Exploring The Unseen World Of Beyond Eyes

There are some games that you can sit down with for thirty seconds and grasp what’s going on with them; how the mechanics work, what the basic ideas of the game are, pretty much everything. Beyond Eyes is not one of those games.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a criticism of the title, in fact discovery is a key element of what Beyond Eyes is trying to achieve as a game.

Much like The Unfinished Swan, Beyond Eyes starts with a blank canvas for you to explore, albeit one presented from a third person perspective rather than a first person one. This, of course, means that you at least have a character to focus on – a young, blind girl called Rae.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rpTjozuZLo

Rae’s blindness is the reason for the empty landscape you’re presented with; she doesn’t know what’s out there so neither do you. Instead you’ll have to use her other senses to explore her surroundings, with the world being slowly revealed to you as you do. Touch is, perhaps, the most obvious sense available to help Rae do this. Simply moving through the world will fill in your immediate surroundings, but adding to the world a few feet at a time really isn’t going to help you find your way.

Where touch is more useful is in discovering things that block your way, like trees or fences. Whenever you approach any large objects like this, Rae will gently put her hand against it, like Nathan Drake finding his way through a particularly tight corridor. As long as you pay attention to the way she’s moving then its quite easy to find your way around these obstacles.

Sadly, smell and taste aren’t really practical to implement with current technology, so lets skip straight onto sound. On the game’s EGX stand there was a small, handwritten note advising you to wear headphones, an instruction that’s really worth obeying. While sound does certainly add to other games, it’s an absolute necessity here if you want any chance of finding your way.

At the beginning the game’s sound design is quite simple, starting off with some gentle sounds of nature. However, as things progress you begin to hear sounds, like chickens clucking off in the distance, drawing you towards them and helping you find the path the game has laid out for you.

The high point of the sound design came at the end of what I managed to play of the game, when I was confronted with a huge, black, swirling mass of smoke, dirt and roaring sound. As I approached this mysterious area I realised that, of course, it was a road. It was a rather poignant moment that really made me consider what day to day life must be like for blind people, with loud, smelly and dangerous vehicles flying past them every time they try and head anywhere in the outside world.

This wonderful way the game deals with its central, complex theme is accompanied by an equally special visual style. In some ways the game’s palette makes it feel like you’re playing inside a watercolour painting, a feeling that’s only enhanced by the way colour is used in the game. Couple this with some simply wonderful visual effect, the way the world fills in as you explore is particularly satisfying, and you’re left with a unique, soothing look when you’re in nature. This calm feeling is really ripped away from when approaching the roads, with harsh and greys contrasting wonderfully against the previously serene scene.

Also worth talking about is the on screen presentation of directional hints, giving you a gentle nudge in the right direction when you ask for it. A flowing arrow appears in the air in front of you, flowing like a scarf in the wind. In many ways this visual cue reminds me of the way Journey or Flower hinted at the wind, and at times Beyond Eyes gives you a similar feeling of tranquillity to those titles.

There are, however, some minor negatives about the game’s current state that it’s only fair I relate. Some of Rae’s animations are a little clunky at the moment, and there were certainly some frame-rate issues at points. The controls also felt a little loose, as it can occasionally be a bit tricky to get Rae to go where you want. Of course this is a very early build of the game, with release not expected until 2015, giving tiger and squid, the game’s developer, plenty of time to iron out any kinks.

It’s also somewhat tricky to talk about the game’s overarching story based on what I played. Rae is, apparently, searching for her cat Nani, although this didn’t really come across in what I played. Once again this will likely be expanded on in the final game, and my experience of the story was probably hindered by the fact that I couldn’t make my way past the road.

I do also wonder where the game will take its core mechanics longer term, although I think you could have said the same about the early presentations of The Unfinished Swan, and that turned out to be something rather special. It’s still too early to say whether the same will be true of Beyond Eyes, but the potential is certainly there for this to become an unmissable title.