Airships: Conquer The Skies Review (By Respawn!)

Airships: Conquer The Skies!

The steam/dieselpunk genre is unfortunately for the majority of us gamers out here, very under-serviced. Little is publicly available within the aesthetic in comparison to more traditional settings and the little that is by no means is guaranteed to be well-made.

But this a whole different case. Airships: Conquer The Skies focuses on building an empire, designing your smoke-bellowing fleets to your liking as the rest of the world crumbles underneath your righteous boot! If this sounds interesting, see below!

Base Concept: Aimed at encapsulating the immense satisfaction derived from mapping out designs from scratch and seeing them succeed, utilizing cannons and Gatling guns and gigantic saws among other weaponry options, to destroy the puny enemy, or just exploding spectacularly! It does this extremely well, with plenty of module options to strap to what is likely going to be a tiny first vessel. But don't worry, plenty more awaits the experienced!

Graphics: Pixel Art

Genre: Grand Strategy

Modes of Play: Both Multiplayer and Singleplayer, External Design Screen, Mission Creator, Screenshot/GIF Maker, Mods, Phew!

Required Hardware: Minimum

Reviewer Playtime: 462 Hours! (And counting!)

Positives:

~Some view the pixel graphics as crude, but especially more recently, they couldn't be more wrong. The lighting is phenomenal, with a method of dynamic shading to give every battle the ambiance it needs.

~The intricacies of design are not lost for those seeking something weighty and complex. Dozens of options for dealing damage, or capturing enemy vessels and buildings, ramming them to bits, the list goes on!

~The overmap, main screen at which Conquest is waged, holds plenty of tasks to expand your empire! Research new technology, destroy monsters, brigands, and madmen, spy on foreign cities and sabotage their efforts, the armchair generals will not be disappointed!

~Highly tactical combat, to intrigue and delight those who love to experiment with strategies and methods of winning in creative ways! Will you armor your vessels so heavily they are impervious to damage, equip them with infirmaries to heal wounded crew, biplanes to go on attack runs on the enemy, hire dragonriders or cannibal robots to do your bidding, or something entirely your own?

~Very active community, with dozens of very extensive mods to increase the reasonable playability forever!

Negatives:

~Slightly buggy, some minutiae may feel especially clunky, though it's still under active development and coming along nicely. And on that note:

~NOT COMPLETELY FINISHED: Note that! The game is out of Early Access and fully playable, but what comes next is major strides in diplomacy, naval warfare, and other new venues to Conquer The Skies! (Or the ground!)

~Somewhat minimalist, though it can easily be perceived as refined and trimmed down. As stated previously though, it's going to get bigger and better!

So what are you waiting for? Steam holds this little gem, generally priced at 15$. Get out there and start building the greatest aerial kingdom to ever exist!