Heliborne Review

Okay. So Heliborne is a port from a PC game that released in 2017 from publisher and developer Klabater. Having had moderate success on PC a console port is a logical progression right? 

Before you get all excited to spin your rotors and lift off with the thwup-thwup-thwupping of your blades make sure you pack a parachute. You’ll be jumping off in no time. The most excitement I got out of this game came from reading the description of the game and its features in the Xbox store.

When I first saw it I immediately thought of classics like Chopper Command and Choplifter from back in my Atari days or even Airwolf on the NES. I don’t know if it’s just my age or what but Heliborne comes nowhere close to the level of fun that those titles hold in my memory. Flying and racing games are sort of my current passion so maybe my expectations are just too high but the lack of fun is just the start of Heliborne problems.

Let’s be honest here. The Helicopter genre is simply not as sexy as planes or spaceships. Featuring the best Military Helicopters in the world is simply not enough when the physics of flying a helicopter is hard enough with a detailed manual as opposed to the lack of any instruction here. The menu screens are poorly designed with little to no guidance and ridiculously small text as they try to fit everything into a single screen. Seriously, larger text and the ability to turn a page would have been more suitable as I often found myself losing my place while reading the small text. And this is on a 55 inch screen.

The bad visuals don’t end there I’m afraid. Enemy ground troops are virtually invisible among the trees and designated by clusters of red dots. Sure your side gunners can take them out but enemies start shooting at you long before you’re in range to dispose of them. Even if you’re just a helicopter fan and just wanted to fly around and take in the sights there is literally nothing to see here. You can barely see a horizon as the screen seems to be covered in a thick haze that is just the visual aesthetic of the game and not an environmental effect as far as I can tell. The screenshots on the Xbox storefront are extremely misleading. I am playing on a One X and not a Series X but graphically speaking there isn’t anything here that couldn’t run on an OG Xbox. 

The sound is okay, all chopper noise, gun fire, explosions. They all do the job but nothing to get excited about. Even on my theater setup everything seems to come from front and center channels so don’t expect to use sound as a means of pinpointing enemy location. 

Playing offline was definitely a better experience, for me at least, as trying to play an online mission resulted in extremely poor frame rates resulting in an unplayable mess. Speaking of messes, simply joining or inviting someone to a match is an ordeal. The next time I get it into my head to play a fun Heli game I’ll have to dust off my 2600 and insert Chopper Command into the cartridge slot. Yes I still have it, and yes it still works.

Conclusion

I came into Heliborne full of hope, but left completely disappointed. Unless you’re a die-hard helicopter fan there’s not much at all here to make it worth your while checking out, and even if you are a fan…well… caution is still advised.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.