Beyond Contact is a top-down survival game developed by developer Playcorp Studios and published by Deep Silver. In this game, you play as a member of Space Corps, a group dedicated to ensuring all life the chance to flourish in the universe. Your character, after being sent to investigate the crumbling planet Ketern, crashes on said planet with no crew in sight. As a result, you are responsible for not only surviving the harsh environment, but also with finding out what happened to your crew, and what is causing the destruction on the planet.
Beyond Contact takes heavy inspiration from 1960’s space exploration comics, and it shows clearly throughout the game. While the designs are indeed bright and vivid while creating an entirely “alien” environment, the game falls flat by being indistinguishable visually from most sci-fi designs. Bright and vivid do catch the eye, and unique designs for flora and fauna help to sell the environment to the player, but they don’t feel as though they highlight anything special. They just seem a bit cliche for a sci-fi game.
As for the gameplay, Beyond Contact bites off a bit more than it can chew with all it offers. On the one hand, the game is a mining/crafting base builder, where the player harvests the planet’s resources in order to survive against hostile environments and dangerous wildlife. On the other hand, the game attempts to convey a story that requires the player to travel away from their base. These two concepts fight each other to their extremes. Resources are plentiful to the point that it doesn’t seem all that challenging to the player to collect them. Enemies are vast and can easily overwhelm the player to the point where they are forced to flee wherever they are.
However, what hinders the game’s experience the most is the top-down viewpoint. The game is played from a bird’s-eye view, looking down at the player and the world around them. However, the view is extremely limited, with the zoom only going out so far, and the zoom-in being ridiculously too close to see anything of importance. If the camera was better positioned, or better yet positioned over the shoulder or behind the player, then the world would feel more impactful, more expansive, and more adventurous.
At the moment, Beyond Contact falls short on all it offers to the player. The world of Ketern is a repeat of every sci-fi game world that is out there currently. The gameplay and the story elements of the game work against each other rather than in tandem with each other. Plus, the game’s camera system limits the player’s ability to even experience any of it at all. For some, this game’s flaws won’t matter. The crafting and base-building make up for it in some respects, as they promise ample post-game investment as well as for their Conquest Mode, which is the standard gameplay without the story. Combat is varied and holds a lot of potential. However, with issues as big as these, Beyond Contact struggles to deliver up to what is promised.
Beyond Contact is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Matthew White
An avid gamer, Matthew is also an aspiring game developer. Because of this, Matthew knows not only what makes a game great, but also the hard work and artistry required to craft such a phenomenal experience.
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