Before We Leave review: An intergalactic adventure

Epic games is set to release Before We Leave, a brand new game in their video game arsenal that revolves around space and building your own universe.

Title: Before We Leave
Developer: Balancing Monkey Games
Publisher: Balancing Monkey Games
Platforms: Microsoft Windows
Release Date: May 8th, 2020

Before We Leave is a game that puts creativity and strategy to the test. Set in space, in the middle of the universe, it is up to you to create a world that is unique to you.

Before We Leave is unlike the tradition type of civilization-building game. Instead of getting ready for a battle, it is going to be a lot more slower pace. You’ll find yourself traveling oceans, exploring news lands, populating different planets throughout the universe, and even trying to fend off flying whales. Epic Games has set off to release something brand new out of their arsenal.

Before We Leave begins with how many planets you want there to be able to explore in the universe. After your selection, it throws you into a random seeded world. The seed determines how the world will be laid out.

Since seeds are always different, that means every time you play the game the world will have a different layout. Meaning no two worlds are the same, making creativity an all-time high in this game. The game copies seeds from Minecraft where depending on what seed is put in that would be how the layout of the world would be.

You start of the game by only have a few “Peeps.” Peeps are the equivalent to humans. The more Peeps, the more populated an area will be. Like any other building genre game, there needs to be places for your Peeps to stay. You can build them huts, houses, or even apartments as the game progresses. Peeps also need food and water just like any other real life human in order to make them work in an efficient manner. If you do not know what to build or how to build anything, no need to fear, there are guides that help you along the way until you blast off to another planet.

I really wish the game was more goal orientated. The few little guides that popped up on what to build or what I should do next really added the sense of accomplishment when they were completed. As soon as those little guided tips ended, I felt the game become a little boring and sluggish. I was almost at a loss on what I should be doing next. I understand that a game of this type of genre should be the gamer making their own adventure, but at least give players the option to turn those sort of “quests” on.

The gameplay was very smooth. Being that the game is being released by Epic Games, I expected nothing less. Even with hundreds of Peeps running around my islands, it was quite satisfying to see how well the game would deal with all the commotion that was going on.

Peeps also need to be put to work because without them working it makes it impossible to explore any other parts of the world. From Tree Cutters to Stone Miners to even Steel Converters, Peeps were being put to work. The more jobs that you place around the islands, the more Peeps that will have to be brought in.

Getting more Peeps is quite easy. All you do is build a Hut, House and or School and you are golden. Peeps will be spawning on the regular. Once you have a steady starting island with Peeps happily at work, you can begin to build boats that allow you to travel and explore the planet that you started on.

After I was able to explore the starting planet, I found 3 different islands that I was able to habitat and make life on. However, each new island that you go you have to start over in terms of repopulating and making resources. For example, if you have 40 pieces of wood from your first island and 25 tools, these will not carry over to the next island. There are ways to transfer items from island to island, but for the most part it is better if you start off fresh on each island with the occasion of transferring resources.

The planets are not very big as well which was kind of a bummer. In a game that revolves around exploration and building you would think planets would be massive. This was not the case in Before We Leave. I was able to explore a planet in full in less then 5 minutes. That was a huge bummer to me, as I was looking forward to making a playthrough session an exploration trip. There are multiple planets to be explored with new items on each planet, but the fact you can explore all those planets pretty quick once you get there is a kind of a turn-off.

During the course of the game you may encounter FLYING WHALES! Yes, you heard that correctly. I was playing the game and all of a sudden I thought my game froze. I wasn’t able to move my mouse cursor, I wasn’t able to click on any buildings, and I wasn’t even able to build anything. Everything was taken out of my control. All of a sudden I see something flying through space and what does it end up being, a flying whale?! The whale soars through space and on the way by he will eat part of your planet and islands, leaving craters in the world. This can all be prevented later on in the game when you are able to build things for whales to eat instead of them eating your planet. This was something I was definitely not expecting to happen.

Epic Games is a massive video game company. Being a huge fan of city-building games and Epic Games, I was very excited to play a game of this nature. At the end of the day, it didn’t live up to my expectations. I really wish there were more goals to do and even more exploration. After many hours of gameplay, things eventually began to get old and repetitive. Games of this genre have to be made to be played for hours on end without getting old because, ultimately, you are the creator and builder of your own story. This game has a lot more potential, but for now it is something that needs a lot of work still.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.