Jolly cooperation
I lovedJourney, and the time has finally come for me to see if I’ll love thatgamecompany’s follow-up adventure too. Apple’s recently-added support for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers on iOS was precisely the push I needed to giveSky: Children of the Lighta proper chance. So far, so good.
Skyalways looked beautiful to me, but hearing complaints about touch controls and knowing the studio is planning PC and console ports was enough to keep me on the sidelines. Now that I can easily playSkywith a gamepad– and there’s new content to explore thanks to the recentSeason of the Lightseekersupdate– I figured it was time for a long-overdue check-in. You should consider doing the same!
Certain aspects ofSkyaren’t as striking as they originally were inJourney, but the overall feeling of sharing a sense of discovery and mindfulness with random players is no less powerful in 2019.
You’ll use a growing repertoire of nonverbal cues to communicate with strangers who can enter and exit your world at any moment. It’s a social experience through and through–an entirely positive one at that–but if you want to try to explore on your own, that can meditative and soothing in its own right.
Soaring around gorgeous islands in the sky, lighting candles, searching for spirits, and tagging along with other players to see what they’re getting up to– it’s all so very wholesome.Skyis my new nighttime wind-down game, at least for the next couple weeks. It leaves me feeling warm inside.
I can absolutely sympathize with everyone who struggled to cope withSky‘s original controls. Having tried the touch scheme out of curiosity, I don’t think I would’ve stuck with the game if that been my only option. But with gamepad support,Skyfeels more or less how I imagined it would coming off ofJourney. I’m sure plenty of you will want to wait for the PC or console versions (or maybe evenAndroid), but if you happen to have a phone mount or a comfortable tablet setup, honestly, it’s pretty dang nice.
