Beyond Retrieval
A downloadable game
« Away from here, the winged wind has scorched the mountain tops;
And here it caresses the lawn - for this a special reason was... »
You're done for. Despite living your whole life in a near-utopian society, you have committed a heinous crime and were judged to receive a death penalty for it. Yet an alternative sentence was offered: to man a derelict bunker in the war-torn, apocalyptic wasteland. Between these two options, the choice was easy... what they didn't tell you,
is that "being the only human there" doesn't mean "being alone".
Set in a bleak timeline that went through an esoteric follow-up to the Cold War, its story puts the player in the shoes of a clueless outsider, unfamiliar with the world beyond his homeland. Encounter cryptid neighbours and explore their odd habits, collect relics of the bygone culture, uncover the extent of lies your rulers feed you... Or maybe don't. Everything surely goes fine if you don't.
GAMEPLAY
Beyond Retrieval is a genre amalgamation, including elements of a point-and-click adventure, visual novel, job simulator, and even some puzzles and action sequences. Despite having a few suggestive designs, there is no romance to be found here. Focus is on the different kind of mature themes: history, sociology, human nature.
This is a very text-heavy, reading-filled experience with a cast of varied monsters (and a few humans), each with their own distinct and conflicting personalities, opinions and secrets, forcing the player to navigate a maze of unreliable narratives. Question others to learn about the world and past events, make your deductions and choose who of your neighbours can be trusted. Talk and think - or suffer.
DISCLAIMER
Sensitive players may find some parts of the experience offensive or disturbing. There will be no specific content warnings; if you require them to play comfortably, pick a different game. Beyond Retrieval asks of you to dive blindly into the crude oil of unrestrained slavic imagination, no safeguards provided...
THE PROJECT IS IN THE VERY EARLY "PROOF OF CONCEPT" STATE.
Expect placeholders, inaccessible areas and uncaught bugs. Only the first of five planned chapters is present, and it still misses some features and content; however enough is already present to submerge yourself for a few hours.
Due to the in-engine resizing issues, only 816x624 window resolution is supported. Furthermore, hardware-related bugs such as sound de-synchronization and sped up event timers are possible; game's only developer does not know a solution to this.
Ambient music used with explicit permission by Atrium Carceri & Simon Heath:
http://cryochamber.bandcamp.com. Other tracks are from slavic punk-rock bands (Instruktsia po Vijivaniu, Krasnie Zvezdi, Yanka Dyagileva, Grajdanskaya Oborona) to whom copyright is a joke and freedom of art is all.
Updates, changelogs and fanart will be posted to the discord server:
https://discord.gg/UssV2A5sTX
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SPOILERS AHEAD!
bylo uyutno s chetyriokhrukoi tiotei posidet posmotret koncert na malenkom televizore poka ona s bankoi sguschonki v rukah s entuziazmom bazarit o tom kakoi sib pank dushevniy kak ona yevo liubit
Every interaction in this game is driven from active attention to the conversation, locations, and themes discussed. The ability to prompt characters for information provides quite a bit of world building, makes it feel natural, and it's superior to hosting all dialogue to preselected options, since you only get what you care about or are attentive enough to pick up. It's engaging, and it makes conversations feel active. Every character (that you can ask questions to so far) is fleshed out, and it's rewarding to talk to them. It's also reflected in the ability to ask characters about items. There isn't any filler text, and hearing Greaser's sarcastic reply to being asked about her own note shows that no line in this game is thoughtless. At no point did I find myself spamming "next line" or rushing through a conversation. I can't wait to see more of the characters and the world they're in, and am very much looking forward to the next installation.
Absolutely incredible -- loved all of the time I spent in this world and talking to the inhumans. I never ran into the duo with the P90 in the screenshot on the page, I'm assuming they may have shown up if my choices were a little different, though I did see them on the screen in the control room after saving Phalanx. I did encounter a bug once that I had trouble replicating during the defense of the bunker after saving Phalanx -- I pulled a magazine out to clear a jam and a magazine showed up in its place without my input.
I really want to know more, What was Teacher's plan? What's going on with Adjutant at the end (of the demo), more "nightmares"? Will Phalanx live for longer than the month it has? What did Dentist do to Cypher? What is up with the witches outside of the bunker? If/When an Apocalypse Soldier comes, what will we even be able to do to stop it?
This has its hooks in me and I don't think it will ever let go. I really hope to see more.
Thanks for the interest. Meeting the duo requires ignoring your duties for multiple days, then they'll come for a visit. The ghost magazine bug is fixed in the new version, it was reported before but I couldn't catch until learning how specifically it occured. And everything will be revealed in time as the chapters continue.