Rail boots and hidden tunnels in Loftia

Rail boots give Loftia's salvagers another way into the city. Put them on and the rails around Gridfall become routes to new areas, adding a little skating to a world of gardening, crafting and floating homes. The district also has skyscrapers to climb and secret tunnels to explore with friends. A trip out for scrap comes with an appealing invitation to look up, then see what lies underneath.

September's PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct supplied the release-date reveal; Qloud Games' 26 October update fills out the journey after the now-finished demo. Early Access opens on 3 November for PC and Mac, extending the journey beyond Loftia City into the Hanging Gardens and Gridfall. The interesting change for an explorer is how those places connect to equipment: rail boots for Gridfall, Bounce Shoes for the Hanging Gardens, and a Propeller upgrade that lets your Glider fly higher.

A city worth climbing through

Gridfall is the salvaging district, built on the remains of the old world. Its official launch-page image gives the place a lovely, untidy silhouette: stacked buildings, orange roofs, strings of lights and a huge Ferris wheel with plants creeping around its frame. Solar panels sit amongst the improvised architecture. There are homes and gathering places crowded into the picture, with structures rising above and behind one another.

That is an inviting setting for rail boots. Qloud ties them to reaching new areas around Gridfall, giving the rails a purpose within the district's exploration. Alongside the promised parkour through skyscrapers, they make getting around part of the attraction. You have a reason to pay attention to the city's shape as well as whatever resources brought you there. The next interesting thing can sit above the street.

The district has a quieter invitation beneath that movement, too. Its museum tells stories of the past, while Urbex sends you into ancient tunnels and abandoned buildings to find Artifacts connected to Old Earth. Salvaging and investigating share a useful setting: the remains of somewhere people once lived. A building can offer material to gather and a reason to wonder what happened there. That gives the ruined city a second kind of value.

Something to do with all that height

The Hanging Gardens pairs its own movement equipment with a very different landscape. Bounce Shoes let you reach new heights there; the district itself has greenery, fishing spots, community farms and a dark forest. The contrast with Gridfall is pleasingly specific. One outing takes you through an improvised city, another into a garden district where the equipment again gives you a way to explore vertically. Both belong to the continuing Early Access story.

The Glider's Propeller upgrade adds height to a tool that already fits Loftia's sky islands beautifully. Qloud's press screenshot of gliding shows a crowd suspended above gardens and cliffs beneath individual rotors, with open air between the islands. It's a cheerful image of travelling together. The announced upgrade builds on that appeal by letting you fly higher, making the space above the islands something to use as well as admire.

The equipment gives each excursion a different action to enjoy: skating along a rail, bouncing upwards or flying over a gap. It's a welcome prospect for anyone who enjoys finding a route as much as furnishing the home they return to.

An outing with company

Adventures take that interest in movement beyond the districts. Ryder's Airship carries players to distant research islands, with more gauntlets coming in Early Access. Group puzzles and challenges were already part of the demo. Friends have something specific to work through together after meeting up in town. A shared outing gives that social world another activity alongside its gardens and homes.

The last demo patch gives a small, practical glimpse of those challenges. On 24 October, Qloud fixed blocked exits in some lake-biome Adventure gauntlets, improved respawning after a fall from Adventure islands, and added another fix for getting stuck while using Adventure antennas. Those repairs concern the business of moving through an outing: getting past an obstacle, recovering from a fall and carrying on with the group.

There is still a personal pace available within this online world. Loftia's FAQ says playing alone will not block progress and almost all content can be enjoyed solo, while an internet connection remains required. That is a useful fit for a game with both neighbourhoods and places to investigate. You can be interested in a tunnel, a museum or a climb without organising every session around a group.

Our earlier look at building a wind turbine with strangers follows the larger communal work. Gridfall offers a different pleasure within the same world: finding a way through a place, then discovering something about the people who came before. The rail boots are a particularly charming starting point. A city rebuilt from scraps has left you something to skate on, and somewhere new to reach.