The Pale Beyond launched in February 2023 on PC and Nintendo Switch. It’s by indie team Bellular Studios in Belfast of Northern Ireland.
It’s a survival RPG narrative game about a crew on an Antarctic expedition. You take control of the first mate, must make tough decisions, and try and avoid a disaster out on the ice. We found it all rather tense and glorious!
Icy Perils and Survival Management in The Pale Beyond
The attention to detail with this one is pretty exquisite, the story fleshed out from the start to finish. It’s a classic adventure yarn, with you the player enlisted at the start by the enigmatic Captain.
Starring as Robin Shaw, you join a dodgy expedition shrouded in mystery to the Antarctic, with the goal of rescuing The Viscount science expedition lost in the icy tundra.
What then plays out is a survival adventure, not too far removed from the chilly Frostpunk (2018). Just with less resource management and more narrative-driven chat with your crew.
The Pale Beyond delivers a rollicking good adventure.
You’re plunged into a difficult situation, having got to know the crew and their stories, but once the Captain goes AWOL you’re stuck out on the ice trying to survive.
The game does a great job of ramping up the sense of chilly adventure—you click around on the crew, chat to them, follow dialogue trees, and then the ice floes arrive.
As you push on, the ice gets more and more dense—isolation and claustrophobia kicking in!
The Pale Beyond’s art design is gorgeous, no doubts.
There’s also some beautiful music amongst all this, composed by James Bruce. The opener Together on the Ice sets the scene in melancholic fashion.
Key to the game’s success is its engaging story. As soon as the Captain disappears, you’re on your own and must try to save the day. There’s a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure book feel to proceedings, with different narrative arcs for the tale to take.
Forced into your leadership role, you have to make some tough decisions with your crew—resource management and designated roles become paramount to survival, as you must manage your fuel, food, and loyalty.
It’s tricky to get right and you can fail here, so you need some stiff upper bloody lip to get through! As the main story offers some 10 hours of gameplay, so there’s a lot to explore here.
You get a sense of dread and isolation from The Pale Beyond, so we think it’s a indie game triumph. Not perfect as it does have its lulls, but on the whole a fabulously engaging time of it.
Well worth your efforts if it piques your interest.
The Making of The Pale Beyond
Bellular Studios has offered a great deal of insight into how the The Pale Beyond was made. Game development is intricately complex and time-consuming, so it’s always humbling for us to see how these talented people do it.
The team dug into historic records to flesh out a realistic story.
That included looking into the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), the Terra Nova Expedition (see Apsley Cherry-Garrards The Worst Journey in the World), and Franklin’s lost expedition (1845).
Attention to detail like that is clear as you play the game. There’s a swashbuckling sense of have-a-go-hero British pluck and all that. Tally, bally ho!
Despite their best efforts, Bellular Studios nearly went under during the production of its first game. Thankfully, it saw it through to the end, drifted into port, and here we have a marvellous adventure to enjoy.
