Flight Faculty Studio has solely been round for a number of years, but it surely’s already making a reputation for itself within the gaming house. Creature in the Well is a refreshingly distinctive motion recreation with a ravishing artwork fashion and ambiance — we might extremely encourage you to offer it a glance. However what’s the group engaged on subsequent? What comes after its pinball-inspired dungeon crawler? Happily, we are able to inform you — it is named Stonefly.
Stonefly is a equally unique idea: it is an motion journey recreation a couple of world of oldsters residing amongst nature, harvesting its assets utilizing insect-like mechs. Set in a forest of large timber and leaves, you may pilot one among these bug-inspired machines to assemble minerals and journey by pure environments.
Let’s wind it again for a second. You play as Annika Stonefly, a mechanic and inventor working alongside her father. She’s clever, however has little expertise with the surface world, and sooner or later loses her Dad’s mech — a priceless household heirloom — whereas out on a mission. The sport’s story is Annika’s journey to get it again.
Watching gameplay, you may spend the overwhelming majority of the sport within the driver’s seat of one among these mechs. You possibly can scuttle about on the bottom, however we’re advised that you’re going to possible be airborne a variety of the time, gliding about from leaf to department in your pursuit of minerals. Wind and different environmental results will aid you get round. If you discover a mineral deposit, it is possible there will probably be precise bugs consuming them; you may must fend them off to take the assets for your self.
The sport takes a non-lethal method to fight; we’re not even certain fight is the proper phrase for it. A capability of your mech is a gust of air you may use to blow away these pesky little critters. It will take care of the essential bugs, however some would require barely extra pressure. You possibly can slam right down to stun bugs and flip them over, they usually can then be carried off by your air blast. Some bugs love shiny issues, and you’ll drop a decoy to distract them, too. The bigger the mineral deposit, the extra bugs would possibly seem — they usually get greater themselves, generally requiring a number of hits to stun them. As soon as any bugs are handled, you possibly can scoop up these valuable minerals and proceed your tour.
The vibe we get from the sport is that it is fairly chilled out. There’s little in the way in which of confrontation, and this mission sort we have seen is about exploration and gathering supplies. When you full your job — or, once you attain a checkpoint mid-mission — you possibly can return to your campsite, just a little hub the place you possibly can put these minerals to make use of.
What’s fairly cool is that you’re going to be constructing and customising your very personal mech all through the sport. Utilizing supplies you discover on missions, you possibly can purchase numerous new skills and upgrades, in addition to all kinds of beauty choices. Impressed by the insect world, all of the designs we’re proven look nice.
However these campsites are extra than simply upgrading your mech — they’re additionally narrative areas the place you possibly can converse with Annika’s allies and buddies. The story is linear, however if you need extra flavour and context concerning the recreation’s world, there’s extra to delve into by speaking with individuals and studying extra about them. It is also price mentioning that Annika herself could have a working dialogue whereas out on a mission, commenting on stuff you uncover or saying how she’s feeling.
In addition to easy mineral-finding scout missions, there are story-focused missions and Alpha Aphid challenges, which seem like a harder mode. We did not see this in motion, but it surely’ll contain gathering as many assets as you possibly can inside a time restrict, eliminating all of the bugs on the similar time. Whereas that is clearly a relaxed recreation — there’s little penalty for dying — it is good that it will have these more difficult facets.
Talking of which, the demo culminates in a battle with a bug as massive as your mech. It is a sort-of mini boss, and would require strategic use of all of your mech’s skills. It is right here the place the sport’s programs all begin to play off one another; the enemy’s assaults will have an effect on one another, so you should use bugs in opposition to different bugs, and any wind or different environmental parts will work together with them too.
Stonefly is seeking to be one other fashionable and distinctive journey from Flight Faculty Studio. We actually dig the chilled out gameplay and the customisable mechs, and we’re actually intrigued to see the place the story goes. It is coming to each PlayStation 5 and PS4 later in 2021. What do you make of this one? Will you be exploring the insect world of Stonefly? Give us your ideas within the feedback part beneath.