The Falconeer isn’t a full-fledged slam dunk, then. However, this brings me back to what I said at the start of this review - in the end, this entire game was made by one person (other than the sound side of things, which is also excellent, incidentally).
The flaws become easier to excuse in that context. It also helps that the game is budget prices, meaning there is less pressure on it to live up to justifying the value of the purchase of a full priced game. For the price you pay, The Falconeer has a lot to offer. It looks gorgeous, its got an intriguing world, and exploring and flying can feel great.
The issues with the game’s checkpoints and combat unfortunately do drag it down a bit, as does mission design that starts to get repetitive fairly early on - but overall, I walked away from The Falconeer feeling impressed. Xbox players have a fair few good games to choose from at launch, while PC players have no shortage of other (albeit older) flight combat games. But I do hope that Xbox and PC players alike give The Falconeer a good look. It’s not a home run, but the things it does well, it does really well - and sometimes, that can be enough.