Beyond Eyes is an adventure game that tells the story of Rae, a ten year-old girl who lost her eyesight in a terrible fireworks accident. The experience has left her with a fear of many things including loud noises and public spaces. Rae is in search of her cat, Nani, who wandered away from home into the surrounding wilderness and villages. Rae has only her memories to remind her of what objects look like.
The most striking aspect of the game has to be its visuals. Her thoughts are beautifully shown in the game as a white canvas that colors in piece by piece through touch, sounds, and smells that trigger those memories. As you slowly walk about, the world is painted in around you…grass, trees, streams, stone walls, and wooden fences, all brushed onto the blank canvas of the screen. It’s quite mesmerizing. Sound is represented in a very interesting way in Beyond Eyes. For example, the noise of a bird in the distance causes a sudden shape and color to match, the strokes appearing for an instant then disappearing.
Rae only has one movement speed which is a slow, cautious walk. With so many games allowing you to run all the time, this can be quite frustrating to get used to even though it makes sense in a game featuring a blind young girl. As Rae ventures further, parts of the world that she has explored or that are familiar to her remain. Everything that is unknown is white until explored and areas that she perceives as dangerous are shown as black clouds. Sometimes, Rae can hear something but isn’t sure what it is. What first can appear as stick in the distance actually turns out to be an umbrella when touched! This was another one of the most interesting aspects of gameplay. It added to the element of surprise.
The game does present a few puzzles in the form of a dog barking or other obstacles in your path. However, these normally end in having to either walk very, very slowly past the object, or finding a much longer path around it. I wish there was more variety.
At times though, Beyond Eyes can become very slow and tedious. There is no real challenge to the game, just a lot of very, slow walking. This might frustrate a lot of players who are used to other gaming experiences.
The game’s graphics and music are beautiful, and attempt to make a connection with you. Unfortunately, many times they fail because the gameplay can get repetitious. That detracts from the overall experience.
I feel bad for criticizing Beyond Eyes, as visually, it’s one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. Despite its beauty though, there is just not a lot to keep players engaged. It’s a great idea that just never really comes together due to the lack of gameplay mechanics.
Beyond Eyes is a difficult game to score because I think it’s meant to be an interactive experience that tries to capture blindness and what that feels like. I couldn’t assign a score to it purely from a gameplay perspective because that wouldn’t be fair. From a gameplay standpoint it would be 5 out of 10. However, the vision of the developers must be commended and Beyond Eyes should be viewed as something more than just another title. It takes risks and presents the world in a unique way. I don’t even know if we have the ability to assign a score to such a game because it’s just so different from anything else out there. Its goals are different. For that reason I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 for the experience is tries to provide as a whole while taking gameplay into account. If you want to try something new, which I don’t think has ever been attempted before in such a manner, be sure to check out Beyond Eyes. I would recommend it due to its concept.
Simon contributed 16 articles to ICXM in 2015, covering game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming.