Beyond Contact PC Steam Review

Steam Early Access is a great way for titles to get released and then thanks to the feedback from gamers get bugs fixed. There have been many great games in Early Access and then leave and go on to be very successful. Here we have a game that has been eighteen months and now it has final reached final stage of 1.0. Beyond Contact is a game that I will be honest I missed when it first got released so to get the chance to play it now is interesting. As Matt Damon said in The Martian “So, in the face of overwhelming odds, I am faced with only one option: I am going to have to science the s**t out of this.”

Beyond Contact is a sci-fi survival game that sees you playing as Quinn Hicks who has been stranded on an alien world. You wake after your ship crashes and luckily you are not alone and have some help from a AI companion called C.A.R.L (Cerebral Augmented Reality Liaison). Having just come around you don’t know where your ship, the Aurelius and this is where your AI helps you as well as giving you a tutorial to the game to get the hang of what to do.

As you explore the environment and progress through you start to interact with objects which is achieved by scanning everything. You will get data and the type you get depends on what you scan, example of this is scan rocks and get mineral data. You collect data so that you can do research for new technologies. Also, there are crafting elements and this can take the form of get seeds from plants which can then be eaten or used to craft.

As you progress and explore you find yourself collecting ore from rocks, crystals from different formations and bubbles for your oxygen. As well as eating and drinking to survive, the nights get cold on the alien planet so an essential is a thermostick to provide enough heat to last through the night. You have your mini map, which as well as help to navigate it tells you when dusk, night and day is coming.

There is combat and to be honest it is pretty well implemented in the game. You encounter creatures as you begin exploring and these are curious about you first, but then they begin to attack you and you have at the start a shovel or pickaxe to defend yourself. You can craft a weapon and even pick up a crab claw which is an effective weapon, but durability is not the greatest with it.

As you explore deeper you will find a lot of debris and the captain’s log which give clues as to what happened. The graphics are isometric and look nice and clean. Colours are good and it has a feel of No Man’s Sky, just with the isometric view and just as fun to play. The voice acting is smooth and fits in and don’t sound forced, which adds to the atmosphere of the game and the purpose. The game will give hours of play and the learning curve is not too bad, thought might not be great for beginners.

Final Thoughts

Beyond Contact is a great isometric sci-fi survival game. The story is well written and the voice acting is good, which along with the graphics make a all-round fun game. Yes, the learning curve might be to much for beginners, but given time and patience should be able to get to grips with it. Definitely a game to buy.