The Pale Beyond (NSP, XCI) ROM

The Pale Beyond is a survival role-playing video game developed by Bellular Studios and published by Fellow Traveller. It was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on 24 February 2023. The game follows an Antarctic expedition that gets trapped in the ice as the player must manage the crew successfully to survive. Bellular Studios, a small development company based in Belfast, created the game and was inspired by historical Antarctic expeditions.

Half a decade ago, The Viscount and its crew embarked on a perilous journey through The Pale Passage in pursuit of the elusive magnetic South. Tragically, the ship and its crew succumbed to the icy abyss, vanishing without a trace. Now, The Temperance, her sister ship, is set to follow the same treacherous course, hoping to uncover the answers that eluded The Viscount.

GAMEPLAY

As the acting Captain of the Temperance after the Captain’s disappearance at the beginning of an Antarctic expedition, the player must manage the crew and keep them alive to survive the ice. The game has time that passes each week, during which the player is responsible for managing several resources, including food, fuel, and decorum.  “Decorum” represents the ship’s overall morale and how the crew is holding together. Each week, the player is responsible for deciding requests which can involve settling fights between crew members or taking sides in arguments.

Often, decisions that could seem reasonable on the face of themselves can lead the player towards ruin, and for a successful playthrough, the player must consider their resources accordingly. It is important to also keep up the loyalty of crew members to ensure survival (and that your decisions are followed or supported). Rations that are on board the ship eventually expire, requiring the crew to hunt for food, and fuel that is available through coal in the ship’s stores rapidly depletes as well, requiring the player to carefully stockpile supplies to survive. The game uses a “locked tree” system, which allows players to attempt to change the fate of their crew either after deleting newer save files or choosing load points after completing a game.

PLOT

Although The Pale Beyond progresses generally in a linear fashion, it features a “locked tree” system where the outcomes of the game can change radically depending on the player’s choices The player controls Robin Shaw, who is interviewed at the beginning of the game by Captain Hunt, an old Antarctic expeditionary veteran. Shaw is hired by Hunt to be the First Mate on the Temperance, a ship that is leaving for an Antarctic expedition to find The Viscount, a lost expedition and the Temperance’s sister ship.

At the onset of the expedition, Hunt is obfuscating about certain parts of the expedition and although the Captain is respected by the crew, he is inattentive and at one point is found drunk by Shaw in the Captain’s quarters. Hunt goes missing a month after the journey begins once the Temperance gets stranded in Antarctic ice, and as First Mate, the player is put into the role of Captain and must help the vessel survive the polar winter. The leader of the ship’s science team, Templeton, informs Shaw that they must hold a vote to become Captain, using the loyalty of the crew (or lack thereof) to determine the result.

Templeton also assures Shaw that a rescue party is being sent by their benefactor, but that they must hold out for the set number of weeks needed to make it. After several weeks stranded on the Temperance, the ship sinks from the pressure and the crew makes camp on the ice. As the ground begins to crack, the crew is forced further inland. Eventually, the crew is forced to abandon the ice altogether, salvaging the Temperance’s three remaining lifeboats to sail for a nearby island which was presumably the Viscount’s final destination.

The crew manages to reach the island and find signs left behind by the Viscount crew, informing them of a supply cache on the coast on the opposite side of the island that can sustain the crew until rescue arrives. The signs also carry a warning not to travel further inland. It is at this point where Shaw must decide whether to prioritize the safety of the crew and head for the coast, or focus on their original mission and head inland to discover the fate of the Viscount. If Shaw chooses to head for the coast, the crew finds the supply cache and plenty of penguins to hunt as they wait for the rescue ship to arrive.

However, one day they are alarmed when the mountain at the center of the island erupts, revealing itself to be a volcano. The rescue ship, having caught sight of the eruption, arrives at the island and safely evacuates Shaw and the crew. They are then met by their benefactor, Lady Appertton who is disappointed that Shaw disobeyed orders and failed to complete the expedition’s objective.

Depending on how much of the crew survived and how loyal they are to Shaw, Shaw is either pardoned, arrested, or left stranded on the island. If Shaw chooses to head inland, they find the still intact Viscount hidden inside a secret cove, with a massive tree having grown on the deck of the ship. Shaw enters the ship and is shocked to find Hunt waiting for him. Hunt explains that the tree’s fruit can grant whoever eats it the ability to perceive multiple timelines and even travel between them.

Hunt discovered the tree the first time the expedition was stranded and had been going through countless loops trying to either avert the disaster or save the entire crew, but failing every time. The tree is also what the expedition’s benefactors are truly seeking.

Afterward, either Hunt or Templeton will try to overthrow Shaw for the role of Captain and put it up to another crew vote. Depending on Shaw’s choices and how the crew votes, the crew will either sail the Viscount and the tree back to civilization or burn down the tree along with the ship to keep its secrets out of human hands and send Shaw out on a lifeboat to make contact with the rescue ship.

KEY FEATURES

• A Frozen Wasteland – Step into a polar exploration adventure, navigating an unforgiving frozen wasteland as you embark on a perilous voyage across the ice and through the Pale Beyond. The landscape is breathtaking yet unforgiving, capable of abrupt transformations.
• Every Choice Matters, Ice Is Unforgiving – As the expedition unfolds and the Polar Winter looms, each decision you make will reverberate through the narrative, shaping your journey across the ice.
• Reluctant Leadership – Leading this expedition wasn’t your choice, but fate has stranded you in the frozen wilderness, the Captain missing, and civilization miles away. Someone must assume command. Juggling meager resources, balancing safety and morale, making tough decisions – it’s all on your shoulders. There’s only one path: through The Pale Beyond. Keeping the crew (and sled dogs) safe, fed, and warm is paramount. In the face of a mutiny, surviving the ice becomes secondary. Every vote counts. Keep the crew by your side.
• Immersive Soundtrack – Experience an immersive audio backdrop with original musical compositions, sea shanties, and accordion tunes that dynamically evolve throughout your journey.”