Ever wanted to obtain fame and glory through intergalactic space travel as an Indie Rock Band? From Developer Nerial creators of Reign and publisher Digital Revolver comes Reigns: Beyond a console-released version of the swipe-based adventure through the Stars that came out back in 2020. Travel from Planet to Planet and play gig to gig recruiting all types of band members while avoiding pirates and tax collectors. Let’s travel the Cosmos together and discover whether or not this game is a hit with the masses or just a one-hit-wonder.
The story of Reigns: Beyond is that you play as a mechanic turned ship commander as said the ship is about to crash on the planet of Sidoma. After fainting from the shock the commander wakes up to discover that their ship has crashed on a stage which unfortunately killed the lead guitarist of an intergalactic band. About to face the wrath of his fans and band mates the commander picks up the lead guitarist’s guitar and proceeds to play in his place which calms both the crowd and convinces the band to have you join as their new lead guitarist. After becoming their new lead they become part of your ship’s crew and join the commander on their travels to wherever the player desires. While traversing your journey through the stars the player encounters a loan shark who later becomes the band’s manager after your band plays a tune for him. The goal of this game is to acquire fame and fortune as you travel from planet to planet. In your adventure, you can acquire new bandmates, give rides to passengers, evade pirates, and maintain your ship’s resources. The point of the game is to travel the cosmos as long as the player can until they make one fatal mistake that could destroy them and their ship.
In some of my past reviews, I’ve mentioned how some games have simple gameplay mechanics that anyone can understand, but for the first time ever this game has the simplest gameplay loop that I’ve ever played. This is largely due to the fact that Reigns: Beyond was originally a mobile game that is now ported to PC and Switch. Its main gameplay loop is swiping left or right similar to a dating app. Every swipe bears a different decision that could either affect your ship, crew, or resources positively or negatively. The more negative decisions that are made the higher the risks of death are for the player and their crew. After every death, the player respawns (or in this case is cloned) on the previous planet that was landed on. Another gameplay loop is the mini-game for the band which primarily involves dragging your chosen guitar over a trail collecting as many hearts as possible. Each guitar collected during the journey comes with different songs to perform as well as different amounts of hearts to collect. Finally, when playing on a planet there are four different tabs to select; band, social, ship, or marketplace. The band is where you play music to rack up more fans and money, social is where you get to interact with your band/crew but also take on more passengers and quests, the ship is where you can choose to leave on your ship to another planet and finally, the marketplace where you can buy ship parts, upgrades, instruments, or items that can be sold for high prices on other planets that might not have them. There are many random encounters during the journey through space that will be different for everyone. For example, during my journeys I encountered a stowaway doctor and made her a part of my crew while on another journey I somehow came across a parody version of Elon Musk who wanted to hitch a ride on my ship every journey and encounter will be interesting and no doubt the most addictive aspect of the game just to see what happens next.
But is it a great game sadly no because while the premise is fun the gameplay loops aren’t interesting enough to keep me invested for a long period of time. While I can see this game being played by those who enjoy this style of gameplay on a smartphone it doesn’t work completely for consoles. Now for all I know I could be wrong and there could be people who enjoy games like this on consoles as well, but unfortunately, I am not one of them. However despite my criticism, this isn’t a bad game in fact, there is a lot of potential within the hidden details of the different paths players can take. Who knows people may find something appealing about it that I didn’t. With that in mind, I sure hope that they enjoy their tour across the stars.
Score: 7 out of 10
Reviewed on PC