Review of Beautiful Desolation - an isometric adventure game from real professionals

The Brotherhood studio was founded in 2015. This was done by two talented brothers, Nick and Chris. The first projects of independent developers were the masterpiece isometric horror Stasis and Cayne . Quite a lot of time has passed since the release of the second project (which, by the way, was distributed completely free of charge). I was already beginning to worry, but, fortunately, they celebrated their return, as they say, in a big way!

• We recommend buying the game on Steam or GOG .

The new game from The Brotherhood has a more than attractive and memorable name - Beautiful Desolation . It will be correct to translate it as "Beautiful devastation", which is 100% consistent with the setting. This is the most post-apocalyptic adventure game with an isometric camera in which you will explore many locations, communicate with colorful characters and solve various puzzles. Yes, the genre is not for everyone, but every element of this game is made so high quality that for me, as a connoisseur of quests, perhaps Beautiful Desolation will be the best game of the year.

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Be careful: I'm talking about the best project among adventure games (in our time considered nichem genre).

Yes, even in isometric...

Isometric 2D adventures were hugely popular in the mid to late 90s. Nick and Chris decided not to reinvent the wheel, but to create what was once popular, and to do it with the highest quality. That is why Beautiful Desolation evokes pleasant memories, allows you to thoroughly nostalgic, but at the same time uses most modern technologies (for example, widescreen resolutions). It's a game that at first glance looks like a 90s dinosaur, but if you look at it from a technical point of view, everything falls into place very quickly. We see a great mix of old and new features. The first passage takes about 40-50 hours, and even after this time, you may develop annoyance, chagrin that everything ended too soon. Believe me, you will never leave the desire to explore every corner of the locations, to get even more knowledge about this amazing, fantastic world.

It all starts in Cape Town, South Africa, in the 70s and 80s. During the introductory scene, we see a catastrophic event that sets the vector for the existence of mankind. Training is practically non-existent. The game is not that lazy to talk about every feature. On the contrary: is this the case when it is much more interesting to find a hook??and, items and understand the mechanics on their own. After just a few minutes of gameplay, you find yourself on a huge alien structure, the Triangle, after which, without explaining anything, it takes you to a distant, dystopian and post-apocalyptic future. And here the main goal for the game is formed: to do everything so that, safe and sound, together with his brother Don, return back to their own time. And you will have to put a lot of effort into it!

The cornerstone of Beautiful Desolation is dialogues, the script of which can even have certain consequences. For example, how you communicate with Don and Bug will determine whether your friends will stay with you or decide to leave you. Some important clues are hidden in dialogues with other NPCs. And if you forget about them, you can always go to the history of conversations inside the communicator of the protagonist, Mark Leslie.

Soon you will start drawing notes for the codex. At first glance, it may seem that this "book" is of no use, but in fact it will come in handy for you to solve some puzzles. Thanks to this, you do not have to leave any notes in your own notebook. Everything you need is in the PDA or Mark's Code!

Difficulties may arise with finding the right items, but there are also small tips. For example, if youyou need to apply some thing to a certain object, you can understand if you have it in your inventory: if a “red lock” hangs on an object, this means that you just have to find the right item. If there is no lock, then a suitable item is already in the inventory.

After another half an hour of play, you will have access to your own ship, the Buffalo. You can call it using the radio, and then move to the desired location. A little later, Guardians will become available - huge teleports that allow you to travel between several large maps. In the future, you will need to buy upgrades for the Buffalo, because in some locations, for example, it is too hot. To improve the Buffalo, you will have to examine every corner of the available territories and look for golden objects lying around. You hand them over to special receivers from merchants, for which you get loans. And already for loans you are allowed to buy different things.

There are many locations in the game, but damn it, almost each of them is unique in its own way, has some specific features. The same goes for the characters you meet. Each is colorful in its own way. Add to all this a wonderful soundtrack created by the efforts of Mick Gordon. Each track fits perfectly into the events taking place on the screen. In some compositions??yah traced the influence of African culture.

Finally, every decision has a consequence. While trying to collect the items needed to launch the Triangle, you will have to make far from obvious decisions, choosing which of the two warring races should survive. And sometimes there will be a third party that wants to destroy both opponents. And here the principle of lesser evil works: you need to try to choose such an action (at least it seemed to me) so that the harm from this would be much less.

Let's summarize. Beautiful Desolation is an amazing 2D isometric adventure game that evokes the amazing times of the video game industry in the mid to late 90s. The developers offer their vision of what our distant future will be like after the onset of the post-apocalypse in the present. A unique world that I have never even seen. If you are an adventurer and a connoisseur of adventure quests, if you like unforgettable stories, colorful characters, detailed locations and a dystopian atmosphere, then Beautiful Desolation will be a real gift for you.