We analyze Beautiful Desolation, the new graphic adventure from the creators of Stasis set in an attractive dystopian future full of mysteries.
Beautiful Desolation is the latest proposal from the South African studio The Brotherhood, founded by brothers Chris and Nic Bischoff. In mid-2015 they launched the outstanding graphic adventure Stasis, and two years later they published Cayne, a spin off of this one available completely free of charge, both on Steam and GOG, and which we recommend as a great option to enjoy a good title. without paying a euro during this period of confinement. This new graphic adventure that the Bischoff brothers present to us is undoubtedly their most ambitious work to date, a title that has very high production values that to a certain extent reminds us with longing of times past where graphic adventures were one of the undisputed queens of the show with great productions among its ranks, and even being the testing ground for various technological advances in the field of video games.
The Brotherhood maintain in its new proposal the hallmarks of its previous releases, using that isometric perspective so unusual in the genre (although it has had outstanding titles such as Sanitarium to give an example), and showing a visual finish of impeccable invoice full of details that reinforce an outstanding setting, leaving behind the terror of Stasis but continuing with its commitment to science fiction. Sadly, the South African studio once again made certain big mistakes that its first work had, and although Beautiful Desolation is one of the great graphic adventures of the year and has made us enjoy a lot, it leaves the feeling that it is halfway to To be a modern classic due to some edges to be polished and various erroneous decisions from the past that are not successfully resolved.
Also, as a double-edged sword, facing the modern tendency to make the genre more accessible and user-friendly than it once was, this science fiction title turns out to be one of the most demanding modern exponents of the genre, so ideal for more seasoned adventurers looking for a high challenge, but also too dense and fuzzy for the uninitiated. If you are attracted to the genre, the best science fiction and the good challenges, all decked out with a luxurious wrapping as happened in the genre in the long-awaited 90s, Beautiful Desolation is one of the best options to consider in the current scene.
The monolith in the sky
The plot of the adventure is situated in an alternative timeline, in which a sort of alien technological artifact, known as the Penrose, appeared in the South African skies in the 1970s. This artifact led to a great scientific and technological advance for the human race. Our protagonists will be the scientist Mark Leslie, who lost his wife in a traffic accident caused by the sudden appearance of Penrose in the skies, and his brother Don, who is a pilot. In the opening bars, we see how Mark convinces his brother to take him in his helicopter on an infiltration mission to the Penrose, since he suspects that something is wrong and there is a cat locked up. Once there and after hacking several systems, something goes wrong, and Mark and Don are transported to the same location but in the distant future, where everything is strange and surprising. The mission of the brothers, separated from the start after the accident, will be to meet again and find a way to return to their time, as well as unravel the mysteries hidden by the mysterious alien artifact.
One of the main strengths of Beautiful Desolation is how well this peculiar dystopian future weaves, and how it knows how to create a solid and cohesive universe giving us a multitude of information about the races, customs and technology of this world that it presents to us. Said data bombardment is even somewhat excessive, but it really is a pleasure to immerse yourself in a world so truthful and well constructed, as well as attractive and full of surprises and intrigue. The problem is that, as it happened in Stasis, such information is not always presented in the clearest way, and we are often shown too suddenly, being vital in many cases to be able to advance, and being too diffuse in several cases, The problem has increased here, having bet The Brotherhood on a kind of free-world development, with a multitude of locations to visit and subjecting ourselves to a bombardment of information and clues that if we are not meticulous and careful will eventually overwhelm us. As we have already mentioned, and it happens with various points of the game, this is a double-edged sword. Experienced adventurers will enjoy putting together patience, pencil and paper, and taking notes and soaking up this attractive science fiction future. But in the same measure, it is easy to lose the thread or even not have the slightest idea of what to do next, in a sort of trial and error backtracking that perhaps could have been more satisfactory if you had opted for a presentation of the information clearer and more concise.
Fortunately the creators are listening to the community, and are adding patches to alleviate the unpolished edges of the title. One of these patches has added mission markers to make the task easier, which is helpful, although for us the ideal would have been to take this into account in the creation of the title and to know how to give us the information more clearly instead of Mark us directly where to go, something that is not usual in the genre.
Another point to highlight is the enormous capacity of decision to which the adventure will subject us. At various times we will have to make vital choices that will have a great impact on the development of the game, and in a very accurate way these decisions will not be typical of black or white, but will move within a diffuse shade of gray that will help us to outline the adventure according to how we behave. These decisions will have a great weight, and we will even have the possibility to ally ourselves with one or another faction, as well as decide the future of entire races, which will have a great impact on the adventure. An adventure that has a more than generous duration, and that will easily have us glued to our screens between 15 and 20 hours depending on our expertise, and even more if we want to fully immerse ourselves in its careful and worked environment.
Variety and playable complexity with bugs
At the playable level Beautiful Desolation is similar to Stasis, an adventure managed with a pointer in an isometric perspective, although here the options and gadgets at our disposal will be many more. In order to advance you will have to search for objects and gain skills, although here are also times when to progress in the adventure we will have to speak to the right person to obtain information. As we have already commented, Beautiful Desolation introduces a relatively wide free world, whereby we will move in our flying transport unlocking new locations obtaining information, improving our ship and activating a kind of dimensional portals. On the one hand, this open world is very attractive for the options it opens and for its non-linear development.
