Beyond Eyes, developed by Tiger & Squid, tells the story of a ten year old girl Rae and her friendship with Nani, a ginger cat. The object of the game is simply to search for Nani who has wandered off into the village, but there is a substantial twist; a firework accident has left Rae completely blind. You cannot see through Rae’s eyes in this game, as the name suggests. You see through her mind as it builds an image of the world based on information and guesswork.
After a brief introduction, you take control of Rae in her front garden and proceed to follow Nani the cat. The rest of the game world is a blank at first and as Rae walks ahead, the world illuminates in colour; it’s similar to the Fog of War mechanic found in many Strategy games like the Civilization series. Everything is illustrated using a watercolour paint effect that looks beautiful yet minimalist as the world around you forms as if it was hand painted in front of your eyes. The white background morphs into a washy hue and transforms to vibrant color as it comes closer into proximity.
The game pace is purposely slow – really slow in fact – and the gameplay itself consists of merely walking around and interacting with people and objects to solve fairly simple puzzles that hopefully lead to Nani. The experience is enhanced in subtle, emotional and artistic ways, to great effect. A lot of care and attention is applied to the simple premise that Rae is blind and how that affects her vision of the world. Rae uses touch and sound to aid her journey. Distant noises will create a visual clue that appears somewhere off in the empty void as her imagination attempts to fill the in the gaps. Upon closer inspection though, things may not be as she imagined them at all as the visual image may change completely into its true form as reality overrules imagination. Boxes blocking an alleyway? Look closer and you may find that they are merely a construct of memory from Rae’s last visit, and they will disappear from the world if inspected. Rae knows the surroundings, she lives here and can remember how they looked the last time she visited. However, things change, and if Rae is not close enough to touch it, mystery surrounds it.
Discovering the differences between the imagined world (painted from memories and audio clues) and the real world is the true genius of this game. The ways in which Rae interprets the world around her using sound, touch, memory and a large dose of imagination are used skillfully to give insight into her fears, hopes and memories. You get a sense of her great optimism which can often be tempered with disappointment and her worst fears which are often unfounded. A soundtrack of mood music hangs in the background and adapts to the situation. The music adds to the immersion without being intrusive.
Beyond Eyes takes simplistic gameplay mechanics consisting of walking slowly around, occasionally pressing the interact button, but adds a change of perspective that makes it an enchanting, emotional and thought provoking experience. For Rae, the change in perspective transforms a simple, everyday walk around her village into a mission of bravery and a search for truth. The game is a selfless journey into mysterious and yet familiar territory. It is a journey in which sight can no longer be relied upon, and yet everything can be re-engineered in the mind using all the colour and joy of a child’s imagination.
A code was sent by Team17 for the purpose of this review.