Beyond the Long Night Review

Welcome to my review of Beyond the Long Night. This game is an action-adventure game from developers Noisy Head Games and published by Yogscast Games (Golfie, Plateup!). The game will be available starting today April 17th 2023 on Windows and macOS.

Twin-Stick Fun!

Continue reading to find out more about this game and why I have given it the score I have. You can also check out our previous reviews.

The Game

Beyond the Long Night is a charming single-player action-adventure game that sees the player caught in a time loop. It has twin-stick style combat and you float around each level with balloons attached to your back.

When you first start you’re given a choice of “vessel” to assist you on your journey. When you first play you will only be able to choose the explorer hat. You will unlock more later.

The balloons also indicate your health points, so keep an eye on them because one balloon means one more hit and you’re outta there. I quite like this to be fair, it makes a nice change from just having hearts or a bar in the corner of the HUD. There are also heart indicators on the top right of the screen, but it’s good to have that immediate indicator of the balloons.

Beyond the Long Night is set in the Dark Mountain and it’s your task to navigate through the procedurally generated map, chamber by chamber. You’re also fighting against the clock in a way, as there is a deadly storm that is chasing you from chamber to chamber up the mountain. So this means there’s no time to dilly dally, you gotta shoot your way through each chamber to progress to the next before it’s too late.

During your journey, you will also come across various non-player characters (NPCs) that will talk to you and aid you on your quest by giving you different Superpowers. These Superpowers are literally as they sound. They will help you clear rooms quicker, survive that bit longer, move faster, you get the idea. Just be warned that you can only carry one Superpower at a time.

The game also has some random cows dotted around that cheer you on with a motivational speech. They’re pretty funny really.

During your run, you will accumulate gems that you can spend in shops that will go towards unlocking upgrades. Such upgrades are for upgrading your gun so your bullets will fire faster, be more powerful, etc.

When you die, your run ends. So you must start again and work your way up the new procedural map and try to work your way through it. The game also has lots of puzzles and secrets littered around the world so keep your eyes peeled to find them.

I must add that this game runs very well on the Steam Deck. It’s like it was made for it. Even though it wasn’t! At the time of writing, Beyond the Long Night does not have any information regarding the Steam Deck on its Steam Page. Trust me when I say you will not be disappointed if you’re buying this for your Deck.

The control scheme for the game is pretty simple and laid out well. The game has 53 achievements for players to unlock, if you wish to that is.

Look & Sound

By now, you should know that I’m a sucker for pixel art graphics. It looks fantastic wherever you may be playing this. Well, I can only comment on Windows and the Steam Deck as I do not own any macOS hardware, but you get the point.

When it needs to be, the game is very colourful and bright. Furthermore, when you’re in darker areas, the aesthetics of the game change to match this. No longer is it bright and colourful, but darker colours fill your eyes.

The game runs very well on PC and Steam Deck, I experienced zero issues during gameplay.

The sound effects and OST in Beyond the Long Night are pretty decent. I feel they fit the direction of the game rather well. The game’s soundtrack is inspired by Retro Chip Tunes and they have a modern twist added to them.

Conclusions

Overall, Beyond the Long Night is a rather enjoyable game. Yes, it’s not perfect, but it sure is damn enjoyable. If you wish to learn more about the game, or even purchase it, you can do so via the Steam embed further down the page. There’s even a playable demo over on Itch.io.

I score Beyond the Long Night an 8/10.