Beyond Contact Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published April 14, 2023 · Updated April 14, 2023

For our Beyond Contact Review, an innovative science fiction survival crafting game that features a top-down art style inspired by pulp science-fiction comics, providing a distinct visual aesthetic. Offering players the option to engage in a narrative-driven Story Mode or an open-ended Conquest Mode, Beyond Contact’s narrative objectives and moral dilemmas are reminiscent of contemporary science-fiction films.

Beyond Contact Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
7.68GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Controller support.
Graphics settings – resolution, borderless fullscreen, quality level, v-sync, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, bloom, depth of field, and screen space reflections.
Can rebind controls for both keyboard and controller buttons.
Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Map rotation setting for both mini and main.
Controller button styles – Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.
Two game modes – quick start and the main game.
The join game uses a server browser system.
Solo and multiplayer game types.
Story and conquest modes of play.
Conquest is more about stopping corruption by taking over territory any which way.
Three difficulties – Easy, normal, and hard.
One initial character to play is Quinn Hicks, but you can unlock two additional characters – Zaine, and Kangah.
Appearance settings – primary, secondary, tertiary, glow, and map.
Advanced game settings – game name, description, seed, play style, game mode, difficulty, and custom settings.
Animated cutscenes.
Fully voiced.
Decent loading times.
Main and side missions with full management and mission pinning.
Pin crafting tasks so you can keep track of resources needed.
A full 3D main map that shows points of interest, NPC, resources, etc. You can put your own markers down.
Credits can be earned and used to buy new characters, colors, etc.
Basic crafting can be done in the menus, More advanced crafting needs the appropriate workbenches.
Day/Night cycle with the night dropping the temperature and you need to stay warm.
Many biomes from deserts to poisonous gas and forests.
Set up trade routes with the alien species you make friends with.
C.A.R.L is your AI companion that follows you around and gives out help and advice.
Scanning is done so you can catalog what you scanned and what it does etc.
Resources and materials can be harvested from the land using tools like pickaxes, shovels, and the like. Another way is by salvaging from broken down machinery.
Earn EXP and level up to get a point to put into the basic skill tree.
EXP earned pops up as you farm resources, Kill enemies, and the like.
The research tab has you putting required resources into a new craftable time that then unlocks the next one and so on. The research is split into categories like health, combat, and crafting.
Missions are doled out and filled in on a huge web of hexagonal slots, clicking one tells you the details and lets you track them.
The map uncovers as you explore.
Each new game will spawn a random world unless you use a set seed number.
Big base building emphasis with a lot of ways to build a self-sufficient ai controlled base.

Beyond Contact Review Cons:

Not Steam deck compatible.
Playing with a mouse and keyboard is functional but very clunky as you use WASD for movement and then the mouse for interacting.
The game doesn’t perform that well with a lot of slowdowns and screen tearing.
A lot to take in.
Item management is a problem for a long time as you collect more than you can carry.
Items and tools degrade and break over time.
You start the game with no weapons but plenty of hostiles.
The voice work goes a bit off the track at times.
Combat is very mashy and usually ends in you running around trying to get a cheap shot in.
Starting the loop of building basic tools, researching, etc can be tedious.
Later on, the base defense stuff feels and plays more like a slightly unbalanced tower defense.
Mission markers are not great.
Honestly, I don’t see the point in the credits system to unlock characters.
The mini-map shows so much that it actually makes it harder to use.