Playing as a Bird Is a Great Way to Explore an Open World

The sky is your domain.

By Andrew Goldfarb

Being a bird must be nice. When the sky is literally your limit, there are suddenly a lot fewer obstacles to get in your way, which comes in handy when you want to go on an adventure.

While you’ll control multiple forms in Vane, an upcoming exploration game from studio Friend and Foe Games, flying as a bird is surely the most freeing. In a brief demo at PSX, we soared high overhead above a vast desert and dove deep into caverns burrowed through the sand, all with only a single button press.

The control scheme in Vane is simple -- one button lets you beat your wings to speed up, and another has you lift your wings to slow down. The only other input will let you “caw” at fellow birds, and beyond that you simply control the direction of your flight. Vane will automatically slow you down as you approach the ground, so don’t worry about any beak-over-butt crash landings.

That simplicity is really where Vane shines. There’s no HUD to speak of, which allows you to appreciate the gorgeous, expansive world around you as you fly overhead. The goal is to have no text at all (even in menus) by the time the game comes to PS4 in 2017. Instead, Friend and Foe is leaving room for the player to explore. Instead of waypoints, players will see glimmers of light in the distance to help them discover points of interest, and landing on perch points may subtly frame the camera toward a direction where something interesting lies.

Soaring through the air in Vane

We saw only a glimpse of what Vane will offer in its final form. Approaching strange golden surfaces in the environment caused our bird to become distorted, and following a trail of those surfaces led to a mysterious golden cavern, but we're not sure what it all means just yet. A brief prologue had us controlling a human carrying a mysterious shimmering gold object, but the actual story behind Vane remains a mystery.

Friend and Foe boasts an impressive pedigree; besides art director Rasmus Deguchi, who worked as an artist on The Last Guardian, the eight person team also has veterans of Guerrilla, Avalanche and PopCap, to name a few. Based on what we’ve seen so far, they may have something special in store for us next year.

Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and now Fly Like an Eagle by Seal is stuck in his head. You can find him rambling about Persona and cute animals on Twitter.

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