Reigns: Beyond review - Tinder swiping meets space travel on Switch

Four years after it dropped on Apple Arcade, Reigns: Beyond has crash-landed on PC and Nintendo Switch, so I gave it a spin to see if it’s worth donning your spacesuit for.

Just like the popular Reigns titles that came before it, Beyond is a choose-your-own-adventure game that uses swipe-based mechanics to progress. This Tinder-esque format might seem like it would be limiting, but the game has so many narrative threads and challenges to complete that you could spend hours discovering everything it has to offer - assuming you don't run out of steam before then.

I'm up in space, man

Reigns: Beyond begins with your ship crash-landing on a strange planet, killing the guitarist of an amateur indie band in the process. It's only right that you should take their place, and so begins your quirky adventure across the stars, travelling from planet to planet to put on shows, gain loyal followers on Stargram, battle spaceships, and make new friends (...or foes).

There are four main resource meters to keep an eye on when travelling through space: power, oxygen, crew morale, and your ship’s defence levels. Plenty of things can affect these meters - whether it’s accidentally insulting a shipmate or getting blasted by a rogue spaceship. Your crew will sometimes request to sacrifice one resource for another, like using up some power to boost your oxygen levels, and it’s up to you to make the right call so that you all survive your current journey.

When you arrive at your destination, you’ll have a few options, like purchasing items from a shop or visiting a local watering hole. You might even be asked to play a show with the band, which takes the form of a rhythm minigame. These are on-rail sections where you guide a floating guitar through technicolour visuals while collecting hearts. The soundtrack is banging, but I’ll be honest, the actual gameplay is a bit disappointing - and the simplicity of it all means these sections get repetitive pretty fast. As a huge fan of rhythm games, this was a letdown.

Once you’ve seen everything a planet has to offer, it’s onto the next one. I’m someone who likes structure and an obvious goalpost in my games, so it took me a while to appreciate that this is a game that runs on vibes. It’s a lot more enjoyable once you learn to take each encounter as it comes, rather than rushing towards an unknown end point. It helps that whenever you meet a grisly end (and this will happen a lot), you respawn as a clone at the last planet you visited to give it another shot.

The biggest thing Reigns: Beyond has going for it is that it's a very funny game. It’s full of space puns and loveable characters, like a loan shark with a penchant for biting people's heads off. I regularly found myself smiling (and occasionally laughing out loud) at the game’s dry humour, so if that’s your bag, there’s a lot to love here.

The swipe-to-choose mechanic is also a nice change of pace from the big AAA games that dominate news cycles. There’s no pressure to answer right away, so you can mull your choices over for as long as you like. This is important, as just like the dating app it’s inspired by, your decision to swipe left or right will sometimes have a significant impact on what happens next in the story. Make the wrong choice, and you might run out of your dwindling supplies of oxygen or leave yourself vulnerable to an attack from another spaceship - so there’s a sense of danger in that simple swipe.

On your travels, you can also pick up new crewmates or stowaways. They’ll use up your oxygen but can help out in other ways. At one point, I let a mollusc called Strombo seek refuge on my ship in exchange for repairing its defences. I also ended up with a human called Emon Lusk on my ship, although I don’t remember having a choice in that one (I would have said no). Thankfully, I was always given the option to respond with sarcasm or outright ignore him.

The sheer amount of narrative threads to discover in the game is a little intimidating, with side missions and new characters popping up all the time. Achievements help to keep you on track, whether that’s reaching a milestone amount of followers on your band’s Stargram page or winning your first space battle, and give a little bit of purpose to a game that can feel aimless.

Swiping fatigue

While the swipe-to-answer format is novel at first, it does have its shortcomings. On more than a few occasions, my two options were ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in response to a statement rather than a question - with my answer not having any impact on what happened. Then there are the spaceship battles, which left me swiping around in circles until I picked the answers the game wanted. It’s fun in theory, but when you’re reading the same dialogue multiple times (and most of the ‘correct’ answers are guesswork) it gets boring quite fast.

This problem carries over to the map of space. Besides a few vague bits of information, it’s hard to know where you should fly next. I often felt like I was just aimlessly picking new locations hoping to find something interesting. Again, I have to remind myself that this is a game that runs on vibes and spontaneous choices, but I would appreciate some guidance and clearer indicators of where I’ve already explored.

How does Reigns: Beyond run on Switch?

If you’re wondering how well Reigns: Beyond runs on Switch, the answer is very well! This is a mobile game, after all, so it shouldn’t be too taxing. The game runs smoothly and loads up pretty much instantly. I did find the touchscreen controls a little clunky to use, where it sometimes didn’t register my swipe or I had to over-exaggerate my movement. I assume this is by design to make sure you’re confident in your answer before proceeding, but it didn’t feel very natural, so I mostly stuck to using the Joy-Con which worked much better.

The Verdict

Although the novelty of swiping wears off pretty quickly, Reigns: Beyond is an impressive game for its price point. For less than £5, it’s not a risky investment - and it's probably worth the entry fee just to experience the unique gameplay and hilarious script. It’s definitely more suited for short bursts on mobile, but if the Apple Arcade isn’t an option for you, then the Switch version is a nice alternative.

3.5/5

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch. Review code provided by the publisher.