The Pale Beyond

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Rebecca)

Wouldn't you know, a game just came out where you're on a ship that gets trapped in the ice on a polar expedition and you have to keep your crew alive after the captain disappears! (I've been eagerly awaiting its release for months.) Anyway, this is a resource management/strategy game, something I'm absolutely terrible at, but with enough story and character building that I was INTENSELY invested in that I was able to stick it out, even though I was doing VERY badly at first. I had to restart about halfway through because I had planned so badly haha. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when I thought my crew members were going to freeze to death, but with a little bit of help (and a redacted amount of reloading previous saves), I made it through, and it was totally worth it for me specifically. It had a ton of references to Antarctic expeditions, it had some really fun characters and cutscenes, the stakes felt very high, and I had an incredible time with the last couple of hours of gameplay. Enough to make up for the struggling. Genuinely can't tell if I would recommend it to anyone who isn't insane about Heroic Age polar exploration specifically. But for me it was a dream come true. (-1 star for how stressed out I was for like 10 hours. Also it's still pretty glitchy, being an indie game that JUST came out.)