You know that feeling you got when you watched Star Wars IV: A New Hope for the first time and they walked into that bar? That feeling of something new, unexplored and unexpected? Well, here's more or less and entire game which feels like that. I've been playing adventure and role-playing games for +20 years and this has to be one of the most original and unique games I've come across in aYou know that feeling you got when you watched Star Wars IV: A New Hope for the first time and they walked into that bar? That feeling of something new, unexplored and unexpected? Well, here's more or less and entire game which feels like that. I've been playing adventure and role-playing games for +20 years and this has to be one of the most original and unique games I've come across in a long, long time.
If you're tired of the gaming industry churning out generic copies of the last title that sold +20 million, if you want to experience something truly unique, if you want something which feels like "taking the red pill", if you've been around for a while and miss the raw edge that some older games had.. then Beautiful Desolation is for you. It's a world brimming with originality, strife, passion and memorable characters and it's a journey you won't soon forget.
It's not perfect though. The puzzles can be vague and hard to complete, if you manage to complete this game without a guide.. you're a better player than me. Some of the big solutions are also very binary it feels like, choose either this big thing here or that big thing over there. Many of the conflicts in the game lack a middle-ground or truly diplomatic or pacifist solution. Which can be frustrating since these are fairly big and world altering choices to make with relatively limited information. Perhaps our role in this universe as "kingmaker" is a little too strong, we might have too much say.
And while the game isn't completely linear it's mostly linear. You'll have to complete objectives x and y to open up area z and so forth, speak to person x and y then speak to z etc. This is hidden decently well while playing but in hindsight it becomes clear that this isn't an open-world game with free and dynamic choices, so don't expect Fallout 2 for instance. Approach it like an adventure game rather than an open-world RPG and you'll be fine.
The story is also very ambitious, and intriguing, maybe too ambitious and intriguing. Because when the time for the big finale comes they don't really know how to tie it all together. The game has massive amounts of lore, mystique and build-up but the ending seems a little tacked on and doesn't really fit the rest of the game if I'm honest. It's not that the ending was unexpected, it was hinted at and is logical. But it doesn't really explain or resolve the bigger questions, we're mostly just left hanging.
Some positive and negative points:
+ Gorgeous graphics
+ Great music (Mick Gordon!)
+ For me very fitting and passionate voice acting
+ Very ambitious world-building and lore
+ Truly original story and fantastic characters
+ Classic RPG and adventure game feel
- Binary choices, maybe too binary
- Unresolved ending, more questions than answers
- Pretty oblique puzzles spread out over a big world
- Lack of questlog or in-world hint system, if you're stuck you're stuck
I think as a pure puzzle adventure game this would probably be a 7, the puzzles are only so good and can be pretty unintuitive in places. And if was to give it a completely straight score, all things considered, this would probably be an 8. But I feel that just for sheer originality and creativity I have to give this a 9. It's not often these days you stumble across something which is so unique and has a flavor all of its own, and for that alone I think it's well worth your time. If you're a jaded gamer, bored with the majority of mindless mainstream games, then Beautiful Desolation might be the red pill you need.… Expand
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