Apple Arcade - Reigns: Beyond (2020) [/]
Oct 23 2023
Reigns: Beyond is the fourth Reigns title. I previously played and reviewed Reigns which I liked. It's a deck based story game. You're the king and each random card draw usually gives you a situation and two choices. Your choice changes various attributes of your kingdom (religion, population, military, wealth) and you're trying to build up your kingdom. As the game progresses new decks are shuffled in and the exact decks can vary so you get a fairly unique experience each run through.
Reigns: Her Majesty is the same basic gameplay but now you play the queen. Reigns: Game of Thrones you get a choice of which leader to play then it's the same trying to build up your kingdom goal.
Now we get to Reigns: Beyond which is quite different though still the same deck based story choices. This time it's set on another planet. You wake up with amnesia and the only survivor of an advanced spaceship with a secretive AI. You immediately fall with three musicians and become the guitarist of an interstellar rock band.
At that point it's kind of open. Each band member has subplots and you have your subplots. You are given the choice of about half a dozen directions to travel to and it tells you the planet names (important for some subplots) and some icons (e.g. planet has a merchant or a bar). You choose a path then draw cards and resolve situations as you travel to each planet and in the end you get another set of paths to take.
Unlike Reigns the card draws don't tell you what's being changed behind the scenes and really you don't even know what the various attributes are that you are changing. On the ship and on planet you also wander around which is done with cards but isn't really random events. There is a guitar playing scene which is a bit like a beat rhythm game but all you do is move left and right following the path and picking up beats and it seemed to be the same song twice but maybe it gets harder.
It's an interesting variant and the topic is at least more original than a medieval or fantasy ruling-a-kingdom story. I'm not that enamored with the deck based game play so like Reigns it's a game to keep around and occasionally play.
Reigns: Her Majesty is the same basic gameplay but now you play the queen. Reigns: Game of Thrones you get a choice of which leader to play then it's the same trying to build up your kingdom goal.
Now we get to Reigns: Beyond which is quite different though still the same deck based story choices. This time it's set on another planet. You wake up with amnesia and the only survivor of an advanced spaceship with a secretive AI. You immediately fall with three musicians and become the guitarist of an interstellar rock band.
At that point it's kind of open. Each band member has subplots and you have your subplots. You are given the choice of about half a dozen directions to travel to and it tells you the planet names (important for some subplots) and some icons (e.g. planet has a merchant or a bar). You choose a path then draw cards and resolve situations as you travel to each planet and in the end you get another set of paths to take.
Unlike Reigns the card draws don't tell you what's being changed behind the scenes and really you don't even know what the various attributes are that you are changing. On the ship and on planet you also wander around which is done with cards but isn't really random events. There is a guitar playing scene which is a bit like a beat rhythm game but all you do is move left and right following the path and picking up beats and it seemed to be the same song twice but maybe it gets harder.
It's an interesting variant and the topic is at least more original than a medieval or fantasy ruling-a-kingdom story. I'm not that enamored with the deck based game play so like Reigns it's a game to keep around and occasionally play.