Aether and Iron has lashings of Bioshock and BG3, and it's an instant wishlist

I'm transported back to New York in 1939: America's rising star metropolis, teetering on the brink of war. Art deco is in fashion, industry tycoons are setting up shop in the city of the future, but beneath a veneer of gold lurks unrest. To quote LA Noire, "undercurrents, where not everything is as it seems." But this isn't the New York we see in the history books; it's Seismic Squirrel's allohistorical '30s New York, powered by anti-gravity technology that has lifted the city high into the sky, reminiscent in many ways of 2K's BioShock Infinite. This is my introduction to Aether and Iron, the developer's debut RPG, and I'm obsessed from the jump.

Cast as Gia, you're thrust into the very snazzy boots of a seasoned smuggler. Armed with sharp instincts and an even sharper wit, following a mysterious altercation with the powers that be, you've been tasked with a relatively mundane but somewhat perplexing assignment. Clad in white with blonde hair, you're introduced to Nellie, a young, outwardly innocent scientist who's desperate, for some unknown reason, to take a trip to the slums below New York. Despite advising her against this, she insists, and so our Aether and Iron adventure begins.

Much like Baldur's Gate 3 and other tabletop-inspired videogames, your fate is controlled by two six-sided dice. You'll have to pass a variety of skill checks, speccing into Brass, Hustle, and Smarts depending on how you want Gia to interact with others. Brass is great if you want to punch things and ask questions later, Hustle is more coercive, and Smarts allows you to analyze arguments and pick out flaws. As a Bard player on tabletop, I immediately lean towards Hustle, attempting to smooth-talk my way out of every situation.

Sometimes it works: I secure some extra cash for my bizarre adventure by guilt-tripping my employer's go-between - sure, I've made some mistakes, but that paycheck is a joke. But, as I go to collect my little lamb, I struggle to intimidate the gaggle of taxi drivers accosting her. I pull the 'do you know who I work for' card and eventually get us out safely, but I feel like the disgruntled cabbies won't forget my supposed insolence anytime soon.

While I didn't see the repercussions of my choices in action, it certainly feels like every little movement could trigger the butterfly effect. Pushing Nellie to tell you about her past seems to distance her from you, and intimidating the locals feels like it'll come back to bite me later - in short: your decisions matter.

As we take off into the sunset, however, Gia's sharp eyes notice that we're being followed - turns out our quirky little scientist has been keeping secrets. Color me shocked. We cut to a top-down view of the road, with Gia and her pursuer's cars racing against one another while weaving in and out of the traffic. I pop the trunk and fire off my gatling gun, dealing some damage to this mysterious big bad. He retaliates by nudging up against my car, pushing it into the next space, all the while we're ducking and diving to avoid civilians. As we chew up the road, I'm informed that hazards are coming up on my next turn - lane closures, barriers, and the like. There are a lot of things happening at once, all while you gun it down the highway at top speed - in many ways, despite being turn-based, it feels like a fast-moving  car chase.

This is exactly what the team is going for. "We wanted to do vehicle combat, but when you think of turn-based combat, it's mechs, tanks - slow-moving vehicles," producer Joshua Enz tells me. "We asked: how do we make it feel like a car chase - like a run-and-gun mobster [film], but in a turn-based environment? So we played around with that for a while, and I think it's the most unique aspect of our game. I feel like we've locked down that experience because it does feel like you're moving fast and shooting, but also you get to think about your next move. You're not constrained by timeliness."

Enz cites Into the Breach as one of the system's primary inspirations, noting that the team "didn't want to do a full puzzle game - we wanted to give the player more control over what they want." And there are a whole variety of ways to customize your car to increase its speed and give it better weapons. While I didn't get to see this during my preview, given how long I spend tinkering with engines in the Forza games, I know for a fact that I'll be whiling away the hours in the workshop.

With multiple companions to recruit and myriad mysteries to solve, Aether and Iron is quite unlike anything I've ever seen before. Reminding me in some ways of Strange Horticulture's quirkiness, its special blend of turn-based strategy and visual novel elements comes together perfectly. With a setting and art style that's to die for and a branching narrative that should pique the interest of any RPG savant, I'm excited to play more (and pop the hood of that car) when it arrives in 2026. In the meantime, if there's one game you wishlist today, make it Aether and Iron.