Developer: Samurai Punk
Publisher: Samurai Punk
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Feather – Review
Everybody has at least wondered how it would be to fly. Now with airplanes, we can kind of fly but it still doesn’t give that same freedom that birds have while flying. There have been games before where you can fly like a bird and do all kinds of things. However, Feather is a game that will give you the power to fly freely like a bird without any pressure to do anything else. Feather was developed and published by Samurai Punk. We got a chance to test Feather and relax while flying freely like a bird.
Story
There is no story present in Feather. You just play as a bird who freely flies through the sky. If you feel the need for a story, it is, however, possible to tell your own story with your imagination being the limit of what you are doing as a bird.
Graphics
Feather’s graphics are really nice and simplistic. The environment of the game is in a stylised 3D art which nicely fits in with the calming effect of the game; since it’s not too busy for your eyes but still looks good. There are different biomes present on the island that you can fly around on. These biomes go from different kinds of forests to a mountain with snow. The island isn’t very big but it does include a lot. There are also different kinds of ruins and buildings.
The bird you control looks good although sometimes its feathers look a bit thin, certainly when you move the camera to top view but it’s nothing too bad. When you fly over water, you get a reaction from the water, sadly this is the only space you get a reaction from. If you fly over the snow on the mountain you don’t see any difference unless you actually crash into it.
Sound
The music in Feather is incredibly calming. There are multiple relaxing tracks available which you can actually browse through yourself. Spread around the island are portals which will change the track if you fly through it. This way you can fly through multiple portals and pick out the song you like the most.
There aren’t a lot of sound effects present in Feather. You do hear birds chirping and you yourself can join them by the press of a button. Other than that you also hear the wind, especially when you go to make a dive, the wind sounds quite logical. When you bump into something you hear a sound as if you crashed into some leaves.
Gameplay
Feather is a simulation game where you can feel how it would be to fly around like a bird. It is a game that is really relaxing, it is just you as a bird with the chance of other players joining you like birds as well. Even though other players from around the world can join you, all the same, you can fly around without seeing anyone. As you start the game you are presented with the tutorial which explains how to speed up, slow down, turn back and how to do side rolls.
The game plays out on a big island, where you are free to fly wherever you please on the island itself. You can fly over the sea near the island but once you get too far away, you get turned around automatically. There is no set path where you should fly, so you can make it as challenging as you want, you could, for example, try to zigzag between trees. If you fail and bump into something, time gets rewinded for a bit so you can try again or just turn around and fly away.
Even though there are a lot of different biomes on the island, which isn’t really “small”, you’ve seen most of it pretty fast. The game is indeed quite relaxing but it feels like it is missing some things. In the Dutch description for the game on the Nintendo Switch site for example; it says that you could land, which you sadly can’t. It would be a nice feature to have, to land wherever you want and just hop around a bit before taking off again.
The portals that are present on the island could easily be mistaken for portals to other biomes or portals you could race between, since nowhere in the game does it say that they just change the music. There are quite a lot of people that play without music so it might take a while to find out. The island is not small but in another way it is small. There are a few secret portals that can be discovered that just teleport you above the island and there are also a few “secret” tunnels which you try to fly through. However, that is about it. You’ve seen everything quite quickly and there are no animals or other things that you could discover. Even though it’s incredibly fun to fly around, it still doesn’t feel like you have full freedom because the space is quite small. A game about flying doesn’t need many extras to make the player feel relaxed and experience how it is to fly like a bird. Just somewhat more places or just generally a way bigger space to fly around would make this game already have more replay value.
Conclusion
Feather is relaxing and peaceful and certainly gives you a glimpse of how it would be to fly around like a bird. There only isn’t a lot of space to fly around. More space or added places would give you a bigger sensation of freedom and would also add replay value. For now, it is a fun game to play for a little bit as there are a few things you can discover and you can also challenge yourself to fly a certain way. It is uncertain if the developers are planning to add more things later or if this is the full game but it might be worth waiting a bit.
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