Amelia is a young pilot and fisher woman who lives in the floating city of Granaria. Amelia dreams of reaching the abundant world's edge, but standing in her way are the ever-increasing numbers of pirates. To fulfil her destiny, she is going to have to make a ton of money from fishing so that she can upgrade her ship...

Airheart is a new dieselpunk airplane action rogue like game. The playing surfaced is layered one on top of the other, with specialist towers which give access to each level.

Before I get on to the positive aspects of the game there is one glaring problem with it and this is like other roguelike games. If you crash your plane the game is over. It doesn’t matter if you have played for one hour or a hundred. Fans of the genre will tell you that it makes your death meaningful and if that’s your take, that’s fine. Personally, I found it frustrating.

This makes you play incredibly cautiously, which in turn makes the grind slow. Another issue is that your plane isn’t very hardy, so if you crash into objects, rather than fly around them, your plane can take significant damage. If you can get to the hanger before the plane is destroyed, then it resets your plane with full health.

The game starts you off with a tutorial, which runs you through the basics of flight and fishing. You get a top down view of the action. Flying around you can capture fish for their oil, for the larger ones your going to need to use a harpoon, which doubles as a weapon against the pirates. You can pick up scrap from downed planes and its always worth flying through the trees to see if anything shakes loose.

The things that you pick up can be used to upgrade your plane, but all the time there will be pirates to contend with. The various elements work well in combination, though sometimes flying the plane with the left stick and trying to aim with the right often feels like stroking your belly while tapping your head. If you do crash and burn and must start a new game, you can skip the story elements and the tutorial, but you will have lost any progress.

The picture uses cell-based artwork and the game is highly attractive to look at, encouraging exploration. For once Airheart provides a soundtrack which will not quickly get on your nerves.

The upgrading system is quite deep, but unless you're better at this game than I was its going to take a lot of cautious trips to get anywhere. You can get better parts for your plane or even a whole new one, though the prices can be a bit extortionate. The game does have a crafting system if you’re after a specific upgrade.

There is only a single level of difficulty in the game, so investing time in learning to farm, fight and fly without dying is the most basic skill your going to need.

For a roguelike game Airheart succeeds on many levels. It is generally fun to play, the graphics are attractive, but unless your happy with the implementation of death means starting over, then this may not be the game for you.

6

Charles Packer