Beyond Sunset Early Access Playthrough (Jun 2024): Chapter 1
2I resolved to treat Chapter 1 like a blank slate, and you pretty much have to, because wow it gives such a different impression from the demo right off the bat.
You're immediately thrust into a sprawling cityscape, with tons of moody lighting and an environment that's full of character - and characters, initially; there's plenty of dialogue right at the outset, immediately assuaging a fear I had after comparing Chapter 0 to the original demo. There's definitely a story here.
The sense of interconnectedness seen in the demo is ultimately still there, but at a far larger scale, and it will take a while to comprehend how the various sections of the chapter connect. This is very much cyberpunk Hexen (or maybe Quake II): you have a hub composed of multiple maps connected by loading zones, and you have several key targets to seek out, before you're able to move on to a final battle. And just like Hexen, you will probably feel lost a few times.
There are even optional side objectives along the way, though there isn't any dedicated UI to track them and sometimes the NPCs that give them to you won't even remind you where to go; at most you'll get an icon on the map. In one of the two cases in this chapter, I was legitimately confused as to where the side objective even was, until I stumbled into it.
I did encounter one significant issue in that side area: a big honking boss completely neglected to spawn the first time I visited one section, which left me extremely confused while exploring it, until I eventually reloaded. I also noticed some invisible enemies in that section, and I have to wonder if the two issues are related. I'm not sure if this is a Linux-specific issue; I only later realized this game doesn't actually offer a Linux build on Steam, though their Itch.io page seemed to suggest otherwise. Some folks have managed to hook the game up to Linux GZDoom, and that might be something I experiment with doing at some point.
At any rate, I thought Chapter 1 was super-interesting; I kind of wasn't ready (but also wasn't surprised) for it to be over. I hope the next 2 chapters can hold up to that high bar.
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