you’ll be able to carry out. You may 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 burn up a degree of stamina, however going up and down (accelerating and decelerating) you could have full freedom.
Different dynamic parts of this fight have been different drivers on the street, that you may use to get inbetween your self and whoever you are going through, and likewise lanes that seem and disappear throughout fight. Similar to actual life you could be requested to merge or shift lane in order to remain on the street, be sure you concentrate!
Rooted In Historical past
An attention-grabbing side of Aether & Iron for historical past buffs is that there are specific characters and parts which can be 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 one among 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 workforce 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 in a position to preview Aether & Iron at Summer time Sport Fest 2025
