Into Death and Beyond Xbox Series X Review 3/10 “Crash Landing” 🔫 @Dolores_Ent #IndieGame #GameDev

Into Death and Beyond is about a bounty hunter named Mark Helkins who is on a mission to capture a rogue alien mutation. He crash lands and is now trapped with limited resources and now facing a hostile alien threat. That is the crux of the plot, and though it slightly expands upon itself with discoverable logs scattered throughout the game, the plot is a really by the numbers affair. A seedy corporation conducting dodgy experiments that get out of hand etc. it is a story that has been told many, many a time.One of the first things that I noticed whilst playing the game is that the look sensitivity on the controller was strong, a quick flick of the left thumbstick and the camera shot around, it was far quicker than I would like, so I headed into the game settings to change it but it starts on the minimum sensitivity setting - so you can only make it even more sensitive. 

It doesn’t cause too much of a problem until you have to enter codes in a keypad, where it did take me longer than it really needed to due to the incredible controller sensitivity. Luckily, you aren't being attacked while entering codes, which would have really been an issue. 

The gameplay is your traditional survivor horror experience; explore a number of locations, do a few puzzles, and move on. You explore a number of laboratories which are all very similar but have enough differences between them so as to not get too boring. As you explore you will be met with enemies that you have to shoot in the head to kill, the look sensitivity does add difficulty here, as you have to carefully aim which aids in terms of both tension and resource management as you don’t have lots of ammo and thus don’t want to waste it, there are also only a handful of enemy types spread throughout the two-hour experience which is a shame.

Between the research centres is an open space you run through whikst a giant alien chases you, you have very little stamina and are forced to hide from it, these sections add a nice change of pace, as the exploration in the main sections of Into Death and beyond is a bit ‘go from point A to point B’. 

The story and gameplay feel average overall, a bit simplistic at times with rough edges but there was one aspect that I really liked - the luminous colours that fill the game, from the environments through to your gun, everything has luminous colours, Horror can be a bit dark for - obvious reasons - so It was a nice to have a brighter look, it gave Into Death and Beyond a sense of visual identity.

I had some problems with this title, but unfortunately, what happened after I exited the 3rd laboratory completely broke the game for me.

As I exited the Laboratory it cut to black and loaded for a moment, and then my UI returned but the screen was still black. I tried moving, clicking around, pausing and un-pausing etc. but nothing happened, so I quit out and reloaded, my save loaded up and I was instantly attacked by several enemies and killed, so back to loading up again, - after which I managed to kill the enemies attacking me...but I couldn’t move, and no matter what I did - I was stuck. 

As Into Death and Beyond uses only a single save (which has caused issues in other games for us here at GF – Ed) the game effectively came to a halt for me at this point. It was a real shame as – whilst there were problems with Into Death and Beyond, this just killed it. 

My lasting impression is now that it goes on a list of games I’ve played that have game-breaking bugs or events, it’s a short list, but its always sad when another title is added. I know these things can just happen and may only happen for the occasional player, but I have to review my personal experience with the games we cover.

SUMMARY
Problems with a ‘by the numbers’ story and gameplay are massively exacerbated with a game-breaking event, I think the game does just enough to get by, but being completely unable to continue is unforgivable. Its never pleasant to say this, but following my experience with Into Death and Beyond, I can’t recommend this title.

3/10

💦MELTED💦