In space no one can hear you breath. Breathegde review

Bob is not talking much. But that is ok, me and Bob? We understand each other. Here lost in the depths of space, our ship torn apart, we keep each other sane. Being passengers on this vessel we do not know much about the technical side of things but between each other the family chicken and this space suit AI we will try to find a way out. We are survivors Bob and I. Right Bob? Bob? Well it seems he has decided to still not talk, or breath, or move. That is ok Bob you just sit there and I will head back out to look for more stuff that can help us get out of here.

What is it?

Breathedge is a survival game in which you must try to find an escape from cold, dark space but collecting resources and create odd ball inventions. Though the game might at first hand look like those other games it is less of an open ended world and instead follows a story path  of 6 acts.

You play the part of a man who was on his way with his grandpa's ashes to a galactic funeral. But before you arrive the ship you were traveling on crashes leaving you lost in space surrounded by debris and seemingly the only survivor. You will have to try to get out and find and escape while along to way you try to uncover the mystery of what took out the ship in the first place. Helping you along the way is the space suit AI provided by the funeral company which may or may not be always that helpful, but this AI sure comes with a lot more sas than Siri.

Gameplay

In terms of controls, Breathedge supports both mouse and keyboard as well as controller. Each come with their own advantages but I quickly found mouse and keyboard to give me a little more control over my movements in space. Even then I had to turn the sensitivity way down and I could not get my axis rotation to work. But I managed. Space does not really have an up and down side anyway.

The flow of the game, especially in the beginning is an ebb and flow of venturing out of the relative  security of your space module and venture out a little bit at a time, gather resources before your air runs out and use said resources to work on upgrading your space suit. As you get to stay out longer you also get blue prints for new items that you can then craft at a crafting station. Some of these might sound fancy but your well crafted calibration tools are often not more then a pile of scrap metal tied together. Still it suffices. As you move along the game your tools and skill will become more advances and soon you will be using drills, scanners and place air stations along the debris allowing you to stay out longer and venture further. 

Most of your resources will not last forever. Food and drink for instance are single use, as you would expect and so are some of the basic materials such as tape, metal , etc. But also you crafter tools from those materials will wear out. These tools have a set durability that reduces with each use which forces you to make sure to keep materials for new items in stock and perhaps create a few spares to bring along on your spacewalk to make sure you do not get stuck without one. Of course this takes up space in your inventory so there might be some planning involved for the longer trips.

All your items are found in the menu also visible at your craft station as long as they are on your person. Items in storage cannot be seen or used during crafting, meaning you might have to go back and forth a few times between craft station and storage.

Crafting is quite simple, you find something new or scan it with your scanner tool (you get one a little bit into the game) and you unlock a new blueprint to make it. Gather the resources and put them together on the craft station.  Most of these are fairly logical, to a point. For instance electrical tape can be made from rubber, water from space ice etc. As you get further you will need more items such as when creating a space helmet. 

The game does not really tell you where to find all these items, some you find quickly around your pod but then you are on your own to explore and find them. I am pretty bad these games so initially got too much tunnel vision initially went really only one way. It took some time for me to start truly explore around me and pay attention more as well as push the boundaries which allowed me to find the resources I needed to truly move forward.

As you progress forward through the chapter you will also get to build your own home base. Many of the items you scan along the way can be used as furniture and you get some freedom in how to setup your temporary homestead. That is the keyword though, temporary because eventually it becomes time to move forward once again and you leave all that work behind. But even if you stay forever there are no advantages to spending a lot of time on designing your pad other then fun. Eventually the bell curve for crafting and discovering drops down and focus is more one advancing the story line including a bunch of backtracking.

Presentation

Breathedge is a pretty game. the unreal engine shines and makes the vastness of space come to life on your screen. The character designs lean towards more cartoonish looks vs realism and it fits with the overall tone of the game while still offering some breathtaking scenery.

Beyond the visuals the game presents it right away as not taking itself very serious and in bonks you over the head with that self-awareness right from the start. Now overall that does not bother me as I like some fourth wall breaking humor as seen in movies as Deadpool or games such as the classic monkey island series. Even the gag of using the family chicken as your multi tool is pretty funny and in fact I wished they had made the chicken the multitool for everything approach as opposed to using it only in certain moments. The idea of different attachment to transform the chicken in some sort of cyborg tool would have been fun to see. 

Where the games humor failed for me was the 13/14 year old style of potty humor, the constant barrage of them made the jokes not really funny. Maybe I am just an old "get of my lawn" man now but they felt more cringe and outdated. From the AI babbling nonsense to the poop, fart and sexual innuendo jokes it could do with letting it breath a bit and do with better writing. I did enjoy the more slapstick joke. such as when you take a seat in a spaceship and when it takes off it leaves you with just the wheel in your hands. But humor is subjective, you might find it a laugh-a-minute fun fest. 

The sound design functions well but I quickly muted the limited in game music/radio and played my own tunes while floating through space as they were getting a bit to repetitive. Alarms make you aware if you are in danger, the tools have different sounds when you use them keeping things varied. The voice acting of the AI and some of the NPC's you meet are humorous and fit the narrative well. All in all it is sufficient and does the job. 

Final thoughts

Gameplay wise I found the idea of a more story driven survival game with a clear end goal very appealing. In some ways it does feel like those adventure games of the past where you discover parts of each puzzle until you can move to the next area and for the most part it delivers. In my case I would have liked to have a few more hints and clarity on what to do as some times the goal was more clear then other times. However this approach might be a disappointment for fans of survival, base building games as Breathedge does not offer that same experience as games that have come before. This game tries something new and for the better part succeeds however seems to feel rushed near the end. Still if you want to try your hand at a game that allows you some resource management, tool building and exploring while also having a clear end goal and end point then Breathedge can fill that niche for you nicely.  

Game information
Title: Breathedge
Developer: Redruins softworks
Publisher:  HypeTrain Digital
Release date: February 24,  2021
Platforms: PC (Steam and Epic Game Store) (coming to consoles in April)
Review platform:  PC ( Steam)
ESRB: T for Teen. Blood, Crude Humor, Mild language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco