Between Horizons – A Sci-Fi Detective Adventure
Genres: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Point & Click, Story Rich, Adventure
Release Date: 25-3-2024
Developer: DigiTales Interactive
Our verdict
7.5/10
- Difficulty: Medium
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 5–8 h
Between Horizons is a 2.5D pixel-art detective adventure from DigiTales, the team behind Lacuna. You play Stella, the 24-year-old security chief of the Zephyr, a generation ship bound for another star, and investigate a conspiracy that threatens life on board. You collect clues, assign them to cases and confront people, and wrong answers stick: the story branches toward multiple endings. It suits solo players who like deduction with real consequences.
Players enjoy the case structure and the freedom to roam the ship, which opens up in a Metroidvania style as the story moves on. Reviewers praise the premise and the payoff, and say the evidence puzzles are neither too easy nor unfair. Several who played Lacuna rank them closely.
The complaints are about legwork. There is no way to find where a person is, so you check workplaces and living quarters by hand, fast travel is clumsy, and progress sometimes needs the exact item shown to the exact person. Saves are automatic only, which some find stressful, and one player hit a soft-lock. Expect five to eight hours. Detective fans should enjoy it, ideally on sale; impatient players may find the walking a slog.
Pros
- Wrong conclusions have lasting consequences and branch the story
- Generation-ship setting that opens up as the case unfolds
- Flexible evidence system lets you solve cases in any order
Cons
- No way to locate people, so a lot of walking around the ship
- Autosave only, with no manual saves to undo a wrong call
- Clumsy fast travel; one reviewer hit a progress-blocking soft-lock
About
ABOUT THE GAME
Between Horizons is set aboard the Zephyr, humanity's first generation ship en route to another star. You assume the role of Chief of Security Stella, who was born on the ship 24 years ago. Dive into the conspiracy behind the incident that threatens to disrupt the Zephyr's social order and foil its mission.
Between Horizons is a modern 2.5D pixel art adventure that brings a branching narrative into a semi-open world. The team at DigiTales has applied numerous lessons from their first game Lacuna and proven solutions to detective game design problems to maximize player agency in the investigation process – all the while maintaining the tight pacing of a meaningful story that will ask you to reevaluate your moral compass and make increasingly tough decisions as the situation aboard the ship spirals out of control.
FEATURES
An Unusual Adventure: Between Horizons merges investigation gameplay with a branching sci-fi story in an ever-expanding Metroidvania-style environment.
Think For Yourself: The flexible evidence system lets you assign clues to cases, confront people about them, and solve any case with at any point in time. Everything you find on the ship may or may not be connected to the mystery at hand.
Failure is Very Much an Option: There are no second chances — submitting an incorrect solution means that consequences may follow as the story branches and ends based on your decisions.
Set Your Course: Underneath the game's exciting and plausible sci-fi plot lies a number of thought-provoking problems inviting you to weigh intergenerational responsibility against personal freedom.
A New Dimension: Timeless pixel art merges with 3D environments and modern visual effects to create a unique art style. Prefer old-school 2D? No problem, you can switch any time!