However, it also makes the playable flaws of the title more painful. In Stasis, soon after starting, there was a puzzle in which many players got stuck because it was not at all clear what or how we had to do what had to be done to advance. Being a linear title, and based on hitting the puzzle, you ended up finding the solution. Here, between which the next step to take or where the hell we have to go, or the use of half of those strange objects that we have in the inventory, is often not clear at all, the fact of having a multitude of locations available at the same time makes it difficult moving forward, as this does not always mean different paths or ways to move forward, if not the opposite and we must go somewhere in particular. On certain occasions, even what we had to do was speak to a character who at the time was not even interactible and was half hidden on stage and who now has the key to advance, and is in one of those multiple locations to which you can travel.
Another serious mistake powered by the free world is pixel hunting, or the search for barely perceptible and camouflaged objects on stage. It happened in Stasis and is present here raised to the umpteenth power. It is also somewhat difficult to understand, since the game by default highlights the name of several interacting elements of the stage, something unattractive the truth and that the otherwise flawless graphic finish of the game somewhat dazzles. However, certain objects essential to advance remain practically hidden from the naked eye until we get close to them. In addition, given the perspective used and the dense and overloaded of the scenarios, navigation through them is more cumbersome than expected, since on many occasions we cannot access several points on the stage that did seem a priori, even being complicated sometimes go from one point to another of a location or find the exit of it. It is sad, but instead of learning from the errors of Stasis and to a lesser extent of Cayne, The Brotherhood have fallen back on them here, and they are also empowered by what a priori should be one of the strengths of the game, that commitment to an open world that in the end complicates things a lot.
It is true that several playable layers have been added that make the experience more attractive and varied. We have hacking elements, various electronic devices that we must understand, even once the adventure is advanced, a kind of mini combat game will appear, which without being the panacea works, is fun and provides variety. Despite the fact that many will confuse Beautiful Desolation with an rpg for its perspective and staging, which, as we will talk about, inevitably reminds us of the classic Fallout, we are facing a classic graphic adventure, although the decision-making, the need to buy improvements to advance and the mini combat game along with some other element are inheritances of the rolero genre that suit the title very well. In short, we are facing a very demanding graphic adventure, with decisions and playable approaches that although they will delight the most veteran of the genre, we also consider that they could have been solved in a more player-friendly way. In any case, the fact of having a correct translation of all your texts into Spanish will greatly facilitate the work of unraveling all the mysteries that this adventure has to offer.
Production values from another era
On a technical level, Beautiful Desolation cannot be blamed. As already mentioned, to a certain extent it produces the nostalgia of seeing a graphic adventure with luxury finishes as it was in the past, something surprising coming from a modest independent studio. One of the elements that we will have an age that will reach us is something completely overcome, but that at the time was the most and ate a good part of the budgets of great titles of the past: the cinematic scenes with pre-rendered graphics, or intros. The title of The Brotherhood offers us many samples of this, with a spectacular and brilliant staging. It is not something that has the slightest impact on the playable, but it is appreciated, and much if one is already a veteran. The graphic finish of the game itself is just as spectacular. The stages are recreated to the millimeter, are loaded with infinity of details and are exuberant, precious and surprising at every step. The recreation of this dystopian future is wonderful, with a recharged and nuanced setting. The price, yes, are those navigation difficulties that have been highlighted in previous paragraphs.
The treatment of the characters is just as bright and accurate, both in the game itself and in the dialogue scenes where we see animated portraits of the characters similar to those of the pre-rendered scenes that are very attractive. The Bischoff brothers had already demonstrated their good work in the graphic section in previous titles and even in recreations in isometric perspective of various commercial titles, so the great visual section that their new work boasts is a new example of their talent. Not surprisingly, they have been signed by Brian Fargo himself to collaborate with inXile in the graphic section of that imminent Wasteland 3 that we are so eager for. And it is that this retro futuristic setting that the adventure boasts, together with the isometric perspective used, inevitably evoke the classic Fallout of Interplay.
And for the sound section, the title is not far behind, since its soundtrack is in charge of nothing more and nothing less than Mick Gordon, famous composer responsible for the music of titles such as Doom or Killer Instinct. Mr. Gordon's work here is impeccable, although we would have liked the soundtrack to have a little more presence at certain times. The music that accompanies us is powerful, varied and very consistent with the strange futuristic universe where the adventure takes place. All the characters have voices in English, in a correct dubbing work that has the peculiarity of the somewhat shocking South African accent that these characters show off.
Reviews performed with code supplied by GOG
CONCLUSION
Beautiful Desolation is a great graphic adventure, one of the best exponents of the genre for this year. It boasts very high production values, both visually and soundly. It offers a very engaging science fiction story in a universe that goes to the trouble of weaving and introducing us in very deep and detailed ways. It presents us with many decisions to make with real weight in the adventure, and a development dotted with small role-playing elements that provide variety. However, it falls back on past mistakes of the company, which are powered by an open world that ends up complicating things a lot. We will face many moments where we will not have the slightest idea of the next step to take, and with barely perceptible objects on the stage that are key to progress. We love challenging graphic adventures, but we understand that the difficulty of this adventure comes for the wrong reasons, which ends up turning it into a title focused on the experts of the genre. Make no mistake, it was not very popular and we enjoyed it, but it has also been frustrating at times due to errors that The Brotherhood should polish and not show again in its next proposal.
THE BEST
- High production values, both visually and sound.
- The setting is masterful.
- The depth and level of detail with which it builds the attractive dystopian future it presents.
- It presents us with many choices with real weight in the adventure.
- The role-playing droplets that season the mix look great on him.
WORST
- At various times we will have no idea what to do next.
- A multitude of key objects remain almost hidden imperceptibly on stage.
- The movement of the character through the stages is too cumbersome.
Good
It meets the expectations of what is a good game, it has quality and does not have serious flaws, although it lacks elements that could have taken it to higher levels.
