Review: Skybound by Imaginaerum

Skybound is an interesting concept of a game I haven't seen on the front page in a while. An airborne combat game with a flying house that looks oddly like the one from Up on the cover? Seems convincing enough.

Gameplay

Skybound is essentially what you would call "a PvP airborne combat". Upon entering the game you're greeted with a menu with a few buttons, I'd recommend you check out the store and the customization first before moving into the game so you can see what things are available off the bat.

Upon entering you'll be put into a ship, which can be controlled from the seat. Directionally with the WASD keys, R and F to ascend and descend, and Z to zoom out of your ship which I very much recommend since it's hard to see from the inside. But, there ARE three types of ships. Mobility, Combat, and Defense.

Mobility - Faster than other ships, lower than average health
Combat - Average speed and health, has cannons that can be used
Defense - Moves slower, high health

Now, onto the tools;



Rocket Launcher - Most likely to be your primary weapon, shoots a missile that can travel a far (but not infinite!) distance and blow up a section of enemy ships. Also does about 50 damage per hit.





Laser Cutter - A tool that can cut up bricks one at a time, very handy for getting rid of the pesky windshield of your ship so you can shoot rockets from it or it can be used to escape a jam. Yes, it does do damage. (Costs 100 points in the shop)




Knife/Machete/Sword - My personal favorite, an effective melee weapon good for when you want to dispatch enemies. Although each tool varies in length and damage, the hit detection can be wonky at times so make your hits count! (Knife is free, Machete is 2000 points, Sword is 3000 points)




Leaf Blower - Probably the most abusive tool in the game right now, when deployed it lets you hover around as the fuel decreases by 5 every few seconds or so, once it runs out it'll take 30 seconds to regenerate. Why abusive? Well you can use ship seats while in one, which results in the ship flipping out and everyone but the leaf blower user probably plunging to their deaths. (2000 points in shop)


Building

The building is pretty detailed, while the "map" is just a bunch of clouds, Imaginaerum has promised floating islands and other structures to come in the future.

But the Flying House and Island especially look nice in detail.

The Good and Bad

Skybound is an interesting take on the concept of an aircraft-controlled combat game, while the gameplay is simplistic, it's a good kind of simplistic. Each tool has a use, and it does it well. Although the ship design could do with a bit more variation, besides the Flying House and Island. A good amount of the enjoyment you'll get out of this game is forming alliances and thwarting enemies though. Although you can't really keep up with those.. for now.

Skybound is pretty early into it's development, and while I think it will get better, there are a few issues to be addressed.

1. Fix the melee weapon hit detection, I can't tell you how many times I've ran around in a circle chasing someone on my ship with a sword while they bomb away at it when they have only 20 or so health left.

2. Fix the Leaf Blower seat glitch, since a lot of people are obviously going to get annoyed with their ship being flipped over, while it is hilarious.

3. Nerf the Leaf Blower maybe? I've been seeing people with about 20 health running off from an engagement while I stand there and wait for them. Nothing too big, maybe a delay between uses or make the fuel run out a little bit faster?

Suggestions

• Make the ship design more varied
• Focus on fixing up the current issues 
• Add structures around the map

Conclusion

Skybound is a fun, although simple concept. It has issues but they'll probably be patched up soon since Imaginaerum is updating the game at a weekly pace. My conclusion is short because well, I've said all I can say about it. Although, I do have a recommendation.

Zeppelin battle is a 2 sided airborne combat game in which you must defend your zeppelin from the enemy's attacks while trying to destroy the other team's zeppelin. It's still relatively popular so give it a try.

http://www.roblox.com/Zeppelin-Battle-place?id=63209




Also before I leave you, here's a hint at my next spotlight.