Deep Beyond

Very short (like barely an hour) but overall pretty good walking sim with some light puzzles. Not the best voice acting (the lead woman is alright, the rest of the cast, not so much) and the story ends in a pretty abrupt way far to early, they could have done so much more with the story (although i'm sure they did what they could with the budget they had). Where the game truly shines is in the artstyle, it's gorgeous in it's simplicity, Worth playing for that alone. Would love to see more interactive thrillers from this dev with slightly expanded scope in the future.

Introduced and released at this year’s Summer Game Fest, which was a month ago. The game follows Lilly, a sea explorer, on her quest to find treasure and a mystery. Unfortunately, the story is kinda short, taking about an hour to complete. Although short, I enjoyed it but keep in mind that this is a walking simulator, so there's no sprint/run. However, the pace kept me stayed because I love the comic art style with a halftone effect and vibrant colors. The game also includes some puzzles, but they aren't too difficult. It's a good price this year's Summer Sale, consider as introductory offer I'd say. And my friend mentioned that Lilly is quite similar to Lara Croft.[hr]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3284937671

Decent but short adventure walking sim with some easy puzzles.

Great game. The art style is awesome and the dog made the game very enjoyable. Hope to see more games like this from the developer team.

Walking Sims müssen für mich eine fesselnde Story erzählen oder verlockende Spielmechaniken bieten. Die besten bieten beides - siehe What Remains of Edith Finch. Deep Beyond liefert weder noch. Die anfänglich interessante Story wird schnell zu vorhersehbar und aufgrund der kurzen Spielzeit auch sehr oberflächlich erzählt. Das reduzierte Gameplay ist grenzwertig langweilig - selbst für einen Walking Sim. Es gibt nur wenige Rätsel und diese sind leider sehr einfach. Die Synchronsprecherin von Lilly ist sehr gut, die anderen ganz ok, stehen aber in starkem Kontrast zu den hölzernen und teilweise trägen Animationen. Über diese Mankos in der Mechanik kann auch die sehr schöne Cell Shading Grafik nicht hinwegtäuschen.

Prácticamente un walking simulator por lo lineal que es, pero con tanto descuento vale la pena. Encontré un bug pero saliendo y entrando se solucionó.

Deep Beyond does a lot of things right, especially in its opening act. The game commits to full-body embodied first-person: you wake up, see your own body, get out of bed. The controls feel appropriately heavy and grounded. Starting in a small, contained space (your houseboat), feeding your dog Chester, hearing the sea outside: it's a confident, cozy introduction that doesn't need a tutorial because the environment teaches you everything. The art direction is genuinely beautiful. The dual-canvas technique works well for the puzzles with the cartoony aesthetic, and color shifts are used effectively to signal mood changes. Music comes in at the right moments rather than playing constantly, which gives the pacing room to breathe. The diving sections are a particular highlight: the underwater environments are atmospheric and the pacing shifts nicely when you're submerged. Environmental storytelling is solid throughout: photos, objects, and spaces tell you about Lilly's history without exposition dumps. Voice acting is more uneven: sometimes it lands, sometimes it feels off. Not bad enough to break immersion, but noticeable. Chester the dog is your constant companion and essentially your quest marker. He barks at points of interest, runs ahead to show you the path. It works, but it also highlights how linear the experience is. You walk (no sprint, no jump), you follow the dog, you click on highlighted objects. Even in spaces like the abandoned house where it's obvious where to go (red door handle on the correct room), the other areas are still blocked off. You can't explore rooms themselves. The game holds your hand and never lets go. The "red paint" waypointing is a bit heavy. Flags, door handles, ledges, everything you need to interact with is color-coded. Combined with the linearity, it removes any sense of discovery or player agency. The Ending Falls Flat The story builds well enough through flashbacks and environmental details: Lilly's caretaker, her missing father, treasure hunters turned antagonists. But it leaves too many threads hanging. Character relationships are established without explaining why they exist. The game covers the main beats but skips over the connective tissue, so by the end you're left with more questions than answers. The final act makes it worse. Revelations feel rushed, twists are telegraphed well in advance, and emotional payoffs don't land because the groundwork wasn't there. Worst of all: the entire game has zero dialogue choices until the very end, where suddenly you're asked to make a decision between two characters. One has been central to the whole story. The other barely registers. No relationship built, no real consequences either way. It's a hollow choice that adds nothing mechanically and leaves a bad taste narratively. If you're going to make a walking simulator with one branching decision, it needs to carry weight—not be tacked on at the final moment. Bottom Line The opening 20 minutes are the strongest part: good environmental storytelling, confident pacing, satisfying small interactions. The art and audio remain consistently good throughout. But the game never loosens its grip, never lets you explore or make meaningful choices, and the ending undermines what the story built. Worth playing if you want a short, pretty, cozy experience and don't mind the lack of agency. Just don't expect the narrative payoff to match the atmospheric setup.

Story was fine, played out pretty much how I expected it to. I really liked the visuals and the diving portions. Get/play if you want a short kinda cozy experience.

Deep Beyond's story is largely left up to inference for most of its playlength, which is a practical move given the game itself is maybe an hour and change. That said, there's not actually that much going on underneath - which isn't to say it's 'bad' but just... simple. Same goes for the inoffensive voicework. Still, I don't regret the time spent with the game.

Eine wirklich schöne Story, gänzlich ungewöhnlich umgesetzte Grafik, aber leider mit für meinen Geschmack sehr linearem Gameplay. Man läuft hauptsächlich durch die Gegend und es gibt auf die Spiellänge gesehen recht viele Cut-Scenes und Story-Sequenzen; die Interaktionen und kleinen Rätsel sind eher spärlich und schnell gelöst.