How much can you see, using your ears, nose and hands alone... A cute/relaxing walking simulator about looking for a friend without having your sight.
Beyond Eyes
Steam Link
Beyond Eyes is attractive and really short game that follows Rae a blind girl who got separated from her friend, a Cat she calls Nani, and her adventure looking for it. This walking simulator with it's simplicity and cute visuals, does amazing job at putting you in the girl's shoes, and while I have some complains I really loved the experience.
Story & Gameplay
The story of beyond eyes is really simple, describing more than the premise will spoil it. Some parts of the story are narrated but the total amount of words in the game is probably less than this review (never counted though.) But the game wants you to discover the world with Rae and look at the scenery only through her imagination.
The options you have in this game are too limited which serves two purposes: to make you feel as helpless as Rae and to limit the distractions from the goal as much as possible. Especially because there's no map. Each level starts as a blank white world and the white space is filled as you navigate through it and get familiar with what's around you.
There's only one button other than direction buttons, which is rarely used (probably once or twice in each chapter.) But the attractive nature around you, the slow-paced walking of Rae and the traces the Cat has left behind. All these empower the feeling of Discovery in each minute of the game.
Through Her Imagination
Rae's personality is shown almost exclusively through the game's mechanic. She's lonely, a Cat is her only friend. She's faithful, going far away from home to reunite with him.
She's imaginative, you see the world as she sees it, after a while of playing you'll question the things you see all through the game. What if she was in night instead of the day? What if all the grass around her was something else.... Is that really a flower over there?
Since she only sees through the sounds she hears, the scents she smells and the object she touches, Rae mistake things many times. There's nothing more disappointing than walking towards a fountain then discovering it was a sewer, or finding that the laundry was a scarecrow.
Another interesting part of Rae's personality is that she's easily scared, but actually brave. Through the whole game, she goes in a great adventure and encounter many obstacles but she loves her friend so much that she goes forward.
What's Lurking Behind That Corner?
Beyond Eyes gives you the same feeling of Silent Hill: "losing your way" but without the anxiety that comes with it (well, some of it.) Everything in this game is safe and you wont get a game over for a bad choice (at least I never got any.)
The environment the player perceives reflect Rae's emotional state too, as everything becomes darker when she gets scared.
Some Complains I Have
Rae walks too slowly and that makes replaying a level or even back tracking your steps very frustrating (I never noticed it when going to new areas) some people even made a patch to make her faster. Though I think it's there because to enhance your feeling of helplessness as a player.
I said above that limited actions serve to distract less from the goal, but I felt the game's interactivity is too limited. I would have loved to have Rae touch things to know more about them, and I would've loved having more ways to finish each chapter.
Short But Relaxing
The strongest point of the game is how it conveys emotion, there's something beatiful in this world and it can be seen even by blind people... The ending fits completely with the game's message and I really like how short the game is.
Sometimes even if it doesn't justify the price, the game is better at 2 hours than 20. The game would have been boring if it was longer.
And yeah, some parts of the game were boring, and I got stuck more than once even though the solution was right before me and I didn't do an achievement run of the game (would love to, if I had time but I doubt it.) But the 2-3 hours I played were totally worth it.
I Would Recommend
If you want to play something slow or relaxing, emotional, if you love cute things and/or if you got tired from playing fast-paced/action-filled games. I won't recommend if you that doesn't seem your thing though.
Beyond Eyes PlayTime-to-Price value isn't high so I probably only recommend getting it on sale. (Unless you want to support the developer and then I'd say that's amazing!!) And if you played it and found it too slow for you, there's a fan made patch that makes Rae walk faster.
What do you think?
~ Hope You Liked This Review ~
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