Beyond Retrieval

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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.

Due to the in-engine resizing issues, only 816x624 window resolution is supported at the moment. This may change in the future once there's a proper solution.

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.

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.