For a novice studio this is sublime. A marriage between a visual novel and a management game that never completely sets in either genre and masterfully combines both to elevate its narrative. I’m a sucker for the ambiance The Pale Beyond is trying to reach, but I think that I’m also harder to please in this regard (I don’t like the book that would come to your mind if you were to think about this setting, for example), so, believe me when I say that this game is well written and very much well thought out. While the expedition is never pleasant and things go wrong pretty much from day one, you can definitely feel tedium, coldness and hunger mining your crew’s sanity and morale. You see them having their own interests and personalities, and you see them slowly letting them go as survival becomes not the most important thing but the only thing that matters. Some of the late game moments are haunting, not because they are super dramatic, but because they are not. There’s not enough energy for drama and confrontation when you haven’t been eating or sleeping well for three weeks in a row.

The only thing holding this game from being a true masterpiece is that, while an experience like this should be hard for what its narrative is trying to convey, I think is a bit harder than it should, prohibitively hard even. I can imagine people not finishing it despite being hooked by it, so that’s a bummer. It’s a hard line to establish, so I kinda get it.

I cant help but compare this to Frostpunk.

Two management games about shepherding a small group of survivors through bitter cold. The same resources to manage, those being food, health, morale and especially heat.

And yet what they're about could not be more different. Frostpunk is a game about how the health of the few pales in comparison to the health of the many, that sacrifices must be made. In The Pale Beyond, the two are interlinked. Everyone has their role to play, nobody is expendable, nobody is truly replaceable. Every loss is a tragedy that can cascade into the doom of the whole. We get through this together or we don't make it through at all.

Docking half a point because there's a wonderful piece from the soundtrack that isn't available anywhere for love or money.

The Pale Beyond falls short because of three main reasons. Firstly, while the way the game presents itself with markers scattered across the current map at the time is fine, navigating it is sooo cumbersome even though it shouldn't be. Secondly, the save tree system doesn't work in a narrative game, with no easy way to skip all the talking. Thirdly, there isn't any feedback on how you are managing the resources, meaning that you could have already lost the game in week 15 or something but only find out until you're at week 24 hours later. I think there is a good game underneath all the dirt (or should I say the ice?) with the great concept, art style and setting, but the whole "game" part seems very lackluster.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for December 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before January 2nd, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

Sailing into the frozen south to find a mysterious wreck.

The Pale Beyond starts with an interview for the main character to join the interviewer’s crew as a first mate. The game is played in a slow story-based style where players have to make choices but also those questions will make the player think a bit about their character. The game says that decisions will change the crew, their opinions of the player, and their morale. There are also several resources that players will have to balance between food, fire, and the aforementioned morale. The game moves at a brisk pace but there’s probably a lot more to discover after the first hour.

At the same time, this does seem to be very story-heavy. I’m not sure how much each decision will matter, and the game pretty much forces most of the important choices in the first hour. It’s likely just holding the player's hand but as usual, this is a game claiming “choices will matter”, and the question as always is “how much”. It seems the gameplay is more about staying alive than necessarily changing the ending, but that’s also where the challenge will lie.

Pick this up if you like a story-based game. Parts of me were thinking about Return of the Ober Din due to the language and an experience on a ship, but that was more of a puzzle game and this is more of a narrative. Still, something is intriguing about this story so far so it’s possible I’ll play much more.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/FzxvEceV60k