Beautiful Desolation by THE BROTHERHOOD was originally released for PC back in 2020, however, after more than a year, the game has finally arrived on PS4 and Nintendo Switch as well. Beautiful Desolation is a beautiful 2D isometric exploration game that combines sci-fi, alien mystery and modern times together and delivers an adventure that is filled with post-apocalytpic landscape, puzzles, weird-looking NPCs and factions that are on the brink of war. This is our review of Beautiful Desolation on the PS4 in which we explore a futuristic sci-fi landscape and try to find out way back home by setting a spaceship free.
Beautiful Desolation starts off in South Africa on a normal day however the appearance of a mysterious spaceship Penrose in the sky on a stormy night completely changes the life of a man called Mark who is heading to visit his brother Dom with his wife Charlize. The story actually begins 10 years after this night. One thing follows another and you find yourself on this weird spaceship and mysteriously, you and your brother Dom are transported to a South Africa set in a distant sci-fi future where the alien vessel Penrose is stuck and you must find a way to free the vessel and head back home.
You start your journey in the new sci-fi, South Africa, as a nobody however you quickly start meeting other NPCs who are weird creatures that look like humans fuzed with the machine and seem to have completely lost their humanity in the process. The whole world is completely changed and you, along with your brother Dom and a robot dog called Pooch must find your way back to your time and country. Throughout the story, you explore the world with your brother Dom and Pooch, the robot dog, who will help you out in various tasks and even against making certain decisions in the game. The story kicks off really strong and surprisingly keeps you glued to the game as one of the main reasons for this is the amazing art style and the beautiful sci-fi world of the game.
If you look at the world of Beautiful Desolation, it is the perfect blend of sci-fi mashed with nature. The cities, the wilderness, the vast deserts, and everything is really pretty to look at and explore. The environments are highly detailed and are eye candy for players who love the unique and beautiful art style. While the map of the game is huge, sadly you do not travel there through the world but the travel is done via a ship that you repair early in the game and use to travel around to reach different locations in the game. After arriving, you can land and explore the detailed environments, meet different people, complete their tasks while also focusing on the main mission of your journey.
Another important bit to mention in this review is that Beautiful Desolation is not really a game that will spoon-feed you everything. The game stays true to point-and-click adventures where you must find what you have to do yourself in the game. The game tells you very little of how to proceed in the story apart from major hints such as location names and what items you need. Sometimes if you are lucky, you may get to know a little more details than that as well but other than that you must figure out how to solve different missions and puzzles yourself. The puzzles range from the typical finding the correct items to finding out codes for opening various lockers and safes.
There is plenty of backtracking since you will need to find certain items and combine them with other items for finally using them. Hunting down parts is one thing but you also have to sometimes find and collect information about different things before moving on with the mission. The NPCs are more than willing to help you on your quest however not all of them are friendly in the game. The game is not combat-heavy and prefers lore and exploration but still, you do make plenty of enemies in your journey. In addition, there are various choices that you have to make throughout your journey that have consequences on the world even after you leave it so you have to make them carefully.
The cutscenes are fully narrated and the voice actors featured in the game are all South African which is really cool. The dialogue delivery is unique and you can instantly feel the difference when compared to other titles where they usually pick voice actors with perfect English accents and delivery. There are no mistakes in the game however the unique delivery really gives the game a different vibe and I really like it. The soundtrack featured in the game has been developed by Mick Gordon who is known for his work on titles like Doom and Wolfenstein so you can expect a high-quality soundtrack accompanying your adventure.
The very first difference that you will notice in the PC and console release or in this case, the PS4 version of the game is that it is no longer a point-and-click title. To suit consoles better, the game now allows you to move around with the joystick and interact with different items when you are near them. All other commands are assigned to the controller as well and you can press the TouchPad to read a description of everything that is marked on the UI. All POIs are marked with their names on the screen and pressing the TouchPad reveals details about them on the screen. You can toggle them off and on at your will. All interactable items are marked on the screen as well that tell you to interact with them. Items can be merged and selected in your inventory and everything is there where you would normally expect things to be.
The gameplay shift from a point-and-click mechanic to a more controller-friendly system has allowed a dynamic shift in the gameplay however it is now excellent to play as well. I am not a fan of point-and-click titles on consoles if you have to move a cursor around the whole screen to play a game and Beautiful Desolation allows you full control with the controller with your controller. The movement does feel a little awkward at first because this is not a free-roam title so some areas that appear to be accessible are not accessible and your character only moves in paths and pre-defined spaces where movement is allowed. You take a little while to get used to the movement and how the game works, but it feels really easy after some time.
With that said, the game plays exceptionally well on the consoles as well. Although the framerates are not that smooth because of PS4’s limited hardware, the game still plays great. The loading times are a little longer but maybe because I have been reviewing titles on PS5 and PC for a few months now and they seem to have really fewer loading times now. However, it is still not as long as I remember for some of the PS4 titles. The game did freeze for me at one point early in the story however after 2, 3 seconds it worked fine and did not give me any sort of error during my nearly 8.5 hours of playthrough.
Overall, Beautiful Desolation is a beautiful game, and I am glad that the developer decided to launch the title on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch because it certainly deserves more players. The sci-fi futuristic African setting is amazing and brings something completely new to the table. Not many developers have managed to release a 2D isometric adventure that instantly takes you back in a very long time. Everything in the game oozes of retro and I loved it. I am sure that you will like it too especially if you like to play 2D isometric titles.
Final Verdict:
I went in Beautiful Desolation completely blank and once the story kicked in, I was instantly hooked to the title. The game literally took me back to the early days of top-down 2D isometric games where you would explore big, open worlds in order to solve puzzles, explore beautiful landscapes and interact with tons of characters. Beautiful Desolation is a blast from the past but with a modern touch. The art style, the level design, the CGI cutscenes everything looked like something straight from the classic isometric titles. The dialogue delivery is great and how aesthetically the game feels is just astounding. Beautiful Desolation for PS4 is easily a title that sits in my top 2021 titles easily. If you want to explore a beautiful world, filled with bizarre creatures and NPCs and want to have a nostalgic ride, Beautiful Desolation on the consoles ticks all the right boxes for you.
Final Score: 9.0/10
