Gibbon: Beyond the Trees

 Switch
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees Image
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a hand-drawn adventure following a lost gibbon as they embark on a dangerous journey into unknown lands. Race to freedom in liberation mode, or play through an hour-long narrative that captures the real struggle of living creatures around the world.

    Master the    Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a hand-drawn adventure following a lost gibbon as they embark on a dangerous journey into unknown lands. Race to freedom in liberation mode, or play through an hour-long narrative that captures the real struggle of living creatures around the world.

    Master the gibbon's art of brachiation (swinging from branch to branch) at high speed, building momentum, pulling off spectacular somersaults, and launching yourself higher and further into the air with the help of your fellow Gibbons, feeling the thrill and exhilaration of life in an untamed jungle.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Gfinity
    May 23, 2022
    80
    Gibbon: Beyond the Trees tells a hugely important story wordlessly and effortlessly, combining the gameplay and story in ways that inspire both powerlessness and hope.
  2. Shindig
    May 18, 2022
    80
    Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a game with a point to make, and it does so decisively. The gibbons’ majestic brachiation is a great foundation for an exhilarating momentum platformer that doubles as a potent insight into the threats faced by a critically endangered species.
  3. Switch Player
    May 25, 2022
    70
    Gibbon: Beyond the Trees combines gorgeous painterly visuals, and fantastic swinging mechanics, with an urgent and emotional story told with sensitivity. Sadly a couple of performance issues hold back this lovely game, leaving it a few monkeys short of a zoo.
  4. Press Start Australia
    May 25, 2022
    65
    Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, like Old Man’s Journey before it, is a tightly-packed, hour-long adventure that lays bare the eco-terrorism that continually threatens these titular primates. While it doesn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking as a game, it’s a brisk, beautiful and, at times, terribly sad game that moves along at a rate of knots, even if that places a strain on the now-aged Switch hardware.
  5. GamesHub
    May 23, 2022
    60
    The game ends by imploring players to donate to gibbon conservation, and by condemning the social media fuelled obsession with gibbons as exotic pets. The true goal of the game – raising the plight of the gibbon as one of the most endangered primate species in the world – is admirable and touching. If anything, the simplicity in the game’s design only serves to stop this key message from being crowded out.
  6. Guardian
    May 19, 2022
    60
    Habitat destruction is something we’re surely all aware of – we’ve all seen the heartbreaking footage of animals left stranded in tiny patches of forest, surrounded by roads and industry. Beyond the Trees reinforces its ecological message through its visuals and through play, and though this might not be many players’ introduction to this pressing real-world issue, it is a new way to look at it, and a new way to engender sympathy. Developer Broken Rules has done its research here, both on the creatures themselves and the places they call home. No matter how many people feel moved to donate to conservation charities after playing, this game will have made a difference through its advocacy.
  7. NintendoWorldReport
    May 16, 2022
    50
    Off-putting controls, repetitive gameplay, and some pretty rough performance make Gibbon: Beyond the Trees unfortunately not really a recommendation on Switch. While the visual style is truly gorgeous and you feel as if you’re actually controlling a gibbon, the game just doesn’t hold up even for the short time you’ll spend with it. The danger gibbons face truly is an ecological crisis, but if you want to support that cause, a donation towards the Gibbon Conservation Society is far more satisfying than playing this game.

See all 9 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 2 out of 3
  1. andy_indierock
    May 24, 2022
    8
    Wait till got discount can buy. 3 hours can complete it. Divided to chapters, some chapter hard and frustrating. Just have to time right toWait till got discount can buy. 3 hours can complete it. Divided to chapters, some chapter hard and frustrating. Just have to time right to release the button so can jump higher to avoid fires or cross river. Buy it if u want to save gibbons, dont know money channel to gibbon sanctuary or not. Sad story, happy at the end.… Expand
  2. FoxyChalet
    May 13, 2022
    3
    Alright let's start at perhaps the biggest issue. the loading screen is unforgivably long. I do not say unforgivably as a cute joke, I'mAlright let's start at perhaps the biggest issue. the loading screen is unforgivably long. I do not say unforgivably as a cute joke, I'm talking minutes of your time to get to the title screen. It feels like a joke. I'd say "add a minigame to the loading screen so it's less boring", but the game is already a minigame, there is no reason to take this long.

    While I greatly appreciate the environmental message of this game and love that it's about gibbons, I really can't endorse it for several reasons. First, the unfortunate truth is that most people don't care. Some people are proud of this, some may think they care, but when it comes down to it, if you try to take away something they like that might help someone else, they throw a fit. These people will remain largely unaffected by this game, while people such as myself will be triggered by it. Apologies to the creator who is trying to do something good, I think, but that's just the way it is. the niche that this game hits is just so small, and I think GTA and COD have proven that putting things in games just desensitizes people to the real world issues even further. I have no interest in finishing the game because the true end of the game is so unbelievably sad, and has such real world applications that the game can not be a form of escapism or even fun.

    The mechanics are very basic, similar to a skateboarding game, but I have to say I expected more of an action style of controls. It's definitely clear that it started as a mobile game. That being said, as an autorunner, it's decent.

    The game is very repetitive. I was cool with the very short campaign time, but I figured, being so short, it would be a finely polished sort of campaign, whereas it's just swinging through the same looking trees over and over again.    … Expand
  4. fadeshiro
    Jun 17, 2022
    2
    The game has been out for a month without any updates. The loading screen to get to the main menu lasts two minutes, without exaggeration. AndThe game has been out for a month without any updates. The loading screen to get to the main menu lasts two minutes, without exaggeration. And that's just the beginning of the waiting. It's a simple 2D game with not many assets to load, I cannot imagine what it's doing for that time. But I'd be almost willing to look past that if the game was fun afterwards. The issue is, I can't tell if the game is fun. There are so many frame drops, it constantly ends up eating inputs and missing jumps and catches. It's beyond frustrating, because the game looked fun. But it is, quite literally, unplayable on the Switch. And the developers don't seem to care.… Expand