Beautiful Desolation
Role with it
Nobody likes being late to the party. But in the case of this throwback to the days when CRPGs dominated interactive storytelling, the wait for a PS4 port has largely been worth it. Some rather obtuse quest design and irritating input lag persist throughout the post-apocalyptic adventure, true, yet both are worth pushing through to experience Beautiful Desolation’s intriguing vision of an alternate-reality South Africa.
Clearly inspired by the style and presentation of the first two Fallout games, the painterly isometric perspective does well to make you feel like a small cog in this messed-up, machine-driven world. Getting out of it and returning to your home timeline of 1986 requires you to pay close attention to your surroundings at all times, and usually involves solving puzzles, navigating interesting character relationships, and mining each location for the lore-rich context necessary to progress.
If you weren’t chained to a PC in the late ’90s, you may find Beautiful Desolation’s overall ‘rhythm’ jarring, especially since there’s no hint system or compass. Luckily, it’s easy to stay engaged with the peculiar characters1 you meet, as each is voiced brilliantly and always has something insightful to say. (If only the same could be said for protagonist Mark.) The world being split into distinct areas also makes finding clues simpler, even if having to jump constantly between areas2 could have been avoided.
This science-fiction journey won’t be to every modern player’s tastes, but it translates almost flawlessly to PS4, providing you can stomach the weird controller latency.
Overall, this is full of fresh sights and sharp dialogue.