Lunar Lander Beyond Review – Gamereactor

This is one of those very rare situations where your parents might be more familiar with a new game than you are. If your parents owned an Atari video game console at some point in their childhood, or even frequented an arcade, they probably encountered a little game called Lunar Lander. It’s a very basic concept that never really cemented itself as a great game, but that’s mostly because the original Lunar Lander didn’t have a lot of the more modern touches we’ve come to expect from games. This was actually a technology demonstration from the 1970s that showed that humans were capable of creating digital entertainment.

But it’s making a comeback. Aatri clicked on Dreams Uncorporated to put his own spin on the original Lunar Lander formula in Lunar Lander Beyond. This means the use of modern graphics and practical art, a narrative that has been incorporated, various progression elements and game mechanics, but the core and key gameplay is very similar to what it was over forty years ago.

Now this is good and bad. I say this because Lunar Lander has never actually had great gameplay, and despite Dreams Uncorporated’s hand-drawn visuals and other new features, none of that can hide the fact that Lunar Lander isn’t a particularly fun game. The idea is that you travel around 2D levels using a ship that uses a suite of momentum-based physics, avoiding hazards and dangers, picking up resources along the way, and eventually landing in a specific place after completing a series of objectives. It’s a very basic concept that never really goes further than what we’ve come to expect from the game over the years, and the problem isn’t so much with the simplicity but that it feels clunky and frustrating. There’s no flow or excitement, it’s just a chore, regardless of the mission objective, the ship or pilot you choose, the upgrades you choose, or even the location of the level.

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Luckily, Lunar Lander Beyond doesn’t overstay its welcome (or, if you think a few hours of gameplay is too long, maybe it is). There are only 32 levels scattered across several different locations, and each level usually only takes a few minutes to overcome. The game time doesn’t even really extend that much if you want to complete every challenge at hand, since to get the elusive gold medal in each level you have to complete the level faster than the set time, and won’t Take damage from any ship. Trust me, despite the simple level design, it’s a nightmare a lot of the time due to the unmanageable mechanics.

As I’ve said before, Dreams Uncorporated attempts to paper over many of the core cracks in the game’s armor. Now there’s a narrative here, and while it doesn’t really engage the player, some story elements are much better than none. The different types of ships do alleviate some of the control issues, and the different pilots you can find and use, as well as how they connect to the game’s stress system, make how you approach each level that much more important. Essentially, the idea is that if your ship takes damage from hitting something, while you can repair said damage by finding health packs, your pilot will retain the permanent stress from the collision, which will affects their performance in practice unless you spend money and time to relieve their stress. Pair that with applicable and discoverable upgrades that make traversing the levels easier, and a series of difficulty sliders to tweak the experience to suit you, and you can see Dreams Uncorporated striving to make Lunar Lander Beyond more complete than Lunar Lander and exquisite experience.

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But that doesn’t change the fact that this game just lacks the fun factor. Lunar Lander Beyond struggles to entertain and engage players, mostly because the core and base gameplay feels dated and sluggish. While we can all thank Lunar Lander for being the precursor to Asteroids, unfortunately, in 2024, it makes me not want to play or get back into the game.