Lunar Lander Beyond

Puh, this review is hard. I try to enjoy the game but there are so many things that stand in it's way. - The videos really are all stuttering in image and audio, they look nice and would have a great atmospheric music, but there is no way to enjoy them. I'm afraid to skip them in case there is something story relevant, so I sit through them and really dislike it. - The default landers flight experience is nice! This is one of the two reasons I wanted to get this game - I love to "carefully" and slowly maneuver a lander with this kind of controls. BUT I'm really slow doing it and then suddenly a lot of missions are on sort of a timer, where you have to quickly destroy asteroids or flee from rising lava. I could not enjoy it at all. Then out of a sudden you get an alternative vehicle that has an alternative control mode: it directly fies in the direction you press. Every mission is so much easier with it and you can pick it for every mission. This makes it really hard to use the vehicle I enjoy flying - I try to force myself, but when a mission is on a timer I have to restart with the other vehicle, that I don't enjoy. I can't understand the reasoning behind this design decision. "…

A quick verdict after finishing the campaign: Lunar Lander Beyond tries hard to bring the simple idea of Atari's original game into the present. It expands on the main premise with additonal gameplay mechanics, different lander types with different controls and individual upgrades, a pilot sanity system (that wants to infuse some strategy into your pilot choices) and a main story. While there are good intentions and a couple of things to love here, overall the game is held back massively by its story. Those endless briefings of exposition dumps feel like a chore to grind through. Alongside the often relatively short missions these extensive dialogue segments take up way too much time (and space) and aren't really that interesting, except for maybe the final chapter. As for the game itself, on normal difficulty the economy and pilot healing systems don't really come into effect and to be fair, you can either chose between landers that are more or less difficult to control or a lander that's so precise, it almost feels like cheesing the game. Lunar Lander Beyond aims for the heart, but lacks balancing and soul. It never really develops a steady flow. Some of the missions are pretty b…

How could they screw the controls up so bad? It really looks like this game has been made by an unexperienced team. I wonder if they had actually played the original Atari titles. Thrust control is NOT analogic, which makes the games pointlessly difficult. Atari shouldn't have approved this mess.

€28,99 before discount?! That's CRAZY MADNESS! Also the reason why only 12(!) reviews are made so far. Greedy Atari, take this - a DOWNVOTE - for free!

While I'd bought this in an Atari bundle, I only recently decided to take Lunar Lander for a flight. It is a complete REIMAGINING of the original Atari game, and I'm playing it on my Steam Deck. It goes so far beyond just improved graphics, and makes for a relaxing and enjoyable cozy gaming experience. Its not fast-paced, and the game rewards you for taking your time, being deliberate in your choice of thruster ignitions, and is the perfect antidote to a stressful day. While later stages can be played faster, I'm enjoying life in the slow lane. Ignore the negative reviews and play the demo for yourself.

Me está gusntando mucho. Es distinto a Gravitar Recharged (que es una genialidad) pero totalmente complementario. Me gustan mucho los SHMUPS pero se me dan muy mal, Lunar Lander Beyond no es un SHMUP al uso pero comparte con el género algunas cosas. Hay algunos que mezclan géneros como Metrodvania, misiones etc, que sin llegar a ser los típicos euro-shmups tienen mecánicas distintas (misiones, tiendas, etc) que algunos japoneses ya tenían como Fantasy Zone. Recomiendo encarecidamente Astro Aqua Kitty (al que he jugado en PS Vita). El apartado gráfico está muy cuidado, las escenas de animación también. En general me parece una continuación a la serie Recharged tratando de revitalizar juegos icónicos de Atari. En este caso la historia también me parece interesante. La música, toda la parte artística en general está muy bien. Lo estoy jugando en una Atari VCS en Linux (modo PC). He bajado la calidad de los vídeos con FFMPEG, pero quizá hubiese sido mejor comprar la versión nativa de la VCS. Me están gustando mucho los juegos que está sacando Atari y creo que Wade Rosen está haciendo un gran trabajo al frente, o al menos creo que los que llevan ahora la compañía están ilusionados…