...is a twin-stick shoot'em up. Opal must explore his family tomb in order to defeat the evil soul gems preventing your father from resting in peace.

Beyond, not to be mistaken with Beyond, merges the gameplay of top-view twin-stick shooter mechanics with bullet-hell gameplay. You walk around from room to room, dodging attacks from a small variety of evil gems while shooting them down. You can hide behind cover, leap over precipices, break jars to find healing hearts, and even break down certain rocks once you get certain power ups.

When fighting, all doors are shut closed and only open once all evil gems are defeated. Doing so will sometimes give you a key, allowing light backtracking to open doors. Across each dungeon, you also find orbs, three of which you will need to open the boss's door, and cleanse the dungeon to move on to the next one. With each dungeon you complete, you unlock an alternative weapon.

Each weapon has an additional use beyond attacking. Initially, you start with a simple rapid-fire gun. The second weapon allows for a slower, much stronger bullets, which has a slight area of effect upon exploding and may also destroy cracked rocks (a double-edge sword: it can open a path for you, but it also removed potential cover from enemy fire). The next weapon is a shorter-range spread gun (shooting multiple bullets across a ≈20° angle), which can also be used to light up braziers in darker rooms.

There's an unmistakable inspiration from the original Legend of Zelda dungeons in how the map is laid, each room being a tile-based rectangle with centered doors on one or more walls, finding heart containers in broken vases, and unlocking doors with keys. The variety of creatures isn't high, but at least they behave differently: smaller gems bound to the same walls as you, fixed gems that rapid-fire, burning gems that jump around while leaving a trail of burning spots behind them, and larger, slower gems that move slowly but pass through walls.

It is oh so short, as dungeons aren't very big, and all three completed in under half an hour. If you've read previous reviews from me, you'll see me coming: it's a missed opportunity. The developer could've drawn a couple of dozens of individual rooms, add a bit of procedural generation in dungeon layouts, have variables that slightly increase enemy hit points and quantity being generated, and the game could carry itself through hours of gameplay of increasing difficulty. Add a point system, and you've just got yourself an arcade game worth actually spending money on!

With a lack of weapons and enemy variety, and the absence of single-use items or collectibles, you might as well take a closer look at the many alternatives available on Steam. Games such as Galaxy Champions TV or Xeno Crisis are great examples of single-room twin-stick shooters that offer a much longer experience with original settings of their own.


I can't hold much of a grudge over this game, developed by a single student, created for educational purpose and published for free as something other than publicity for another, larger game. Since it's short, I didn't feel like I wasted my time playing it, and have enjoyed the little time I did spend on it, so give it a quick try and see for yourself.

P.S.: Looking into this game made me discover the DigiPen Institute of Technology and all of the creative projects they've been publishing on Steam to give their students visibility in the industry. Everything they publish is free! I invite you to check out their library of games and try other, original projects!

This was just my opinion.

If you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up, and feel free to check out more of my (purely opinionated) reviews.

[h1]Beyond[/h1] ...is a twin-stick shoot'em up. Opal must explore his family tomb in order to defeat the evil soul gems preventing your father from resting in peace. [h1]⚙ [u]Game Description & Mechanics[/u] ⚙[/h1] [i]Beyond[/i], not to be mistaken with [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/947830][i]Beyond[/i][/url], merges the gameplay of top-view twin-stick shooter mechanics with bullet-hell gameplay. You walk around from room to room, dodging attacks from a small variety of evil gems while shooting them down. You can hide behind cover, leap over precipices, break jars to find healing hearts, and even break down certain rocks once you get certain power ups. When fighting, all doors are shut closed and only open once all evil gems are defeated. Doing so will sometimes give you a key, allowing light backtracking to open doors. Across each dungeon, you also find orbs, three of which you will need to open the boss's door, and cleanse the dungeon to move on to the next one. With each dungeon you complete, you unlock an alternative weapon. [h1]☺ [u]What I enjoyed[/u] ☺[/h1] Each weapon has an additional use beyond attacking. Initially, you start with a simple rapid-fire gun. The second weapon allows for a slower, much stronger bullets, which has a slight area of effect upon exploding and may also destroy cracked rocks (a double-edge sword: it can open a path for you, but it also removed potential cover from enemy fire). The next weapon is a shorter-range spread gun (shooting multiple bullets across a ≈20° angle), which can also be used to light up braziers in darker rooms. There's an unmistakable inspiration from the original [i]Legend of Zelda[/i] dungeons in how the map is laid, each room being a tile-based rectangle with centered doors on one or more walls, finding heart containers in broken vases, and unlocking doors with keys. The variety of creatures isn't high, but at least they behave differently: smaller gems bound to the same walls as you, fixed gems that rapid-fire, burning gems that jump around while leaving a trail of burning spots behind them, and larger, slower gems that move slowly but pass through walls. [h1]☹ [u]What bothered me[/u] ☹[/h1] It is oh so short, as dungeons aren't very big, and all three completed in under half an hour. If you've read previous reviews from me, you'll see me coming: it's a missed opportunity. The developer could've drawn a couple of dozens of individual rooms, add a bit of procedural generation in dungeon layouts, have variables that slightly increase enemy hit points and quantity being generated, and the game could carry itself through hours of gameplay of increasing difficulty. Add a point system, and you've just got yourself an arcade game worth actually spending money on! With a lack of weapons and enemy variety, and the absence of single-use items or collectibles, you might as well take a closer look at the many alternatives available on Steam. Games such as [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/842750][i]Galaxy Champions TV[/i][/url] or [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/464260][i]Xeno Crisis[/i][/url] are great examples of single-room twin-stick shooters that offer a much longer experience with original settings of their own. [h1][b]My Verdict[/b]: ★★★☆☆ - [i]"It's up to you."[/i][/h1] I can't hold much of a grudge over this game, developed by a single student, created for educational purpose and published for free as something other than publicity for another, larger game. Since it's short, I didn't feel like I wasted my time playing it, and have enjoyed the little time I did spend on it, so give it a quick try and see for yourself. [quote][b]P.S.[/b]: Looking into this game made me discover the [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/publisher/DigiPen][i]DigiPen Institute of Technology[/i][/url] and all of the creative projects they've been publishing on Steam to give their students visibility in the industry. Everything they publish is free! I invite you to check out their [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/publisher/DigiPen#browse]library of games[/url] and try other, original projects![/quote] [i][b]This was just my opinion.[/b] If you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up, and feel free to check out more of my (purely opinionated) [url=http://gtm.you1.cn/groups/CJsOpinions/]reviews[/url].[/i]