Airborne Kingdom was one of the early pioneers of what I've dubbed the "weird city builder" trend, one that takes the genre out of its realistic, SimCity-esque roots and plonks it on the back of a dinosaur or in a world populated by beavers. In Airborne Kingdom's case, the gimmick was building a flying city, and it executed that well enough to receive a score of 80% in our Airborne Kingdom review.
I'd lost track of what developer The Wandering Band had been up to since, because Steam's torrent of new games never ceases. But it turns out what it's been doing is making Airborne Empire, which takes the foundations of Airborne Kingdom and builds it out with a larger world and some light RPG elements. After four years of development and just over a year in Steam early access, Airborne Empire has formally released with a substantial 1.0 update.
The launch patch adds several major new features to Airborne Empire, chief among which is a new area to explore. Kingsfell is a snowbound region where landmasses are surrounded by icebergs and riven with frigid waterways. Here, players will discover new stories and locations, and encounter "new environmental conditions" as their city soars through the sky.
Alongside the addition of Kingsfell, the game's narrative has been expanded with new quests to pursue and characters to meet. These will see players make new allies and "uncover lost civilisations", which is always a neat way to spend an afternoon. Your journey now has a proper ending too, in the form of a confrontation with a pirate queen that The Wandering Band says will form the "ultimate challenge" of your city's defences.
Of course, no city-builder update would be complete without more city to build. The Wandering Band says the update includes "new structures, upgrades and customisation options" you can use to expand and improve your base. The devs avoid going into much details about most of these additions, but there is one major new feature they take time to explain: the jet engine.
This is basically a massive thruster you can bolt on to the rear end of your city, enabling you to unleash sudden, powerful bursts off speed. This is mainly designed for use in combat, allowing you to quickly advance on an opponent or escape a situation that's spiralled out of your control. It can also be combined with other weapons in the game such as the barrage cannon. I initially misread that as "Barge Cannon", which I'd argue is a more interesting concept for a weapon.
As part of Airborne Empire's launch, The Wandering Band is selling the game at 50% for the rest of the month, bringing the price down to $15 (£12.50). If you missed the original Airborne Kingdom, that's also on sale at a significant 80% discount, letting you pick that up for $5 (£4). Both discounts end on May 1.
