Beyond Life is a sci-fi FPS game made in FPS Creator by Matthew “Wehtam” Croud. It won a NVIDIA competition a while ago. I believe it was an award for great presentation – it certainly does well in that regard even though some technical issues may tamper your fun a bit.
I load up a new game (I do not believe you can save by the way, although that would be unnecessary anyway judging by the game’s length, which we will touch on later) and immediately notice two things. The game’s loading screen plays the voice recording of a British man (as well as shows the controls just in case you need that info – certainly helpful and welcome) who is apparently your brother and you, Ed, have to help him out with some space pirate issues on a spaceship. The story is simple yet near the end there is a neat little plot twist that genuinely surprised me. You will not hear anything about it from me! Play the game! The voice acting is pretty good as well (accept for the damn space pirates whose voices made me giggle). There are also a grammar issue or two (your instead of you’re, etc.) although nothing big.
The worst thing I notice here however is how long the loading times are. They were so long that I went to go turn on my Xbox 360 and play some Torchlight while waiting – not good. I believe this is a problem with the engine itself however so it can be excused. Slightly. Eventually it loads up and begins. Movement is a little slow but not too bad. Perhaps that is just my computer’s issue. The tight controls are the standard FPS PC controls, which is certainly not a bad thing. The HUD is very stylish and unobtrusive, tucked away in it’s little corner. Jumping is a little bit floaty and odd feeling though, almost like you just lift up and momentarily hover instead of leaping.
The game tells it’s story the Half-life way, with the NPCs talking independent to you, so no cutscenes. Captions are shown just in case you miss what they are saying though. The game looks a bit dated but the graphics still have some style and charm in them, and they avoid looking as old as Half-life. There isn’t much music and it is replaced with a lot of ambient sound which does help immerse you. The sound effects are pretty good as well, and I appreciate the little details like certain metals that sound different when stepped on, etc. That brings on and odd bug however, where whenever I shot my gun at something that wasn’t an enemy, the game plays random gun sounds until you shoot again which certainly gets quite irritating.
I really like the level design and the good mix of exploration, puzzles and shooting which helps prevent you from getting too bored from either. The attention to detail is nice too, with fake space ads and guideline signs all over the spaceship you explore. It really gives you the feeling that you are in another universe. The shooting is fun although the extreme lack of weapons in the game (one gun) hamper the feeling that you have lots of tactics to use. Also, NPCs (enemies included) feel a bit stiff and lifeless and it prevents all the space pirate murder from having any “punch”.
The game is quite short and can easily be beaten in 15 minutes as it is only a level long. This isn’t truly a bad thing though – it has the Portal feeling where it never overstays it’s welcome. Besides, it is free and a quick download so I recommend you pick up this engaging little FPS here: http://games.alyssar.nl/beyondlife/. Just remember to have something to entertain yourself while you wait for it to load.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathan. He prefers his last name not to be known. He’s probably a high-class superspy, but we don’t mind. For a temporary amount of time, he is the editor of Indiegraph. He’s our point man for interviews, and occasionally he takes a blowtorch to a game to see whether it measures up to his standards. He runs Gamesbydesign, an IndieGraph affliate site dedicated to game design articles. You can email him at gmaker4@hotmail.ca or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VGR_Reviews.
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