Game: Between Horizons
Genre: Adventure
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: DigiTales Interactive | Assemble Entertainment
Controller: Yes
Price: US $15,99 | UK £ 13.49 | EU € 15,99
Release Date: March 25th, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to Keymailer.
Between Horizons is a 2024 sci-fi detective adventure game developed by DigiTales Interactive and released by Assemble Entertainment.
Premise
In Between Horizons, we play as Stella, the new Chief of Security on the Zephyr, humanity’s first-generation ship en route to another star, where there’s hope for new life. 33 years into the Zephyr’s journey, its mission is suddenly endangered, and Stella is sent to investigate a conspiracy that will change everything.
Gameplay
Between Horizons is a sci-fi story – with an enormous ship to roam and technical and scientific-themed cases to investigate. However, all the while, it is also a classic detective story, with some old-school tried-and-golden investigating to do. We look around crime scenes, talk to witnesses, interrogate suspects, and then, while going through all we’ve collected, we make logical conclusions. We might be wrong, or we might be right and not find out until much, much later. It’s a great premise, well thought out, and perfectly executed.
The cases are interconnected, flowing logically. While investigating a crime scene in one case, we might find something that starts a whole new case while collecting details about our shipmates and Zephyr’s mission, its little on-board society, and its future. There’s also no going back once you submit a report with your conclusions. The story moves forward, and we have to live with our choices. It also means that you need to find a character later for a conversation. There are multiple endings in Between Horizons, and the variations are practically endless.
Between Horizons is an excellent 2.5D pixel art adventure with drawn backgrounds and more pixelated characters. The animation is smooth, with zooming in and out of Stella as she moves through the ship. This decision creates a dynamic feeling of driving with Stella and a sense of urgency, especially during the final cases when time runs out.
Movement on the keyboard is through the classic WASD. Interacting with objects and people is with E. We can present and ask people about all the evidence we’ve collected, not just specific cases, with F.
Tab opens up our pad, where we can see all the cases, evidence, transcripts from all conversations, communications, and the map. Here is also where we make our conclusions and submit our reports about perpetrators and such.
Since the ship is genuinely enormous, the developers have thought of including a fast travel option as well. When opening up the map, we can click on any of the rooms and fast travel, including undiscovered locations. It sounds great, but in practice, it doesn’t work out like this – fast travel only sends you to the nearest transportation hub relative to the place you want to go.
Say you want to go to the Navigation room on the 4th level, fast travel we send you to the ground-level transportation hub (much like a railroad connecting all parts of the ship), and from there, you need to find the elevator by yourself, go up three levels and go to the Navigation room. I expected something else for fast travel. On the other hand, it makes sense – it allows Between Horizons to remain relatively realistic despite its sci-fi setting.
The World of Between Horizons
The Zephyr is alive, with people mulling about, doing their own thing. Some are working, others are conspiring. Despite this, almost all of the characters can be found in specific places. Some of the NPCs are just aimlessly going around. However, the effect of the entire social life on Zephyr is well-complimented by the ambient sounds of people walking and talking around. The soundtrack is well suited to the game, with several themes changing as the story progresses.
The only voiced character is Stella, who has several monologues during more climatic scenes. In general, when Stella is monologuing, we can move around and investigate, so there is no need for a skip button. Only at the end, after the story is done, we have an extended cut scene and a monologue that cannot be speeded up or skipped. Since I read much faster than the voice-over, I did wish for a skip button there.
Some Notes
We have some basic gameplay settings, such as toggling off and on tutorials and subtitles. Here, we can also enable or disable text highlights, which will allow us to show critical information within transcripts and memos of our cases. Disabling it will increase the overall difficulty of the game. We also have basic audio and video settings. There is no remapping for the controls and no way to access and rewatch/replay the tutorials. Thankfully, they are rather basic in general.
Between Horizons has an automatic saving system. Starting a New Game will delete all progress made up until now. The game also has Steam achievements but no Trading Cards as of yet.
Conclusion
Between Horizons is an excellent combination of my favorite genres—sci-fi and detective mystery. It is a well-crafted game that shows great attention to detail and care. It’s a short game: it took me about 4 hours to complete it: but it also has a lot of replay value with its multiple endings. So, if you like sci-fi and investigating, do try Between Horizons; you’ll like it as much as I did.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up: 
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