The future is what you think of it. What you are going to expect from something in the far flung future when it all goes wrong. And tribal, as always, with something so post-apocalyptic. But beautiful, if you look in the right places. You could see that in Fallout games, couldn't you? Sure, in the humanity of some people, doing good on their own, but also in the way that nature can take over on its own, when left to itself. But don't worry. There are still the radioactive areas. The wild tech. The weird side of the world after we go.
But where Fallout brought all that in alongside combat, Beautiful Desolation does it without. It is grade-A pure, uncut isometric adventure genre, baby, served to you on a silver platter, and it is good. Don't get me wrong, slap on some skill checks and let me talk my way out of anything like Fallout and I'm all the happier, but there's something so satisfying about a grand story and a a simple point-and-click interface that I can lean back and enjoy forever.
You are Mark Leslie, and you and your (now) missing brother Don are somewhere in the far flung future thanks to, that's hard to say, and while there is a way back (supposedly) it may be a while and change quite a few destinies in the process. But you know how adventure games go, don't you? You come first! Plus, since you're in the future and want to go back, *technically* anything you do in the future isn't really going to matter, right? Right.
Thankfully, Beautiful Desolation isn't very pixel hunt-y as some adventure games can be, though it does have a problem with distance. Mark has to be quite close to an object for the game to give you a prompt that anything is even there (aside from flavor text objects next to green squares) which makes finding objects kind of hard sometimes.
The interface is simple: inventory, codex, zoom, and a radio. There's really no other different version of your pointer such as look at / talk to / poke / eat / sniff / etc. Mark pretty much knows what he needs to do with a certain object. Picking it up or sticking it in Slot A. That could be seen as a drawback, but would make for a more complicated game, which isn't what is needed for BD to be as great as it is.
What left me floored with this game was the art. Every screen and every animation, just made me giddy at seeing it, they're all beautiful and amazingly created. Although they're all set in around the same places (and granted it's the future and different climate/biomes are possible 'cos of technology) each new screen just puts a smile on my face at all the little nooks and crannies I get to explore, as well as the flavor text I get to read accompanying it, explaining what I'm looking at.
"What machine is that? They're drugged out, on what? What in the hell kind of sentient creature is that? Oh wow, they have their own language, can I interpret that later?" Along with buildings created out of wood, metal, clay, tribes that advanced themselves more than another but won't share technology, and you can see it in the way they live, in the art of their garb, their homes, it's FANTASTIC.
Not to mention the first few screens in and I start thinking why in the hell did they rip off Mick Gordon (Doom, Prey, etc.) so much in the music? Turns out he did all the music for this game. So there's another one up on the board.
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I stumbled upon Beautiful Desolation just on happenstance, when I needed a very chill game, that was also a tremendously blockbuster experience, and damned if it didn't blow me the hell away. If you're a fan of the adventure genre, please, you owe it to yourself to at least check out a trailer or two, see if it's up your alley. Certainly was for me.