The Pale Beyond is a survival management game by Bellular Studios. It was released on Steam on February 24, 2023.
You play as Robin Shaw, First Mate on the Temperance, a ship sailing into the arctic regions of the north. Only three things stand between you and a frozen death; 1910s technology, whatever you can hunt from the ice, and the Temperance's crew, a motley of frightened people hired by your "benefactors", whose identity is a secret. Your quest is to find the Viscount, a similar ship lost to the north five years ago...
...or it was, until your Captain deserted the expedition and ran off. Now you are in charge of the ship, a ship punctured and trapped by ice. You must balance the factors of everyone's survival: fuel, rations, morale, and injuries. Can you earn the respect of your crew? Can you live long enough to uncover the truth?
This game includes the following tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: It's entirely possible to end the game with all of the Temperence's crew members being disloyal to Shaw. There's even an achievement for it. Of course, this all but guarantees a bad ending where none of the crew members vote in favor of Shaw.
- Anyone Can Die: It's certainly possible to get most if not your entire crew killed through poor decisions.
- Brutal Honesty: The expedition ad makes it very clear that successful applicants will probably die. But Shaw takes the job anyway, either because they like adventure or because they couldn't find other work.
- The Chain of Command: When shit starts going down, Templeton concludes that respecting the chain of command (which, in this case, leads to the player) is the most sensible course of action, and thereon does everything he can to support it and keep onboard politics stable.
- Driving Question: Who is backing the expedition, and why are they pouring so much money into finding one almost-certainly-deserted research ship?
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Templeton, a botanist, is assigned to an expedition headed for the arctic where there is little to no plant life.
- Going Down with the Ship:
- Happens if the player fails to move the crew onto the ice in time. The Temperence will sink through the ice, taking everyone with her and resulting in a Game Over.
- Shaw can state that Hunt should have gone down with the ship when they meet him on the Viscount.
- Golden Ending: It's perfectly possible to have the entire crew survive and be fully loyal to you by the end of the game.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: It's heavily implied that the crew of the Viscount consumed the fruit from the Tree and subsequently went insane from the countless time loops they experienced.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: If you find Hunt at the Tree, he reveals to you that consuming the Tree's fruit allows you to travel back a certain period time. Though your memories of the loops are erased, you'll feel compelled to try something different each time. Hunt has gone through at least dozens of loops trying to avert the stranding of the Temperance by the time you find him, and it's implied that you yourself have looped before, as well.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Most of the game involves a desperate bid to survive on a ship stranded in ice with meager supplies. However, the game can suddenly shift near the end if the player decides to investigate the mysterious cave, where they find a tree where its fruit allows whoever consumes them to perform a type of Mental Time Travel back a certain period of time. Then the game suddenly becomes an ethical dilemma of whether humanity is ready for such a discovery or not.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Cannibalism is a possible option if food supplies are low, but this of course will greatly hurt the crew's morale. Hunt admits to having to resort to this to survive.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Hunt reveals that he chose Shaw to be his First Mate because he noticed in the job interview, Shaw would always give different answers in each time loop, directly referencing how Shaw has a literal Multiple-Choice Past that the player can pick for them.
- MegaCorp: The Appertton Tinning Company, which provides the tinned food for the expedition. However, Apertton is actually involved in far more lucrative fields than just food tinning, which they consider a low priority, and secretly funded the expedition to search for a tree that can enable time travel.
- Nepotism: Captain Hunt is revealed to have hired several crew members based on personal connections over experience. This includes the ship's doctor, Arthur Nutlee, who was only chosen because his father was Hunt's barber.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The expedition clearly sets out from England, but specific names are never mentioned, likely to avoid political baggage.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If the player decides to prioritize getting their crew to the rescue ship rather than search for the Viscount, Appertton threatens to have you thrown in prison for breaking your contract. Thankfully, if you've won the loyalty of the crew, they'll stand up for you, forcing Appertton to back down.
- Plotline Death:
- You cannot save the three crew who abandon ship with Hunt. If you manage to catch up to Hunt, his companions are long dead.
- You also cannot save the sled dogs who accompany the crew, save for Stanberry. No matter what, they cannot be taken on the journey across the sea.
- The Power of Trust: Each major character has a "loyalty" meter, which can be raised or lowered by various choices and dialogue options throughout the game. Various character outcomes are determined by whether or not they are loyal to Shaw, and the game's ending will change based on whether the majority of the crew trusts them or not.
- Resources Management Gameplay: Much of the game revolves around managing three resources: food, fuel and decorum. Food and fuel are used to sustain the crew at the end of each week, while decorum will increase or decrease based on the usage of the former two. Running out of food or fuel can lead to scurvy or frostbite (respectively), which can kill crew members; running out of decorum is a Game Over. The game can quickly be made unwinnable if resources are misused, prompting a new (or reloaded) save.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The plot kicks off with Hunt and three of his crew stealing a lifeboat and supplies and abandoning the Temperance shortly after it gets stranded in the ice. Most of the crew conclude that Hunt essentially left them to die to save himself.
- After certain events, some crew may attempt to desert the expedition for one reason or another.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The game's premise is very similar to the doomed Franklin Expedition
, where two Royal Navy ships exploring the Arctic for the fabled Northwest Passage were trapped in ice for at least two years, with the crews of both ships eventually perishing after their supplies ran out. In addition, one of the most popular theorized causes of death of the crew was lead poisoning from poor quality food cans, similar to how the crew of the Temperance discover their food tins are tainted with lead. - Video Game Caring Potential:
- You can pet the sled dogs whenever you want.
- When mourning the dead during the memorial service, if you had lost any dogs, you have the option of reciting their names as well, which earns you additional loyalty from Cordell.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: There are plenty of points in the game where you can be a pretty terrible person. The achievement "Deplorable" is awarded to players who decide to make their crews more miserable than the ice ever could.
- Whilst somewhat funny, smashing Grimley's accordion for singing mutinous songs on it is a rather extreme response.
- Purposefully ignoring Dr. Nutlee's suicidal tendencies or even actively encouraging him to walk out into the blizzard and kill himself.
- Murdering Hammond after shooting Cordell to cover up the murder.
- When Kurt and Kasha try to retrieve the camera that has fallen on the ledge you can cut the rope, sending both tumbling to their deaths.
- Uncertain Doom: In the ending where the player decides to burn down the Viscount and the Tree, the crew's only hope for survival now is for someone to take the last remaining lifeboat out to sea to try and signal the rescue ship that's supposed to be arriving. This route ends with the player taking the lifeboat out to sea, leaving whether they found rescue or not uncertain.
- You Can't Fight Fate: It seems that even though the Tree can allow time travel, some events simply cannot be changed. No matter how many times Hunt has looped, he cannot prevent the Temperance from getting stranded in the ice.
- You Lose at Zero Trust: The "decorum" statistic represents general crew happiness, and raises and lowers at the end of each week based on several factors (such as whether the crew is starving or freezing, or if anyone's died). If decorum drops all the way to zero, the game will end after an implied mutiny, ultimately dooming the crew.
