Lunar Lander Beyond [Review]
Lunar Lander Beyond should dictate the direction of Atari’s game reboots.
Image Credit: Dreams Uncorporated / Atari
Dreams Uncorporated and Atari’s Lunar Lander Beyond is a reimagining of the original Atari vector graphics arcade classic. Beyond adds story, depth, and polish to what was a simple concept, evolving the game far above the humble roots of its genre.
You’re the newly minted captain of a Pegasus Corporation vessel in a future where Earth is uninhabitable and humanity has colonized the moon, Mars, and other planets in the solar system. As you’re learning the basics of making pickups and deliveries using your landers, disaster strikes—wormholes appear all over the solar system. Now you must use your meager resources to restore communication, rescue survivors, find vital resources, and ultimately save humanity.
Image Credit: Dreams Uncorporated / Atari
The core of Lunar Lander Beyond is the same as the original game. You pilot a lander ship, steering and controlling its thrusters. You need to account for gravity and momentum while keeping an eye on your fuel levels; only then can you take off and land successfully and prevent your flights from ending in tragedy. Lunar Lander Beyond layers new systems and mechanics on top of this classic gameplay.
You have access to four different kinds of landers that you’ll earn or find over the course of the game. Each one pilots differently, offering its own handling, strengths, and weaknesses. You’ll also gain new abilities—some universal and some lander-specific—such as stabilizers, a tractor beam, a rocket booster, repair drones, and more. You can equip three of these modules on a lander to suit your play style. The variety adds a lot to the game, though I found myself using the more maneuverable Dragonfly almost exclusively. For the most part you’re never restricted to a specific lander type on any given mission, negating the game’s challenge unless you deliberately choose a different lander to make things more difficult. It doesn’t make the game any less fun; you get to decide how hard you want to make things for yourself.
Image Credit: Dreams Uncorporated / Atari
After choosing a lander, you must also pick a pilot for it. Each pilot has perks that could make them suited to specific mission types. Some earn double the money or XP, others can fly faster or use less fuel, and more. Pilots earn XP by participating in missions and earn new perks when they level up. On higher difficulty levels, you can lose pilots permanently when they crash. This leads me to one of my favorite things about the game: pilots can go insane.
When a lander takes damage during a mission, the pilot starts getting stressed. Once stress levels go over around 50%, you’ll begin to hallucinate, making piloting much harder; once stress maxes out, the pilot will self destruct. Landers are repaired between missions, but the pilot’s stress remains and you must treat it. You can send pilots to counseling, causing them to be out of commission for four missions. Alternatively, you can pay to give them a cocktail of space drugs to clear all their stress immediately.
The game’s campaign consists of 30 missions divided across five different biomes. Levels are well designed; I never felt that the game was too repetitive. Lunar Lander Beyond kept throwing new things at me in a perfect cadence to keep things interesting. Each biome introduces varied gravity and new hazards such as lightning, security systems, and hostile creatures. Most levels have extra collectibles, usually stranded pilots or new tech, so it’s worth exploring off the beaten path.
Image Credit: Dreams Uncorporated / Atari
Lunar Lander Beyond’s biggest surprise is its story and the quality of its writing. The original game had no story, so I wasn’t expecting one here, let alone one as fun as this. The plot isn’t particularly special—it’s the usual corporate dystopia save the universe type stuff. What makes the story stand out is the cast of characters that you’ll recruit over the course of the game. Each one has a distinct voice and personality: the coldly cynical ship AI, an injured veteran pilot, a paranoid counter-corporate revolutionary, a drug crazed doctor, and more. Their interactions and dialogue are genuinely funny, elevated by the excellent performances of the game’s voice actors. The game’s also got some fantastic animated cinematics.
I didn’t expect that I’d be so captivated by this game. Lunar Lander Beyond is truly excellent and breathes new life into a genre that I’ve often found dull. It’s notably missing Atari’s “Recharged” branding, which I understand are remakes closer to the original source material. That label should be scrapped and Atari should focus their attention on more ground-up reboots like Lunar Lander Beyond.
Lunar Lander Beyond will release on April 23 for PC (Steam, Epic), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 / 5, Xbox One / Xbox Series X|S, and Atari VCS.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: PS5
