Video Game Review: The Pale Beyond

Release Year: 2023
Reading Year: SP2025
Developer/Publisher: Bellular Studios/Fellow Travelers & Surprise Attack Games
Time to Beat: 16 Hours

Thoughts: To be honest, this was an obligatory “It’s a Humble Bundle throw-in, give it a try and probably drop after a few hours” pick. Instead, I spent double the average playtime completing the game. I had no context for the game going in, I didn’t even know the genre or narrative hook. I played fairly naively, focusing on the story and enjoying the light management sim mechanics – I’m learning how well management sims work with my brain as of late.

I got ~6 hours into the silent protagonist role – a captain on an expedition to the South Pole – and realized that I couldn’t finish the game. I mismanaged resources and was out of tricks. At this point, I was tempted to uninstall and give a write up just to move on, but I decided to drop back in fresh. I am very happy I did! The game makes a crucial shift – not just narratively – transitioning from act III to IV. I am happy with my run (on Normal difficulty). It tested my management sim skills to a level I found gratifying (I didn’t want to pen and paper week-to-week), but I wouldn’t have had fun pushing on the hardest difficulty. It is a survival management sim after all.

In my opinion, this game succeeds in balancing a fairly difficult, but contained management sim. The first act and the beginning of the second give you a false sense of ease, which then leads you into the most difficult act of the game with very little wiggle room to save a run. However, the reward, in my opinion, is worth it. The payoff of figuring it out the second or third time is the point. With a myriad of endings and a robust week-to-week replay system, it also doesn’t feel like a slog to replay – plus you can long-hold “B” or “O” and fast-forward the dialog. Thought, I will say the indie-ness of the game does show in that the fluidity of dialog (I miss-clicked dialog many times) or simple tricks/features were unclear and needed a forum to be revealed for me.

Regarding the story, there are two pieces to the ending. First, a meta-narrative and second, the outcome of your high-stakes branching narrative decision making. To be honest, I feel like the game would have been overall stronger is they left out the meta-narrative. It punches above its weight and feel ultimately unnecessary and unjustified. Look, this isn’t BioShock. The story is strong enough on its own because of the investment you have in making decisions with real consequences.

The developers did an excellent job bringing in a level of emotional investment and high-stakes decision-making which made the story and characters feel worthy of the time and investment. This is a good game, nothing more or less.