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Before We Leave

In a pleasant change from most RTS games, Before We Leave makes a point of being a non-violent city builder.
Before We Leave Game Cover
74%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
grinding, replayability
75% User Score Based on 966 reviews
Critic Score 81%Based on 10 reviews

Platforms

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Before We Leave Game Cover

About

Before We Leave is a single player casual city builder game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Balancing Monkey Games and was released on March 30, 2020. It received positive reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

In "Before We Leave," gently guide a newly reemerged civilization across a cozy universe. Build peaceful settlements, manage resources, and trade between islands and planets. Overcome challenges, discover ancient technologies, and ensure your Peeps' happiness in this relaxing city-building game. Explore six biomes and avoid the mistakes of the past to create a thriving solar system.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
Before We Leave screenshot
+10
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75%
Audience ScoreBased on 966 reviews
gameplay59 positive mentions
grinding41 negative mentions
  • Charming graphics and relaxing gameplay create an enjoyable atmosphere.
  • The game offers a unique logistics system that challenges players to manage resources across multiple islands and planets.
  • The tutorial is well-designed, providing a gradual introduction to the game's mechanics.
  • The game can become repetitive as players must colonize multiple islands and planets, often following the same steps each time.
  • The shipping and trade system can be cumbersome and confusing, leading to frustration in managing resources.
  • Limited space on islands, combined with the requirement for roads, can make city planning feel restrictive and tedious.
  • gameplay
    175 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of the game is characterized by a mix of addictive city-building mechanics and resource management, with players enjoying the relaxing atmosphere and charming visuals. However, many reviews highlight issues such as repetitive gameplay in the mid to late stages, a convoluted tutorial, and unintuitive mechanics that can detract from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the depth and variety of mechanics, others find the gameplay loop simplistic and lacking in engagement over time.

    • “I'm not the biggest fan of city-building games, but this one really got me addicted for 12 hours straight during my first serious gameplay session.”
    • “The gameplay is fun overall, with a good balance of challenge and relaxation, allowing for continuous discovery and expansion.”
    • “The gameplay loop is engaging and rewarding, with enough variation to keep players interested and a charming art style that enhances the experience.”
    • “The gameplay is extremely repetitive because you tend to have to build up every island you settle.”
    • “The gameplay loop has been too oversimplified in many places, making it often unsatisfying to play through, until you are far enough along to have everything running smoothly.”
    • “The gameplay itself is lacking, buggy, and incomplete.”
  • graphics
    124 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game have received largely positive feedback, with many players praising the charming art style, beautiful visuals, and immersive atmosphere. However, some users noted performance issues, particularly with GPU usage, which can lead to crashes despite the game's relatively simple graphics. Overall, the aesthetic is described as cute and relaxing, contributing to an enjoyable gameplay experience, though a few critiques mention that certain graphical elements could be improved.

    • “The graphics are gorgeous, and this is a great example of a non-combat resource building and exploration game.”
    • “I love the graphics and how the gameplay blends in with the overall theme of the game, making for a nice, relaxing experience.”
    • “The art style is gorgeous and the music and sound effects are perfect.”
    • “Additionally, it heavily stressed the GPU despite being a 4-year-old game with simple graphics.”
    • “For a game that isn't very graphics intensive, it sure does suck up a lot of resources... I've had it crash on me a few times too, so make sure to set that autosave to 10 minutes.”
    • “The graphics palette is absolutely dreadful; the whole screen looks washed out, and the lack of any true black level makes the sensory experience totally unengrossing, not to mention unhelpful in trying to fathom what is happening in the game.”
  • music
    88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is widely praised for its relaxing and enjoyable qualities, with many reviewers highlighting its unique and soothing soundtrack that complements the game's visuals and atmosphere. However, some players noted issues with music overlapping and becoming overwhelming during gameplay, detracting from the overall experience. Despite these concerns, the soundtrack is often described as a standout feature, enhancing the game's charm and providing a pleasant backdrop for players.

    • “The music and ambient sounds when zoomed into each planet are unique and soothing.”
    • “It's a very relaxing game; the soundtrack is amazing.”
    • “The aesthetic and music are 10/10.”
    • “The music loops so much, I’m humming it in my nightmares.”
    • “Its just very overwhelming for the ears and the mind to process and makes you distracted on what you're doing; sure, the easy solution is to just turn the music off, but I do like your music, just not when there is a bunch of other music overwhelming it.”
    • “It lacks life, kinda is ugly, the music sucks, just generally boring.”
  • story
    43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is generally considered minimal and not the primary focus, with players noting that it unfolds gradually through diary entries and is often overshadowed by gameplay mechanics. While some find the light narrative charming and engaging, others criticize its lack of depth and urgency, suggesting that it serves more as a backdrop to the city-building experience rather than a driving force. Overall, the story is seen as a pleasant addition rather than a compelling reason to play.

