Aether and Iron Review: A Roll of the Dice | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: PC (Steam)

Price: $24.99

One of my favorite genres is visual novels. I love a good story, and I especially enjoy ones that incorporate elements of risk and reward. If a game is willing to take chances, it scores even more points with me. Aether and Iron certainly delivers a well-crafted experience. The fantastic story, amazing art, and great voice acting all help it stand out. It also takes a risk by introducing a dice-rolling mechanic to determine success, along with a leveling system that brings in some RPG elements.

While the execution works well overall, there were a few moments where I felt the mechanics could have been implemented a bit better.

First, let’s start with one of the things I love about the game: its story. Aether and Iron is set in an alternate 1930s, but with a twist. A power source called aether creates anti-gravity that drives the city. Think flying cars, floating cities; steampunk, but with aether as the source.

This power source also creates a hierarchical structure. Those with wealth live in the uppers, a beautiful city that serves as a veneer for what lies below: a dingy, dirty world where barons rule through brute strength and tyranny. There’s a lot of politics at play in this world, and some of the choices I make affect how events unfold.

The world-building is fantastic and well written. I’m not hit with a lot of exposition, but instead experience much of the story through the eyes of the characters.

The main protagonist is Gia, a smuggler who takes on a job for a crime boss to bring an upper-city scientist named Nellie down to the lowers. The dynamic between these two is great, and I learn more about the world through both of their perspectives.

Nellie is naive to life below the upper city, so I experience much of the world through her eyes. Gia, on the other hand, is gritty and self-determined. She’s not perfect, and that’s what makes her such a great protagonist.

The narrative feels a lot like film noir. Gia has plenty of inner monologue, similar to those classic gumshoe stories. Even her look is reminiscent of that style, with a fedora and a trench coat, making it hard not to draw the comparison.

The story is intriguing. Without getting into spoilers, Nellie has discovered something about the aether storm near the city, and someone wants to silence her because of it. It’s up to me, as Gia, to unravel the mystery and keep her safe. The game pulls me in from the beginning and doesn’t let up.

The voice acting is one of my favorite aspects of the game. Gia is perfect, with a raspy voice that makes her sound like someone who has seen a lot. She delivers her lines perfectly, and the inner monologue could have sounded hokey if it were delivered poorly.

The voice actor for Nellie plays her part well too. She’s bubbly and naive to what’s around her, delivering her lines with an innocence that’s really hard to capture, especially when playing opposite Gia. They both do a fantastic job and really paint a picture of the two different worlds.

The art is stunning. All hand-drawn, it looks like something that belongs in a comic book. There’s so much attention to detail, from the overworld map to the scenes that play out, each created with a lot of heart. The artists went hard, and it certainly pays off.

Probably the most impressive aspect of the game is the music. It’s intricate and adds so much to each scene, especially during tense moments. It feels like something straight out of a film noir movie.

The basics of the gameplay are point and click. There are nodes on everything I can interact with, but the game also includes a highlight feature that makes points of interest glow in blue. As expected in a visual novel, I’m offered a variety of dialogue options. However, this is where the game takes a risk. Some choices require a successful dice roll.

The game does a nice job of showing the difficulty for each stat check, and I can earn bonus dice as I level up. While I think this is a novel idea, there were plenty of missed rolls, especially early on, that felt like they should have been easy successes. Experience points are only earned on successful rolls, which means failed attempts can put me behind in leveling.

I found myself saving right before a roll and reloading if I failed. I probably wouldn’t have done this if I still gained experience on failed rolls. One of the fun aspects of tabletop RPGs is dealing with failure, but that doesn’t quite translate here.

There also didn’t seem to be a major difference in the story when I failed a roll. Maybe I’d lose some money or miss out on an item, but I would have liked to see the narrative take a more meaningful turn based on those outcomes. 

That’s not to say there aren’t meaningful choices in the game. They just aren’t tied to failed rolls. There were moments where I had to make decisions that really made me think about what I wanted to do. Most of the time, I chose options that would benefit Gia, which felt like a natural fit for the character.

There were also times when certain dialogue choices led to a dead end, forcing me to reload a previous save. Since I can save at any time, this wasn’t a major issue.

As I mentioned, there is a leveling system. In addition to successful dice rolls, I also earn experience points by completing story beats. Once I level up, I can spend talent points to purchase bonus dice. There are three different categories to invest in: Brass, Hustle, or Smarts.

Early on, though, those additional dice don’t add much to my overall success, mainly because there are so many stats to invest in and leveling is fairly slow. Because of that, saving the game and reloading after a failed roll was still my preferred approach.

There is combat, though it’s limited to car battles. My vehicle is on the road, laid out much like a grid, with enemy and civilian drivers sharing the space. I maneuver my car to come alongside enemies and fire weapons, or I can ram them. The combat is turn-based. I enjoyed this part of the game a lot, as it helped break up the heavier dialogue segments, although some battles were much more difficult than others.

I also unlocked new crew members and vehicle options to upgrade my ride. 

Another aspect of the game is heat. Generating heat can cause issues with local officials or make it harder to talk my way out of situations. On the flip side, higher heat can help in moments where I choose to fight my way out.

There are a few different ways to generate heat. One is by selecting certain dialogue options, usually when dealing with enforcers or secret police. Heat is also generated when I hit a civilian’s car during battles.

Lowering heat can be done by visiting safe houses.

Final grade: B+ 

The story, voice acting, art, and music are outstanding in Aether and Iron. I also appreciate that the game takes a chance with its dice-rolling mechanic. However, I would have liked to see failures carry more weight from a narrative perspective, while still earning experience in the process.

I found myself reloading every time I failed a roll. Leveling is also fairly slow, and earning additional dice can be difficult because of that pacing. Even when I did gain extra dice to improve my success rate, it didn’t feel like it added much.

Still, if you’re a fan of well-crafted, 1930s-style gumshoe stories, you need to check out Aether and Iron.

Review code provided by Plan of Attack