Fallen Aces promo shot
Image: Trey Powell, Jason Bond & New Blood Interactive

It's been a long time coming, considering it landed in early access back in 2024, but Fallen Aces finally rolled out its second episode (of a planned three) yesterday after many delays and a smirk-inducing video explaining why it was taking so long. It's a great time to start on the game too - a stylish retro pulp comic-style FPS immersive sim from indie devs Trey Powell and Jason Bond, and published by New Blood Interactive. Yes, them of Ultrakill and Gloomwood.

Normally 'immersive sim' conjures up thoughts of Deus Ex. And great as that is, it usually means a slower-paced, stealthy game. While you CAN sneak around in this one and complete objectives in multiple different ways, you play as a 1930s-style hard-boiled detective and former boxing champ here. As such, there's not much you can't solve with your own two fists and maybe a tommy gun. And if there's no tommy gun available, you can pick up and throw (or swing) just about anything you can lay your hands on, too.

Episode 2 - Shadow of Death - looks to up the ante for Fallen Aces with six more missions, including some mini open-world segments inspired by Half-Life 2's classic Highway 17 chapter. That means you (and your partners in crime-fighting) driving between locations and hopping out to investigate any buildings that catch your eye. Often to solve some kind of puzzle and open up a path to the next segment of road. I'd love to say that I've already played through the new chapter, but I've just started a fresh playthrough from the top, as the first chapter has seen some big improvements since launch, too.

And all of this is following on from months of tweaking, tuning and improvements to the base game, including full Steam Workshop mod support. While there are only a few dozen user-made levels for Fallen Aces so far, consider that even with Episode 2, there are only eleven official missions in the game right now, so that's a hefty slab of extra game to poke around, and more to come for sure.

Accompanying the launch of the new episode, Fallen Aces is discounted again, with a solid 25% off its £13/$15 sticker price. You can snag it even cheaper if you've got the excellent Selaco or Captain Wayne, or in a bundle with New Blood's other low-fi sneaky games, Gloomwood and Blood West. Having played all five, I wholeheartedly recommend them all.