Sky Noon is a crazy high flying western game which brings in some of the best mechanics we saw at the show. We got the chance to talk to developers and sit down to demo the game on the floor against other fans. They were much better than we were, but here is what we learned.
Imagine if the frontier desert lands floated in the clouds. Cowboys and Cowgirls were hunters in the skies chasing down each other with weaponry that comes right out of a western historical fantasy. That is where Sky Noon wins, the game’s setting puts you in a small western town high up in the clouds. Loot drops around the map call for changing up weapons and knowing how to use all different kinds helps, but more on that later. For now, on these floating frontier towns, there is a difference, your guns do not shoot lead, they shoot a blast of air which will put you falling into the endless depths.
The guns in the game are a ton of fun to use. Hitting players with a shot blast them back from the map and into certain doom. Each weapon we saw had different uses. The six-gun took quick shots. There was also a shotgun style weapon. The most fun was a rocket launcher style which you could also use to blast yourself into the air.
We hope you like heights because Sky Noon has you bouncing all over the map. The other game mechanic which is highly useful is the grappling hook. You can use your lasso to jump around the board and get to higher locations. It also can save you if you fall off the edge of the map. Nothing is more fun than surviving an air blast and lassoing yourself onto the terrain.
Combining these two mechanics is what makes Sky Noon truly fantastic for short-term arena play. The game needs to build some more customization features into their characters. They are working on more though as this was just a demo for PAX.
The pace of the demo was fun, we got destroyed by the other team in a 3v3 match. That did not stop me from taking time to evaluate the fun factor of the game. It is incredibly fast-paced. Also moving around the map to swap weapons out makes for constantly changing gameplay. That speed in the arena allows for teams to set up quick attacks. The maps are fairly small though, or at least the demo map was. It had a lot of high places to hide and jump too which created the top down battleground. You do not have too much time on strategy though, basically, keep your back to the wall of the saloon or building and stick together if you are in a group match.
Sky Noon has tremendous potential. The demo at PAX was fun and packed all the days we were on the show floor. There is so much more coming with this game, we cannot wait to see what else developers put into the format.