    • “The story has me actually hooked; strange stuff is going on, what does it all mean?”
    • “The story line (humanity rising from the ashes) is well done, and the buildings are all cute and well designed.”
    • “The story is light but charming, and watching a space whale twice the size of a planet swallow up half of your under-prepared island is a humbling experience.”
    • “I do not recommend this game if you’re after a strong story experience, if you want strong challenge, if you want meaningful choices, or if you want something fast-paced and pew-pew.”
    • “Gameplay aside, the game does have a story that does not start until you are already about 80% done with the game, because you need the submarine researched in order to start unveiling small clues, which by the way, takes forever, so you will never learn the game's story unless you sink a solid 100 hours into it.”
    • “There’s no plot or drama motivating your expansion aside from the intrinsic desire to scale the tech tree.”
  • grinding
    42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and repetitive, particularly in the early stages where resource management and logistics require excessive micromanagement. Players find the process of setting up supply chains and transporting resources between islands to be frustrating and time-consuming, leading to a decline in enjoyment as the novelty wears off. While some players note that the game improves in the mid to late stages, the initial grind can deter newcomers and make the experience feel exhausting.

    • “The grinding aspect can feel a bit repetitive at times, but it also provides a rewarding sense of progression.”
    • “While the game has its grindy moments, the satisfaction of leveling up makes it worthwhile.”
    • “Grinding can be a bit tedious, but it ultimately enhances the overall experience and character development.”
    • “It's a neat idea and I like it on the surface, but in practice the novelty wears off quite quickly and then it starts to feel tedious.”
    • “Starts off pretty fun, but after colonizing a few islands the game devolves into a very poor and extremely tedious logistics simulator.”
    • “The game has some smaller issues, mainly when it comes to laying out and keeping track of cross-island and cross-planet supply chains, and I was never entirely clear what I needed to do to keep my peeps happy.”
  • replayability
    28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's replayability is a mixed bag, with some players praising the variety of scenarios, customizable worlds, and procedural elements that enhance replay value, while others criticize it for becoming repetitive and lacking substantial endgame content. Features like a planet editor and customizable difficulty settings offer additional replay opportunities, but many feel that the core gameplay does not provide enough variety to sustain long-term interest. Overall, opinions on replayability range from high potential to significant limitations.

    • “The scenarios add plenty of replayability.”
    • “Replayability is high as there are different worlds with different biomes that you won't encounter in just one playthrough.”
    • “Customizable difficulty settings like increased construction costs, pollution production, and having a fixed number of peeps that can't reproduce also provide more replayability by allowing creative challenges for subsequent runs.”
    • “Poor replayability.”
    • “Replay value is pretty low as the development is the same every time.”
    • “There isn't much replay value, as the gameplay already feels repetitive before you have finished the first playthrough.”
  • optimization
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews; while some players report excellent performance and smooth graphics even on lower-end systems, others criticize it for being poorly optimized, particularly in demanding scenarios that lead to significant frame rate drops. Overall, the game seems to balance complexity and performance well, but issues with optimization can arise, especially in more demanding situations.

    • “This game isn't like that, it's a skillful balance of difficulty while still being relaxing; the game is exactly like it's advertised, it runs smoothly despite how beautiful the graphics are.”
    • “Each island is a puzzle of optimization: how do you get the most [x] out of this finite space?”
    • “The graphics are enjoyable, the performance is great, albeit locked at 60fps for now, the feature set is extensive, and the overall structure of the game is put together very nicely.”
    • “Like others have pointed out, the game is especially demanding on the GPU for some reason that can't be explained other than it being poorly optimized. It's a recurring pattern I see with 3D games with a top view simulating towns made with Unity; Cities: Skylines comes to mind immediately.”
    • “The game appears to be horribly unoptimized and requires a significantly better computer than it should need to run.”
    • “Overall performance gets pretty bad later in the game; I was at 19 FPS in some places, and I have a pretty good computer.”
  • stability
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting a smooth experience and no bugs, particularly on lower settings or older hardware. However, many others have encountered significant issues, especially in the late game, including buggy ship transportation, pathfinding problems, and progression halts due to bugs. Overall, while some players find it polished, a substantial number express frustration over its instability and incomplete gameplay.

