Au-Delà
IntroductionYou control a child who has to go to sleep, alone, in his house, after his parents have left. You will manage as best you can to go to sleep, remembering the instructions given by them, but everything does not go as planned. Surrounded by monsters, you will find yourself in unusual situations as you try to find out where your parents are.The characterYou control a character: a child who is alone at home. He is afraid of the dark and constantly needs his stuffed bunny with him. His movements are those of a child, he does not jump very high and does not have a large inventory.The main objectiveThe main objective is to find your parents. For this purpose, you will have to explore the entire house, collect information and items, without dying, by solving puzzles or confronting monsters.What makes this game different?Rather than a classic approach to a 3D horror video game, Au-Delà takes the side of a 2D side view, offering a new experience by making you discover another way to appreciate the dark atmosphere of a horror game. It is especially intended for players who like to explore, solve mysteries and who are not afraid of monsters at night. This game also offers a new idea of gameplay by asking you to build OCD throughout the game, making the atmosphere more oppressive. The whole thing is accompanied by a narrative with creaky humor.Features
- Exploration: Explore the family house and solve all the mysteries it contains.
- Inventory: A child cannot carry a lot of items, you will have to choose what you want to keep with you.
- OCD: You will have to repeat different actions each time you enter a room, an oversight can potentially cost you your life.
- Time: Time passes as you progress, find your parents before sunrise.
- Survival: Many monsters will attack you, each of them has its own peculiarities and needs to be avoided differently.
- Chases: Some monsters will not give you time to breathe, escape quickly or die.
- Dialogs: Interact with the monsters to get to know them better.
- Multiple endings: Some of your actions will have an influence on the end of the game.
- Drawings: Collect the drawings hidden in the house to unlock the secret ending.
Steam User 15
Actually, I enjoyed this little horror game way more than I expected, it has a lot of optional content including multiple endings, even befriending characters that tried to kill you, but I must admit, while I liked the puzzles and the narrative, it can be pretty frustrating because there are so many ways to die, which creates constant backtracking over the smallest mistakes or even misclicks. Also, the inventory system is based on the idea of having 2 hands, so you can only carry 2 items (4 when you unlock a cart), and sometimes you have to use both hands, which does create some unique puzzles, except that it's extremely unintuitive and I can't tell you how many times I had to shuttle the items between the floors. The UI needs a little work with the hints, it's not a point&click adventure, you have to use both WASD+JUMP and Mouse, so it gets a bit confusing with the interactions that are based on the distance. For example, the character often will not comment on the objects, even though it has a hotspot on the cursor, so it's hard to say if the item has any relevance, but most of them do have a purpose for the side quests.
While it is technically a horror game, the story has some pretty hilarious dialogue and character interactions, even some lighthearted moments which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, the endings that I got were a bit underwhelming in terms of giving me some closure, but I suspect that I didn't find the best one because I still have a few unsolved mysteries. Now my save file says I played for 2 hours, probably closer to 4 because it does not take into account the death resets, so I would say you should be able to get most of the content in 3 to 5 hours, not counting some of the hard achievements like replaying the game with no saves (I don't care to do that). Overall pretty enjoyable animation, the death cutscenes have a nice sketchbook feel to them, and in general, I think the game is just nice to look at, almost has that pencil-made look to it.
I was surprised by how many mechanics they decided to put into the game, for better or worse. If you are not in the light range you will die, if you don't have your toy you will die, if you make too much noise you will die, if you don't go to sleep when you should you die - it's just constant hazard. I mean I appreciate the programming behind doing all of it, but it's hard to say if it makes the game better when you trying to solve a puzzle while constantly backtracking to safety - I don't hate it, but it also didn't make the game better. All technical notes aside, I think most of the puzzles had some creative ideas, I am sure a few of them are a bit convoluted, but I appreciate the effort to make something new.
