Breathedge (2018)

Breathedge takes an interesting premise and shoves it out the airlock with an overreliance on tired jokes and half-baked survival sim mechanics. An admirable attempt to move the genre forward collapses under the weight of too much self-awareness and not enough polish.

Ultimately, it's a game full of great ideas and some addictive gameplay mechanics, but clashes with some poor pacing and a complete shift-up in the second half that loses all the charm. For an Xbox Game Pass title, there's undoubtedly some fun to be had in the survival space sim if you can look past its flaws. Just don't go in expecting the Lost in Space experience the game tries to sell.

Breathedge is one of those games that does its best to honour past games of the genre whilst also blazing its own path. The ride through space sure is a fun one, though ultimately your mileage through the vacuum of space may vary. You are “Man”, the last known survivor of a galactic wreck. You are tasked with taking your grandfather’s ashes to his out-of-this-world funeral. Once your spaceship crashes you must begin to find supplies to survive and scour space to find a way back home.

Breathedge is a game at odds with itself. It tries to tell a compelling story, but the core narrator drones wearisome and unfunny dialogue; the world is beautiful and begging to be explored, but only ever an inch at a time; environments are curated with dark humour, but the gameplay loop doesn't allow time to take it in; and, worst of all, it undercuts players that commit hours to these systems by replacing them with a grim excuse for a walking simulator. For a title set in the vast expanse of space where anything is possible, it just isn't worth the time.

Breathedge is a bit difficult for newcomers to this genre. However, if you give the game enough time and increase your endurance a little, you will enjoy it.