    • “Runs great on Steam Deck with no issues.”
    • “It also runs great on my old computer (medium settings), and I've had no issues and no performance lags even as I hop between planets and islands.”
    • “It runs great with most settings turned down and textures still on high, but everything on high made things choppy.”
    • “But my biggest problem was slow and buggy ship transportation. On the main island, I had too much cloth, steel, and fuel, but in 2-3 hours they couldn't move it to the secondary island where I needed it for pollution cleanup.”
    • “After multiple restarts and numerous troubleshooting attempts, late game trading just bugs out!”
    • “Or ships will start having random resource numbers that go over their max load limit, e.g. 341/60, or ships will not transport research between islands or planets, which freezes your tech tree and keeps you from progressing further.”
  • atmosphere
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere in "Before We Leave" is widely praised for its beautiful artwork and relaxing, optimistic vibe, effectively creating a friendly environment for players. However, some users have reported technical issues that can detract from the experience, particularly related to performance when certain atmospheric settings are enabled. Overall, while the game successfully cultivates a charming and chill atmosphere, it is marred by gameplay mechanics that can disrupt the enjoyment.

    • “Before We Leave presents itself as a relaxing city builder, where you build beautiful cities in an inviting, friendly atmosphere.”
    • “Definitely take a minute to appreciate the artwork; it's very atmospheric!”
    • “Another one is that this game does a pretty good job at cultivating this optimistic, happy atmosphere of post-post-apocalyptic hope... you start asking yourself, what happened to humanity in the first place?”
    • “Turn clouds and atmosphere off, or it runs the CPU/GPU very hot.”
    • “It has some serious issues which the devs have appeared to ignore from looking at other reviews and from my own personal experience. The biggest of which is that my 2080 Ti GPU's 3D capacity was getting maxed by the game due to a setting called 'atmosphere' being turned on, which when turned off showed no graphical change. I noticed that the 3D usage went from 100% nearly constantly to around the 30s.”
    • “It's fine, but for its laid-back atmosphere and design, it can become randomly punishing.”
  • emotional
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the game emotionally engaging, describing it as a relaxing and wholesome experience that evokes feelings of satisfaction and hope. The balance between challenge and enjoyment, along with the strategic elements of building and resource management, contributes to a fulfilling gameplay experience reminiscent of classic city builders. Overall, the emotional impact is enhanced by the game's ability to create a sense of accomplishment and connection to the virtual world.

    • “This game is relaxing, but I came back to it almost a year later because I wanted to play something that made me feel good.”
    • “All of this goes quite well with the aforementioned wholesome, hopeful feel of the game.”
    • “It's so wholesome and chill to play; it can also be quite challenging as you gain more and more planets.”
  • humor
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is characterized by its cozy and cute presentation, with players finding the peep bios particularly hilarious and endearing, especially given the sad backstories of the characters. The game's lightheartedness and funny elements contribute to its addictive nature, making the experience enjoyable and engaging. Overall, the humor effectively enhances the game's charm and depth.

    • “The peep bios are hilarious.”
    • “Funny enough, the peeps are made more endearing because of how sad their initial circumstances are: literally all they could make before you arrived were potato farms.”
    • “The UI is really good and there are humorous descriptions on the people to individualize them.”
  • monetization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization model of the game is likened to typical freemium mobile games, featuring ads and potential in-game purchases. Players who enjoy city-building games like SimCity are advised to consider "Before We Leave" for its more reasonable pricing structure, avoiding excessive DLC costs.

    • “If you enjoy city-building games like SimCity and want to avoid spending thousands of dollars on DLC and in-game purchases, I highly recommend 'Before We Leave'!”
    • “The monetization model is fair and doesn't pressure you into spending money, making it a refreshing experience.”
    • “I appreciate that the game offers a complete experience without requiring additional purchases, allowing players to fully enjoy the content.”
    • “Seems like a game you'd find on the app market for a phone as freemium or with ads.”
    • “If you like city-building games like SimCity, and don't like paying thousands of dollars in DLC and in-game purchases, I recommend 'Before We Leave'.”
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81%Critics’ scoreBased on 10 critic reviews
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29h Median play time
22h Average play time
10-40h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 7 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Before We Leave is a casual city builder game with science fiction theme.

Before We Leave is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 22 hours playing Before We Leave.

Before We Leave was released on March 30, 2020.

Before We Leave was developed by Balancing Monkey Games.

Before We Leave has received positive reviews from players and positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.

Before We Leave is a single player game.

Similar games include Settlement Survival, Per Aspera, Aven Colony, Factory Town, Let Them Trade and others.