Beautiful Desolation

BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION is indeed beautiful but the desolation part was a bit too much.
I loved "Stasis" and "Bone Totem" by The Brotherhood developers.
Beautiful Desolation was developed in between those games and that can be felt.
"Bone Totem" is perfect, they learned on the mistakes of Stasis and B.Desolation.
But B.Desolation is a point & click game only in the mechanical sense.
It is a blend of RPG and adventure game.
Character development leads to different endings. Your choices matter and influence the world and quests unlike static and linear point&click games.
B.Desolation is an intriguing story in a unique setting. Futuristic South-Africa with weird robots and transhumans.
Refreshing mature protagonists not following cliche templates. Fascinating characters and a well-crafted world.
Good writing, I really hated some factions and their ideologies, man fk the Chiznyama and Fley factions >.<
The game has some annoying flaws:
1)
I like point & click games when they are more linear and we can easily follow the story without unnecessary distractions. B.Desolation chose to be more of an "open-world". You have no choice but to visit all possible locations to find the required items as they might be anywhere.
This makes you participate in multiple quests at once where you can't help but be confused where to go next as it all jumbles together.
2)
Having an overworld for travel also does not help! Yeah sure it adds immersion but the travel time is so slow compared to pure point&click games where you fast travel between screens.
3)
The RPG elements were also bottle-necked by the point&click gameplay.
True RPG games (even those without combat) provide much more to do, like exploration makes you feel like you are progressing even if slightly. Adventure games dead-end you until you talk to specific NPC or find specific item.
4)
The worst offense was the nonsense moon logic in some puzzles. Halfway through I gave up and used a guide but even then the solutions were so ridiculous that playing without a guide was not an option. I tried to play without when exploring but when stuck, it was immediately time for a guide.
I hate whimsical moon logic so much, especially in a weird world like this. That's why I like Sci-Fi more than Fantasy, you solve using logic not intuitive whimsy. B.Desolation is supposed to be Sci-Fi right? Then why, please explain!
I'd recommend only if you liked the style of the Brotherhood devs and wanted more after STASIS.
It was enjoyable for the most part, but is not everyone's cup of tea.
But I respect the devs for creating such a vibrant game world and want more new games from them!!

6/10
+ about 8 hours of gameplay
+ story
+ voice acting
- not really puzzles
- move speed is slow
- no waypoint or what to do next help. your gonna want to use a guide if you dont want to waste 2 hours running back and fourth looking for 1 thing over the course of the game

In this isometric adventure (which to me feels like a walking simulator) you'll traverse post-apocalyptic Africa, encountering bizarre creatures, solving intricate puzzles, and making decisions that shape the fate of the world. It's like a scenic hike with a side of existential crisis - perfect for those who prefer their exploration with a hefty dose of narrative depth.

This is a tough one. I'm giving it a thumbs-up because I, personally, value weird hard sci-fi in games to the point where I felt it was worth it to keep pushing through. The world here is very alien and unique, infused with a complicated and artful mix of emotions. The artwork is beautiful, and I credit the team behind it for their vision.
Gameplay-wise, it was a slog. What I was supposed to do next almost never felt intuitive for me, and I ended up consulting a walkthrough for basically every move because I never had any clue where to go. Sometimes I appreciate when a game doesn't hold my hand, but the system here left me feeling totally lost. Then, when I would see the correct path in the walkthrough, it felt like... THAT'S what you expected of us???
So in the long run it was like a combination between a playable novel (which isn't to say it didn't have choices with real consequences—you are an active participant in forming the story) and formatting an Xcel spreadsheet. The novel was truly fantastic, but the mechanism for navigating it was rough.

From the same team that made STASIS, BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION is an interesting point-and-click sci-fi adventure oozing with personality. The art style is fantastic, the creature and set design truly alien and evokes a feeling of incomprehensible realities. The story is great, going into fantastical where STASIS evoked a feeling of futuristic dread.
The only downside being the usual for the genre - lots of roaming around pointlessly, trying to find a needle in a haystack in order to progress to the next puzzle and do the same - fatigue builds up over the playthrough and by the end i just wanted it to be over. Still, a great game that should be played by lovers of point and click adventures.

A truly solid game, filled to the brim with creative ambition. The story imagines a sci fi world that is truly original, even weird for weirdness' sake (though that is right up my alley!) This game is a dialogue-heavy, puzzle-light adventure game that is well worth the asking price as a narrative experience.

6/10

What's saving it beside the graphics and choices that matter (which are not really essential IMO in a point&click adventure), is the story, which is compelling.
What ruins it is not having to go back and forth to progress in the narrative (that happened a lot in old school graphic adventures), but the simplicity of the puzzles, which are never challenging.

The longevity feels artificially prolonged by having to replay 4, theoretically 5 (!!), times the game (at least partially) to grasp all the flavours of the plot and possible endings, Not worth tbh, unless you are even crazier than me about achievements.