SkyChart: Airline Executive enters Early Access with lofty ambitions. Drawing clear inspiration from the classic airline management game AeroBiz, it sets out to modernize the formula with a deeper business simulation and a wider array of strategic decisions.
That ambition is immediately apparent. Throughout the first scenario, the game presents players with numerous business systems, various aspects of the airline world and management options that suggest a rich airline simulator is about to be played. The challenge is determining which of those systems are currently fully funtional or still waiting to leave the hangar.
The opening scenario proved enjoyable enough to play through to completion, though victory was aided by a subsidy mechanic that feels unbalanced. More significantly, several desired pieces of information are either missing or difficult to find. Discovering that an aircraft requires a specific runway length, without the game ever presenting that requirement in the aircraft’s information, is one example. Getting a solid breakdown of cash flow is another. Too often, the player is left to discover critical mechanics through trial and error rather than informed decision-making.
Despite those shortcomings, the foundation remains intriguing. The scope of the simulation is promising, and if the developers continue expanding the business systems while improving the clarity of the interface and game mechanics, SkyChart Airline Executive has the potential to become the modern successor to AeroBiz that strategy fans have been waiting for.
For now, however, that future remains somewhere over the horizon.
With a heavy dose of hope, SkyChart: Airline Executive is therefore placed in Cryostasis.
The airplane is fueled.
We’ll request takeoff clearance again once we know we have landing gear.
Pronouncement: Placed into cryostasis.