Beyond The Darkness Review (Steam)

Beyond The Darkness Review, Beyond The Darkness is a dark story that will immerse you in childhood nightmares, even if you’ve managed to forget about them. Help the little girl Millie confront the horrors lurking in the darkness and find her missing family. You will find yourself in whimsical worlds of memories, distorted by fear and despair, and your only weapon will be the light of a little lamp…

Beyond The Darkness Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 8.92GB Download size.
  • Steam achievements.
  • Controller support.
  • Graphics settings – VFX quality, shadow quality, texture quality, motion blur, global illumination method, scalability method, rendering scale slider, anti-aliasing, and anti-aliasing quality.
  • Video settings – window mode, resolution, v-sync, gamma slider, and max fps.
  • Can remap the controls for both the controller and the keyboard.
  • Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for the mouse and the controller.
  • Set the controller button icons to Xbox or Playstation.
  • Handy subtitles size slider.
  • Puzzle adventure gameplay.
  • Basic tutorials as you play.
  • A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
  • The game will take away camera control at times and go for a more 2.5D affair.
  • Voiced characters.
  • Lighting plays a huge part, with your lamp you need to charge it up at light sources and light unlit light sources to illuminate them.
  • The game is very charming with a creepy yet intriguing game world and a story that instantly grabs you.
  • The lighting work is fantastic.
  • Excellent soundtrack and sound effects.
  • Puzzles throughout the game.
  • Uncover and use different light types to uncover more secrets and change the color of your lights.
  • The house is like its own character with the room layouts changing, things moving around, etc.
  • Combat is very light and you actually can use light to fight them off.
  • When your lamp is off the darkness begins to encase you and if you don’t find light for your lamp you get scared and have to restart from the last save point.
  • Find and unlock shortcuts.
  • Interact with items to get stories and knowledge about members of your family.
  • Eight chapters to unlock and play through each taking in unique locations.
  • Chapter selection lets you replay chapters.
  • It’s a fantastic game to just get lost in.

Beyond The Darkness Review Cons:

  • The controller doesn’t always work and is not that reliable when using Steam Big Picture mode.
  • Despite checking the settings I had the keyboard prompts showing when using a controller and the buttons don’t work properly in the menus.
  • I found the camera movement to be a bit too loose and made me feel a bit off at times.
  • You never really know when and where you hit a save/checkpoint.
  • Performance is generally good but when it goes juddery and slow it ruins the immersion.
  • At times it’s just not clear what to do and where to go in a situation.
  • Steam says the game doesn’t support controllers at all despite it allowing controllers natively.

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Beyond The Darkness:

Official website.

Developer: My Little Studio

Publisher: IndieGO Publishing

Store Links –

Steam

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Sound - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Length - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Fun Factor - 8/10
7.6/10

Summary

Beyond The Darkness offers a visually appealing experience with decent graphics and a manageable download size of 8.92GB. The game supports Steam achievements and controllers, providing a range of graphics settings such as VFX quality, shadow quality, texture quality, motion blur, global illumination method, scalability method, rendering scale slider, anti-aliasing, and anti-aliasing quality. Video settings include window mode, resolution, v-sync, gamma slider, and max fps. Players can remap controls for both the controller and keyboard, invert axis and sensitivity sliders for the mouse and controller, and set controller button icons to Xbox or PlayStation. The handy subtitles size slider is a nice touch.

The game features puzzle adventure gameplay with basic tutorials as you play. It boasts a full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control, although the game occasionally shifts to a more 2.5D perspective. Voiced characters and excellent lighting work, where you need to charge your lamp at light sources and light unlit light sources, add to the game’s charm. The game world is creepy yet intriguing, with a story that instantly grabs you. The soundtrack and sound effects are excellent, and puzzles are scattered throughout the game. Players can uncover and use different light types to reveal more secrets and change the color of their lights. The house itself feels like a character, with room layouts changing and things moving around. Combat is minimal, and you can use light to fend off enemies. When your lamp is off, darkness encases you, and if you don’t find light for your lamp, you get scared and have to restart from the last save point. Players can find and unlock shortcuts and interact with items to learn about family members. The game consists of eight chapters, each set in unique locations, and the chapter selection feature allows you to replay chapters. It’s a fantastic game to get lost in.

However, the game has its drawbacks. The controller doesn’t always work reliably, especially when using Steam Big Picture mode. Despite checking the settings, keyboard prompts may still appear when using a controller, and the buttons don’t work properly in the menus. The camera movement can be a bit too loose, causing discomfort at times. Save points and checkpoints are not always clear, and performance issues, such as juddery and slow gameplay, can ruin the immersion. Additionally, it can be unclear what to do and where to go in certain situations. Steam indicates that the game doesn’t support controllers at all, despite allowing controllers natively.

In summary, Beyond The Darkness is a visually appealing and engaging puzzle adventure game with excellent lighting, sound, and a captivating story. While it has some technical issues and occasional performance problems, the overall experience is enjoyable and a game well worth playing.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!