Analysis: before leaving

Do you like strategy and management games without any pressure? Before leaving, it’s your game, an independent City Builder developed by Monkey balancing games and distributed by Team 17.

At Before leaving We should building cities without violence, located in a apocalyptic future something different from what we’re used to in video games. We’re going to have a more colorful world than we expected, because after so many years with no humans around, it seems like life is slowly coming back.

In our little corner of the universe, we will have to develop and improve the “Compass” as we rebuild and rediscover our civilization. Since we are going to explore new territories, and planets.

The story

For many generations, our compasses have remained underground. It seems that during this time they have lost all the knowledge they had at the time and when they leave the bunker they meet the basic knowledge of life, construction and culture (We’re going to be fed up with eating potatoes).

We should rebuild the lost civilization. Welcome, teach and develop the compass, discover ancient technology colonize other continents and planets.

As time goes by and we evolve we will have to unlock search points of different types, but you’ll find out as you progress through the game.

You will have to be careful because you must have happy and happy with compass for them to occur in the colony. We will have to feed them, drink, respect their hours of rest, and everything will be fine. Well at least at the beginning since later a series of “beings” will appear, some legendary or ancestral that will make our tasks a little difficult.

The Precious Apocalyptic World

Something that really surprises in Before leavingis that we always keep in mind that after a debacle or a great misfortune, everything is destroyed, and that promises to be fatal. You would think everything would be dark, maybe cold or hostile, and nothing could be further from the reality that they want to teach us in the game, taking beautiful and dreamy graphics.

The game shows us a super cozy micro universe that after so many years of human absence, has become a very colorful place, full of life and very pleasant to see. All of this makes us have a super relaxed experience because visually the game transmits tranquility, at least at first.

We see an almost virgin planet, removing some vestiges of civilization that will be crucial for the evolution of the game. Before leaving It delights us with a very wide range of colors, because we can observe nature in its smallest details, mountains, cliffs, seas and even the universe itself, and all this in one day and night cycle it makes a contrast of colors, really enviable.

In short, we are faced with a Indie game that looks amazingly good, and with neat visual details, a feast for the eyes and an overwhelming personality.

A very homogeneous fusion sound

The music or the setting who offers Before leaving It is one of the strongest aspects of the game. It has a soundtrack that accompanies us throughout the game.

The game offers us a total of 36 songs what was compound and product by award-winning composer Benoit nichols. It’s a relaxing fusion music this brings us from guitars, capable of calming our compasses, to the most joyful folk music capable of making even the laziest of compasses work. The perfect accompaniment to watch the time go by.

A very careful detail to point out about the sound part is that the music accompanies us until the night comes, and at that moment the game makes us feel a haven of peace and quiet as if we are stargazing at night in the middle of the field, or on the beach, where you like it most.

A mix of gameplay when the least interesting

At Before leaving we are in front of a game of building civilizations. The hexagonal structure reflected by the maps, you can remind us something of civilization, but only that, because unlike most games of this nature, it gives us a peaceful system. But be careful, as you evolve throughout the game, creatures will appear and do their thing.

Our main mission will be to put the company back on its feet. Creation of different buildings and making the most of the resources that we can get from each island as it is minerals, wood, water, food, etc. We start with one island, then move on to other islands, until we end with the colonization of an entire solar system, if some ancestral animal does not bore us before. But don’t worry, what We will not have combat units, but we will have buildings that will help you survive.

At the start of the game everything will look very simple, but after a few minutes a number of options will open up that may overwhelm or scare you and more if you are not used to the genre. Everything will get complicated once you have several colonized islands. Lack of resources, sad or hungry comrades, insufficient research points, a number of major questions and difficulties to consider.

With the cross, we will move on the map and menus. With the X we will open a giant building menu, the option to destroy, and the creation of roads, something that will be fundamental to the functioning of the colony. And with the Lb and the Rb when we have several colonized sites, we can automatically switch from one island to another.

In the same way that we will have a four-speed manual control, in which we can increase or decrease according to our needs. (1/2, half normal. X1, real speed. X2, double speed and x4 speed)

Two important points to review in terms of gameplay. The game is fully enjoyable on the Xbox Series X this is where I was able to test it, and it will be customary to play this type of game with keyboard and mouse, but playing it with a controller becomes really complicated, a little rough, and sometimes i had a spider blockage not knowing why, what to do or what are you doing. And the other point that if I was both delighted and surprised, it is the search system in the form of a lateral tree in which you have to unlock some things, to be able to unlock the following ones.

Game modes

As the main game modes we have two. The tutorial, which is basically that, a tutorial, but if it is very recommendable if you have time to do it, as there are endless options that would be great for you to know about while gradually getting to grips with the dynamics of the game.

Then we have the historical fashion, that really has no mission or history. It is build and evolve without further delay, which seems little but it is not. It is a free construction method in which before starting said mode we can choose some parameters like the number of planets, the return of materials when a building is destroyed, and much more that you will have to find out for yourself, all this will vary the difficulty we will face.

Cards are randomly generated, and we’re going to have to get a good balance between resources, population and exploration, which at first will not seem very complicated, but believe me … !HE WILL BE!

The structure of our colony will be fundamental when it comes to productivity, since it will be necessary to have Paths created for all buildings, and beware of pollution and toxic clouds that will be released from some buildings they will affect the compass.

All this will allow us to discover buildings of other generations, that we will have to repair and evolve to advance in the creation of our own universe.

Conclusion of Before you go

What Before leaving whether it is a peaceful game or a game devoid of warmongering, this does not imply that it is a game accessible to all or keep it simple to deal with. He doesn’t stop being a building and resource management game, that although relaxed, this will pose challenges such as space limitation.

The game is very interesting, the 23 november and if you are a Lovers of city builders, you have a appointment required. Although if you don’t like the genre very much it’s a good opportunity to try it because it is coming to Xbox Game Pass.

I did not want to end this analysis without giving the thanks to the team 17 who made this analysis possible by providing us with a code.

Remember you can Follow us in the Xbox zone for more analysis or be aware of everything information referring to the Xbox world. And now we’ll leave you with the launch trailer in case you didn’t know Before leaving. Enjoy.