If you’re a fan of the hit TV show Heroes, you’re probably aware of who Masi Oka is. What you probably didn’t know is that the talented actor also founded a company known as Mobius in order to create unique games aimed at challenging a wider audience. Mobius Digital has produced a few visionary pieces of art by now in games like Outer Wilds and Paralect.
Enter Beacon 38, a mobile game about exploring the strange new portal that leads to the 38th Dimension and seeking out new life and new civilizations. No, it’s not about Star Trek. In Beacon 38, you take control of a small scout ship as you work to navigate said ship through various challenges, past super alien monsters, and through unknown dimensions. The biota is ever-changing with the game consisting of over a dozen or so different sectors each crafted with its own obstacles – creatures, mechanics, and puzzles.
The music and artwork of Beacon 38 is nothing short of impressive as they blend a bit of the beauty of early France art deco with a tad bit of the genre horror that was made so famous by H.P. Lovecraft. While exploring, you’ll come across a ton of in-game lore that helps flesh out the world built by Masi and his staff of spectacular designers. There are three types of difficulty settings to choose from essentially equating to Easy, Normal, and Hard and while there are briefings in-game, the game gives you quite a bit of control while teaching you how to play with minimal tutorials, allowing you to figure it all out for yourself.
Fuel consumption is a real thing and you’ll have to keep an eye out for both your enemies and the green resonance of the green portal ping of your sonar, which leads you on your way to the end of the challenge. The game is fun, but gets challenging quite quickly. Beacon 38 is an outstanding game and for anyone who’s a huge fan of puzzle games, I imagine this will be your type of time-waster. If you’re like me, though, and not accustomed to puzzle games, you will likely want to look elsewhere for your entertainment.
You can purchase Beacon 38 on iTunes or through Google Play.