The release season for 2019 has finally begun. So many games are releasing this week, it was hard to pick one that would rule them all. Just take a look at the full list:
- Onimusha: Warlords
- Smash Hit Plunder
- Smoke and Sacrifice
- The Grand Tour Game
- Vane
- Hell Warders
- YIIK: A Postemodern RPG
- Ace Combat 7
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet — Complete Edition
That’s a lot of potentially wonderful smaller titles coming in this week. However, out of all of these, the exploration game Vane is the definitive release of the week for January 14, 2019.
Former developers from games such as The Last Guardian and Killzone formed their own studio, Friend & Foe Games. Vane is their first game, and it looks incredibly gorgeous.
Vane is the story of a forgotten land with a mystery ready to be solved. A free-spirited bird travels to these ruins and is transformed into a child. The player will transform between the bird and the child, exploring the land through both wholly unique perspectives. As the bird/child passes through, the land reacts to them in different ways. It will build towers, bridges, and drastically change the landscape.
As you reshape the world, you will learn the vast mystery behind it. Sometimes exploration calls for simply getting lost before pressing forward. It’s the only way to see everything the world of Vane has to offer.
It’s rather beautiful to boot, and the soundtrack fits with this Journey-esque playstyle. Vane will definitely scratch those itches from ThatGameCompany, and with the interactive world, it can hardly be called a “walking simulator.” It definitely sounds like one of those games where you’ll want to play over and over just to make sure you see and find everything.
Vane will be released exclusively on the PlayStation 4 tomorrow, January 15, 2019. I’m fairly certain that the good people at Friend & Foe know what they’re doing when it comes to exploration games. I’m going on ahead and preordering it from the PlayStation Store, because this game appears to check all of my boxes.
