Airships: Conquer the Skies is a downloadable building game where the player is tasked with creating their own flying airship and throwing whatever they see fit onto it. The game was released on PC on the 16th August 2018 and is being developed by a one-man team, known as David Stark. This is his first game, but from how it plays that would never be assumed. Airships: Conquer the Skies doesn’t restrict the player to just building, as they are going to be in the hot-seat when combat finally crops up.
How to Download Airships: Conquer the Skies
To download the game hit the Download button at the end of this review. You can download the game from either GOG.com or Steam.
The Game Review
When it comes to the story for Airships: Conquer the Skies, there is no story to speak of. The game is very newly released, so that could be changed in the future, but the game is designed around two core gameplay choices: sandbox or conquer.
Sandbox is as it sounds.
But what is actually conquer?
With conquer, you can partake in a series of missions or you can create your own and follow their own path or story. While it isn’t an official campaign that does anything for a story, it’s a neat extra to the overall design of the game.
As with any building game on the market, the main part of the gameplay is building an ideal structure – in this case, it’s an airship – and then use it against an opponent.
Once the building phase has begun, you are given the option to choose from a vast array of items, weapons, and decorations to design your airship.
But there’s more.
Depending on the type of builder at the wheel, you are free to create something as simple or as complicated as you choose, all on their own personal preferences. There is plenty to pick and choose from, allowing a near infinite amount of overall customization for players to enjoy.
Here comes the coolest part.
Once the building phase has been completed, you are then expected to move onto the combat phase of the game, where you can decide to fight against your own creations or mythical creatures, such as the mystical Kraken.
In many other builders, they take away control from the player and leave everything automated, but Airships manages to do the complete opposite and requires the player to have as much input as necessary.
Throughout each fight, they will need to move their airship, fire specific weapons, manage resources, and manage the crew also. Just like in FTL, completely destroying the enemy ship isn’t the one and only way to win the game.
Easily one of the biggest comparisons this game has is between Besiege and FTL: Faster Than Light. It takes the building elements from Besiege and the tactical, strategic nature of FTL and brought the two of them together to create a great mash-up of the two.
The bottom line?
For anyone that enjoyed building in Besiege but was a little disappointed by the fact that there isn’t much else to do once the contraption has been built, Airships: Conquer the Skies is a great workaround to that restriction that other builders have. Being able to create and control a player’s perfect creation is the reason to stick around for this one!
