Steam Next Fest has arrived, granting indie fans the opportunity toget hands on time with all manner of upcoming indie titles.It’s a gamer’s dream sample platter, but it comes with an inherent problem: too much choice. With so many games to try, it can be difficult to decide where to begin. For those who enjoyDOOMand Deus Ex though, Metacorp’s Beyond Sunset might just be the best game to kick things off.
Beyond Sunset casts players as Lucy, an amnesiac “street-samurai” striving to survive in the year 20XX. Her world is a cyberpunk dystopia not too dissimilar from the likes ofCyberpunk 2077’s Night CityorDeus Ex: Mankind Divided’s Prague.Corporations rule the world, but the streets are dominated by everything from yakuza families to robots to plague-ridden zombies. Most of these won’t want to be reasonable, so Lucy’s gonna have to slice and shoot her way through them as she wrks to recover her lost memories.
Metacorp and Movie Games are pitching Beyond Sunset as a fast-paced and hectic 360-degree shooter with RPG elements. Levels are described as large, open and interactive, which makes it sound like players will more or less have free reign to tackle them however they wish. Emphasis appears to be on combat, but the developer is also drawing attention to the game’s dialogue system. Considering that Deus Ex is one of the inspirations mentioned on Beyond Sunset’s Steam page, it may be that players will have opportunities to talk their way to some objectives should they wish it. They might even have some story-impacting decisions to make as well.
It’s also sounding like the team is taking full advantage of Beyond Sunset’s open level design too. One would expect this sort of game to primarily deliver its story through dialogue and cutscenes, but Movie Games mentions that it can also be uncovered through exploration. Considering this, it’s quite likely that enterprising players who like finding out of the way places will see their effort rewarded with additional bits of lore and the like.
Modding for Beyond Sunset is being encouraged as well. Movie Games has made sure to point out that the game is completely moddable and “brings new solutions to the cult GZDoom engine. New additions include advanced AI and an improved dialogue system.” In other words, modders should have a relatively easy time developing new stuff for this one.
Steam Next Fest is running from June 19 to June 26, so fans have roughly a week to downloadthe demoand give it a good try. Beyond Sunset doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, but it’s apparently slated to release sometime this summer. For a quick impression before jumping into the demo proper, check out the most recent trailer below:
