Airborne Empire Review – Build an Empire in the Sky

OVERVIEW Airborne Empire invites players to take their city-building skills to the skies in an open-world RPG full of unique and challenging mechanics, hidden dangers, and compelling characters. Gameplay in Airborne Empire In Airborne Empire, players will build unique flying cities by meticulously planning how to stay afloat. The gameplay in Airborne Empire takes the…

Camisha

February 3, 2025

2–3 minutes

OVERVIEW

Airborne Empire invites players to take their city-building skills to the skies in an open-world RPG full of unique and challenging mechanics, hidden dangers, and compelling characters.

Developer: The Wandering Band
Release Date: January 13th, 2025
Price: $29.99
Platforms: Steam

Gameplay in Airborne Empire

Screenshot of a floating city in the game Airborne Empire.

In Airborne Empire, players will build unique flying cities by meticulously planning how to stay afloat. The gameplay in Airborne Empire takes the standard city-building mechanics a step further, by adding lift tilt, and fuel mechanics.

Connecting new buildings to the town center will begin to generate a tilt. An uneven weight distribution can result in a player’s city tilting to one side. This can annoy villagers and slow down their workflow throughout the city.

Likewise, the town center can only support so much weight at a time on its own. Airborne Empire players will need to place buildings that generate lift to help keep their city afloat. Not properly upgrading the town center or not adding additional buildings to generate lift, will result in the city falling to the ground. Though generating lift is important, players will still need to strategically plan where these buildings will go, as they can also cause the city to tilt up if unbalanced.

Like many city-builders in Airborne Empire, players must assign villagers to various resource-gathering tasks. Fuel is one of the most important resources players must gather because if the city runs out of it, this can cause it to fall from the sky as well.

Players will also need to ensure that there is ample lighting around their city. While days may be more carefree, nighttime in Airborne Empire can bring disasters. Buildings and paths without enough lighting can lead villagers to have accidents, resulting in injuries or even fires. This mechanic is an interesting way to remind players that they’re building cities, and cities need carefully planned infrastructure.

Airborne Empire key art showing a large floating city in the sky.

The art style in Airborne Empire is fun and gives off a steampunk vibe. Players can customize various buildings with different color palettes and themes. They can also adjust the lighting on each building, which is a great way to visually track where important builds are located in the evening for late-night upgrades.

Final Thoughts on Airborne Empire

Overall, Airborne Empire is a fun and unique take on the citybuilder genre of games. The lift, tilt, and propulsion mechanics add new layers to the standard city-building mechanics players have come to know. The art style and customization options are simple and nice and things are not difficult to keep track of. If you enjoy games such as The Wandering Village and Of Life and Land then you should give Airborne Empire a try.