BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION

A singular strait of refined cultural expression, Beautiful Desolation wends it's way, in its own eerie fashion, into a land of strange enchantment. An ineffable quality not merely sourced from a wonderland of impressionistic worldbuilding, a phenomenal soundtrack, or the strange cast of otherworldly souls, but largely from the nature of its unvarnished representation of South African culture; down to the unique wounds of the Border War conflict and the lingering pains of Apartheid. Gaming is by and large primarily concerned with aesthetics mined from America culture, a handful of European countries, and Japan - most games straying beyond the narrow confines of that orthodoxy are nonetheless sourced from them. Games about those cultures, not of them. A tiresome homogeny that has languished in its own stagnant, overly content arrangements of fiction - for those who crave unique, compelling experiences more than the cynical extraction of "fun," it is consistently discouraging to see the medium corrupted by the lust for endorphins. Consumers engage with videogames like digital teats extruding liquid Prozac, suckling on them like desperate melancholics. That crap is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ depressing. Pure escapism, the pursuit of some kind of cowardly balm because you "just want to relax after work," wasting your only leisure time on digital zombification is alien to me. I legitimately cannot see the appeal of it, that cloying obsession with familiarity. It's like giving up, on your hobbies, on the very idea of curiosity. Luckily, gaming's roosts found purchase elsewhere, smaller studios hatching out of previously neglected cultural branches. Beautiful Desolation is Afrikaner, purely. A game rendered unlike anything else, due to its commitment to South Africa, a nation whose representation is typically limited to awkward Afrikaans VO slapped over mercenaries in Farcry 2 or Metal Gear Solid 5, divorced from their true context. Small nuances, slang, culture, our unique brand of racial tensions, and the pain of the Border War conflict are depicted here in a lens of cultural specificity, and chronological specificity. For people of a certain time, born of men who bore certain scars, like my father who came back from a war that would never let him truly leave it. There are very few opportunities for me to feel kinship like this with a game - is there even another like it? Given to those who grew up with the vast beauty of South Africa? It only helps that its inspirations hew close to my own most nostalgic experiences. Fallout, Sanitarium, and hearing about a guy inventing a flamethrowing anti-car jacking device as a boy growing up in the Western Cape. Slow, methodical, a great emphasis on narrative, atmosphere, and an astonishingly adroit sense of worldbuilding, Beautiful Desolation is a strange dream out of my Afrikaner boyhood, watching, fascinated, over the shoulder of my brother as I gazed into a murky CRT depicting a warrior listening to a dying man, pleading for vengeance, at the door of a monastery wreathed in red light - and then, half an hour later, the goosebump inducing intonation of "Ahhh, fresh meat." There are feelings, sensations that only this medium can deliver, but those transcendental experiences often demand eschewing design tenets fixated on the idea of creating a thing meant to be consumed, for people to grow fat and placid. Pleasure with little to no reason or context, senseless. It is a far greater achievement to create something of conceptual purity, married to ambience and the exploration of the familiar through the depiction of the unfamiliar, than the simple act of contriving a drug built out of binary and human compulsion. Some may dislike its slow wanderings, its gameplay centered around conversation, listening, and soaking in a sense of place, and its refusal to abandon that gentle, oneiric stride, but that is where beauty lies in gaming, being able to stand still in a moving world of dreams - what other medium allows you to do the same?

What an un-usual story, it's has an apoloytic theme and an engaging story with beautiful graphics. It's like all of the Brotherhood games , bordering on the horror side of things, but that said as someone not into horrors I find the Sci Fi element keeps me engaged. The only downside is as the story is quite complex, I do find myself running around trying to work out what to do, I have found with this game that it is best to explore the location and if you can't work out what to do , move onto to another location and explore until you find something that can be used in one of the other locations. Overall it's an excellent game and I certainly will be playing it until i complete it.

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It's a nice indie attempt at the classics like Shadowrun and Fallout. I didn't feel particularly grabbed by the story. It's an ok game though and I don't regret supporting the developers.

7/10

Game in STEAM DECK NOT POLISH language !!

Great game that require a bit of patience.

Маленький шедевр! Разнообразные локации (и как отрисовано!). Сюжет, за которым не успеваешь, нужны майнд-схемы (хорошо. что игра сохраняет все диалоги, и их можно перечитать, чтобы понять, куда двигаться дальше). Множество инопланетных рас, у каждой - свои проблемы, и тебе придется их решать тем или иным способом, выбор за тобой. Это не RPG, это квест, и игра не дает много подсказок, что нашел - то твое. Приходится "пылесосить" локации, чтобы не пропустить что-то важное. Для меня не критично, люблю такое, но кому-то может не подойти. В паре мест "залип", пришлось воспользоваться "мировым разумом". В целом - очень оригинально, с удовольствием отыграл 16 часов.

uzulerek olumsuz inceleme veriyorum. hikayesi gercekten ilgimi ♥♥♥ cekti ama cogu yerde ilerleyis kilitlendi ve belki 1 2 saatte bitmesi gereken kisimlari saatlerce ne yapmam gerektigini anlamayip etrafta dolanarak gecirdim. mekanik olarak ♥♥♥ yavan ve hic oyuncu dostu degil. envanterdeki bi esyayi ne zaman nerde nasil kullanacaginiz mechul. etkilesim verebileceginiz seyler hakkinda hic bilgi yok ve hikaye ne kadar guzel olursa olsun, hikaye anlatimi aralarindaki gereksiz ogeler oyle ♥♥♥ zaman yiyor ki hikayenin ne oldugunu unutturuyor. isin kotusu bu unsurlar oyuncuyu sikmaktan baska bir ise de yaramiyor.

J'achète les jeux de Brotherhood les yeux fermés, confiant en leur qualité. Beautiful Desolation ne m'a pas déçu : graphismes honnêtes, thématique touchante, univers foisonnant... Le scénario et le gameplay sont toutefois un peu confusants (trop de lieux, trop de factions) et aurait peut-être gagné en étant plus concentré. La résolution des énigmes nécessite également de nombreux allers-retours entre les lieux et c'est malheureusement parfois ce qui en fait la difficulté, sans vraiment solliciter la sagacité du joueur. Ce jeux n'en est pas moins un bon Point & Click