#YES I KNOW THE DOGS WILL PROBABLY DIE OR GET KILLED AND EATEN OR SUCCUMB TO SOME OTHER HORRIFIC FATE

[blackcatanna]

Just played The Pale Beyond demo on Steam and it's everything I wanted in a naval exploration game! It's pretty much The Terror as a game EXCEPT WITH DOGGOS. They have the cutest little doggy faces. You can shake their little doggy paws and exchange meaningful looks and pet them as much as you want! They will most likely soon be in mortal peril but the demo doesn't get that far and there are promises of DOGLOOS to come! So, lots to love.

Of course, the doglings are great but there's a lot more going on. You have to manage your limited resources, including morale ("decorum"). You also have to build loyalty with individual expedition members and make difficult snap decisions and live (or die) with the consequences.

The TENSION, the DRAMA, the DELICATE CONVERSATIONS! Such joy! Finally, I can lead my own expedition to a terrible fate! To be fair, I felt pretty optimistic when the demo ended but I'm sure there'll be lots of potential trauma in the full game (released next week) and, honestly I am comparing it to the outcomes of Terror and Erebus so the bar for DISASTER is pretty high.

I love that it's mostly just me making dialogue choices. I can't go off and use my gamer skillz to hunt us some seals to survive. I have to DELEGATE. I enjoy making decisions, even though it feels shitty when I see that little red number showing how a character's respect for me is dropping because I've disagreed with their STUPID IDEA (or just said something stupid myself, more likely).

Anyway, I wanted to talk about this game because I only knew about it because I'm subscribed to Fellow Traveler's newsletter and thought other fans of the classic people-on-a-ship-having-a-horrible-time formula might enjoy fucking up their own expedition (and petting many doggy friends; seriously, the dog art in this game is top tier).