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A Tale Of Two Games
Games like Black Skylands are the primary reason I try to avoid Early Access whenever I can. As it is Black Skylands is a good game with some frustrating bugs and an odd story that feels disconnected. However, two months ago Black Skylands was an amazing but unfinished game that had a solid story which left you wanting answers. The Early Access version was a 7.5 out of 10 and the full release is somewhere between a 5 and a 6. It isn't a bad game, but it also isn't the game it was, and this new version is very rough around the edges. It is a soft recommendation unless there is a considerable sale.
The current game focuses on a young woman who becomes something like the local Sheriff of a nation of floating islands. The two primary modes of gameplay are using an upgradable airship to explore and fight and then running around on foot to liberate captured islands and kill pirates and monsters. Movement is a big focus, with the ship having a speed booster while on foot you can sprint, dodge roll, and have a grappling hook that will pull you forward or pull objects to you. Playing with the grappling hook is one of the best parts of Black Skylands. You will frequently roll off of a small island and grapple yourself to another, then do this again multiple times in a row. Sometimes it is better to roll off of the place you are standing and then grapple yourself back onto the island to help avoid enemies or incoming fire. If you fall off of an island you have a small grace period before you start taking damage until you either grapple yourself onto land or you run out of health. You also always have the option of having your pet moth pick you up and take you back to your airship.
Combat on foot consists of using up to three ranged weapons, your grapple hook as a knife, and two special weapons such as turrets, an energy shield or a blast of lightning. Weapons have limited ammo but broken boxes help keep you topped off, and any time you kill an enemy in melee you are guaranteed an ammo pickup. Enemies start having extra health but also gain a vulnerability to a specific type of weapon. You can still kill them with any weapon you want, but the correct weapon deals massive bonus damage. If you attack from behind you deal bonus damage as well, which encourages you to sneak around and stab enemies in the back rather than going in, guns blazing.
Ship combat is much simpler, consisting of a primary gun and broadside cannons along with an energy shield that deflects projectiles. During ship combat you can let go of the helm to repair damage or to cool overheated weapons, as well as to refill your fuel. Unlike on foot combat ship combat is a static affair, working off of different rules. You can have as many repair kits and shells as you can afford for your ship, which is drastically different from on foot combat's moderate ammo count and limited health kits.
One of the things Black Skylands does well is blend the two concepts together. There are many times that you will find large battleships in the sky and you will have to use your ship's main gun and cannons to create an opening, either by blowing up a weapon or destroying a section of armor. Once you've created the opening you will then grapple from your ship and onto the battleship, taking out the remaining enemies and weapons until your people take the ship over entirely. These encounters are one of the main selling points of the game, and are exciting as all hell. The game also has a number of boss fights, but none of them are particularly memorable.
The full release has removed numerous systems from the game and replaced some of them with simpler versions. This is the biggest problem I have with Black Skylands: that two months ago it was a much better game. Judged by its current merits and ignoring the past entirely it still leaves much to be desired. For example: in Early Access your shipyard would let you spend a universal currency on ship parts and new ships. You then selected the parts you wanted for your ship, while making sure not to go over your weight limit. But the new version removes all of that, and instead allows you to spend a ship-only currency to level up the different parts. This removes the customization and choices, replacing it with bigger numbers and nothing else. But for some reason the ship screen still shows you the total available weight of any ship, even though it doesn't matter anymore. You are also given new ship types during the main quest, which removes the feeling of satisfaction you would get from earning the money, buying the ship, customizing it, and hopping into it.
Another major change is the way weapons are handled. Most weapons have four equipment slots and you will select from a small number of parts you find for them. In Early Access you could see all of the statistics of the weapon in question, and see the changes any given part would offer. The full release no longer offers you these statistics, instead giving you concepts like 'Damage+' or 'Critical Value-'. The only exception to this is magazine, which shows you exactly how many additional rounds a part will give you.
I would recommend watching footage of both on foot and ship combat before purchasing this, unless it is on a fairly substantial sale. The base game lasts around 25-35 hours, and has an end game dungeon that you can grind for the best gear. I just wish that the Early Access version had been the game that was released.