Wings of Glass (PC) Review

It's easy to see the seams. Wings of Glass is a solo act, and quite probably the first solo act of someone who isn't exactly very experienced with game development, and it shows - and yet it looks very good. The barren, surreal, dreamlike dark lands you'll traverse are simple in design, yet are very pleasing to the eye, have a very strong atmosphere, with a mysterious aura that manages to combine serenity with horror. Mayfly, the female lead, is also very cute. Like, extremely cute. And fragile. Just by looking at her sad face you'll want to help her out. Help with what, though?

It seems that a gargantuan, skeleton demon "kidnapped" her, and started ripping her glass wings off. Mid-torture she escapes, and falls deep into a cavern. Alone and helpless, she must then try to find her wings, and escape from this realm. Now, it's important to note that there is a story at hand... but it's really hard to comment on it, mostly because it was somewhat hard for this critic to understand what the heck was going on. It's a bit too ambiguous and cryptic, with the scattered notes that you'll find actually making things even more confusing - yet it's hard to deny that it has a certain charm.

While aesthetically pleasing and strangely immersive, in the end, it all boils down to the actual gameplay. Wings of Glass is essentially a 3D puzzle-platformer, with a strong '90s feel. Is that a compliment? Sadly, not really. 3D games have evolved a lot since then, so it's hard to stomach the issues this seems to have when it comes to how it controls, with the camera especially, moving as if it has a mind of its own, abruptly changing direction, and leading to plenty of mistakes. It doesn't help that Mayfly's move list is never explained, leaving you to experiment on your own.

On the other hand, discovering this is basically the fun in here. You are alone, in a scary place, the main character is a weakling, and you don't know what needs to be done. This is basically Dark Souls, but with unpolished controls, and no undead to slay. You'll do a bit of platforming, with the actual platforming occasionally being a puzzle on its own, but this is mostly about using the tools you'll find along the way to solve a variety of problems. Mayfly will also unlock a couple of abilities whenever she picks a lost wing, but the game is extremely linear, so don't expect every getting "creative" with those.

As a whole, and despite its flaws, this turned out to be a fun, one-hour-and-something ride. It's not something to write home about (great atmosphere excluded), but it's definitely a decent game that managed to successfully showcase Sayuri Artsy's unique style. That's the thing with it, however. This is more like a proof-of-concept kind of deal. Wings of Glass would be a great Kickstarter project; one that would definitely be able to amass a nice amount of money for Artsy to expand on her ideas, and fix the camera and controls, but it's not really a complete project worthy of its price tag.