Pros:
(+) I think the game handles optional interactions, achievements and story endings very well. Almost every hostile character in this game can be turned to your side or dealt with at the end, which is very satisfying. Not as short as I expected, you will want to befriend several characters to see how they change the last cutscene.
(+) The story definitely has some good moments, I think the cook is my favorite character, I was laughing pretty hard during that whole scene, love it. It's a little spooky, pretty funny sometimes, and even lighthearted - a weird mix but it worked for me.
(+) Overall I thought the puzzles were very creative. I think the gameplay mechanics got a bit annoying but just based on the idea, I kinda like that you designed a game around a child that can only use his arms, unless he has his cart to bring more items. Cool concept, just not very practical.
Feedback
UI notes - I wish the character would always comment on hotspots that are out of his range, like: "there is something written, but I can't read it from here" or "I don't know what to do with this doll at this moment". I had issues clicking on some interactive areas, mostly because sometimes the character would block the actual hotspot, like the damn toothpaste. I had to take screenshots for the painting puzzle, would be nice if you had some unlocked notes for them, so I took like 6 for paintings, 1 for names, and text document to actually put it together - outside of the game. The way the screwdriver interacted with a certain object was somewhat hidden, I did it by accident. I think the hotspot on the cart select should have been wider. The items that you drop on the floor should have been bigger.
Platforming - it's a bit hard to tell what is a platform and what is not.
Overall Thoughts: 7/10
It's a fun but potentially frustrating game due to constant deaths and creative gameplay, that said, I still enjoyed playing it because of visually enjoyable spooks and a few good jokes. The puzzles were unique, maybe a bit convoluted, but overall I liked the optional objectives. For that price, about as good as I could hope for, I had a good time, for the most part.
Review by:
Steam User 6
Some monsters are more trustworthy than others. Close the blinds and check those cupboards, just in case.
Steam User 4
Full playthrough w/ true (glitched) and good ending + time stamps here :
True Ending (Not Glitched+Bad Ending) 100% :
Edit: So my original play through was glitch so I went back to get the real true ending and 100% the rest of the game.
This game's story is absolutely awesome and I adored the true/good endings. I will say my main complaint is the constant badgering of monsters MAN it's toxic trying think about a puzzle and having to deal with a monster everytime you enter a room and they can wombo combo. Fortunately if you make the right moves you can deal with all of them eventually THANKFULLY. The art is great as well definitely recommend checking this out and supporting the creator.
Steam User 2
It's a nice little game with an interesting story theme. I really like the artwork. I brushed my teeth 3 times and died.
Steam User 0
This is a cute horror puzzle game with multiple endings. For the most part, it has more positives than negatives and for the price, I think the game is worth it.
Pros:
Funny dialogue is funny and funny characters. It has a way for you to "defeat" all the monsters if you put effort into figuring out how, which is cool. Not too short but not too long either (can beat the game in 10-15 min if you choose to, but it'll be boring). The puzzles for the most part are fun and easy to figure out. It gives you two ways of getting hints if you're stuck, one way in which you have to work for which makes it feel earned. The art style is cute and the music is nice. Gives you good areas to save, I know some people complained about the save method and how unforgivable it is but I don't see it. I thought it was fair, you get to choose when to save, how often to save and you can go back from room to room to save your game back to back if you wish to. It gives you indication of what you can and can't interact with, with the cursor/hand.
Cons:
Sometimes hard to tell what is a platform and what isn't. A really frustrating attic part where its not obvious what you're suppose to do, and the hint doesn't really help, at least not for me. Inventory management is annoying as a first time player when you don't know what you need between floors, it's not a problem once you beat the game though. The flashlight achievement was confusing because you have to drop you flashlight in order to progress and you get spawned at a different room where you have to turn on the light or you die. I eventually figured out how to do it but it was frustrating to think of.
Overall, I think it's a nice horror puzzle game for $5, especially on sale. If you like puzzles and/or horror, I think you'd enjoy it.