BETON BRUTAL
- March 31, 2023
- Jan Malitschek
- 13h median play time
BETON BRUTAL is a challenging first-person parkour game, where you climb an overgrown concrete tower in stages of increasing difficulty, with no checkpoints and the risk of losing progress from a single misstep. The course features hidden shortcuts to discover, and offers moments to pause and enjoy the view, but be careful not to look down.
Reviews
- Beton Brutal offers a unique and engaging first-person platforming experience, combining elements of Minecraft parkour with a fresh atmosphere and challenging mechanics.
- The game features smooth and responsive controls, allowing players to master difficult jumps and navigate through meticulously designed levels.
- The visual and audio design creates an immersive environment, enhancing the overall experience and making each fall feel like a learning opportunity.
- The game can be extremely punishing, especially in the later sections, leading to frustration as players may lose significant progress with each fall.
- Ladder mechanics and some level designs can feel janky or unclear, making it difficult for players to determine the correct path or execute jumps effectively.
- The lack of checkpoints and the vertigo mechanic can detract from the enjoyment, as players may find themselves stuck in repetitive cycles of falling and climbing back up.
- gameplay162 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by its challenging parkour mechanics, heavily inspired by Minecraft, which are refined to create a satisfying experience where players learn from their mistakes. The level design effectively introduces new mechanics in low-risk areas, allowing for a gradual increase in difficulty that keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging. However, some players noted that certain mechanics could be frustrating or poorly explained, particularly in the later stages, which may detract from the overall experience.
“The game perfectly increases in difficulty as you get higher, introducing new mechanics along the way making the game fresh and challenging.”
“The level design is awesome, atmosphere and art direction is top tier and gameplay is flawless.”
“Very fun and challenging gameplay, with an amazing atmosphere to match!”
“Two main gripes: the first being that some mechanics are not well taught, and it's easy to fall the length of the entire map when you encounter them for the first time, as you are meant to learn by experimentation.”
“The one mechanic I don't like in the game is the head-hitter ice jumps that appear towards the end.”
“While I had a lot of fun in the first half of the game, it quickly drops off, and it could be improved with some changes to the mechanics.”
- music77 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its ethereal quality and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many users describing it as fantastic and perfectly complementing the gameplay. While some players wish for a larger variety of tracks, the existing soundtrack is noted for its soothing and engaging nature, contributing to a satisfying gaming experience. However, there are complaints about the limited audio settings and a specific event that can disrupt gameplay when the music is disabled.
“The soundtrack of this game is soothing and perfectly complements the gameplay as you climb around and solve sections of the map.”
“The visuals are stunning, the sound design is crisp and grounded, and the soundtrack is fantastic.”
“The music is amazing, the platforming feels satisfying, and I feel a total state of flow when playing.”
“I do have the complaint that the soundtrack is very fitting, but there's an annoying event that happens at high vertigo that makes it basically impossible to progress.”
“You have to essentially wait it out, and while disabling the music disables the event, disabling the music mid-event basically keeps it stuck at the poor lighting until you restart the game.”
“- the music isn't really anything to rave about but the individual tracks are quite nice and add to the relaxing atmosphere.”
- atmosphere59 mentions
- 69 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in "Beton Brutal" is widely praised for its stunning visuals, immersive sound design, and unique art direction, creating a blend of tension and tranquility reminiscent of both horror and therapeutic experiences. Players appreciate the game's ability to evoke feelings of exploration within a beautifully crafted, abandoned brutalist environment, enhanced by fluid controls and a well-complemented soundtrack. Overall, the atmosphere is described as enchanting, polished, and integral to the game's engaging experience.
“Beton Brutal quickly settles you into its atmosphere and it becomes a relaxing, almost therapeutic experience due to how fluid the controls were made for you to traverse this concrete jungle.”
“The ambient music is nice, the textures are polished and the lighting makes for a very eerie and beautiful atmosphere.”
“I love the atmosphere and the abandoned brutalist architecture vibes it’s going for.”
“If I'm being charitable, then I would say these effects are supposed to bring a certain atmosphere reminiscent of horror games, but the effect of the vertigo meter is to introduce effects on your character that aren't scary and actively prevent the player from playing the game.”
“Though, I would say that this game uses what it has well to build the atmosphere.”
“Hits all the Minecraft parkour feels while exuding a completely different atmosphere and environment.”
- graphics54 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals and unique art style, which create an atmospheric experience that enhances gameplay. Reviewers highlight the charm of the graphics, noting their fluidity and precision in movement, as well as the effective integration of sound design and music. While some describe the visuals as simple, they are considered captivating and integral to the overall aesthetic, particularly for fans of the "liminal" and "poolrooms" styles.
“Beautiful graphics and some of the most flawless movement I've ever felt in a parkour game.”
“The visuals are stunning, the sound design is crisp and grounded, and the soundtrack is fantastic.”
“Graphically, it's a treat to look at too.”
“The graphics, while seemingly quite simple, actually have an extremely charming quality to them.”
“Not something mind-blowing, but the music, visuals, and effects blend together very well (do not turn off the vertigo effects for the true experience).”
“At first, it might look like simple Minecraft parkour, but being freed from the (literal and aesthetic) grid of the Minecraft world really lets the level design and art style shine.”
- grinding14 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be frustrating and demoralizing, particularly due to the repetitive nature of platforming sections and the harsh penalties for failure, which often require them to redo tedious segments. While the game is enjoyable initially, the grind becomes tiresome, leading to a lack of motivation to replay once completed. Overall, the experience can be marred by poorly communicated mechanics and the emotional toll of repeated failures.
“Unlike similar games I've played like Jump King, falling in this game is just so demoralizing and it becomes woefully tedious to repeatedly do the same platforming sections over and over again.”
“Especially since the punishment of failing is to start over or a long section you already did (and possibly found tedious) repeatedly, because the game didn't communicate well.”
“Having now finished a run, it is not something I care at all about repeating due to the tediousness of the later elevation.”
- optimization14 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is generally praised for its responsive controls and smooth performance, though some users report occasional lag spikes and stuttering, particularly on higher-end systems. However, the lack of essential settings like resolution options and V-Sync, combined with issues such as screen tearing and subpar image quality, detracts from the overall experience. While it runs well in many respects, these optimization shortcomings may hinder enjoyment for some players.
“The movement and controls felt very responsive, which paired wonderfully with the impressive performance.”
“On the plus side, it is pretty fun before it starts feeling grindy, and it's optimized very well other than one lag spike I'd fairly consistently get at 300m.”
“The game runs smoothly and the difficulty ramps up progressively.”
“I had some stuttering peaks on a very decent computer configuration, and it brought me down several times, so I hope it'll get fixed soon enough.”
“Neat premise and scales well performance-wise, but marred by a lack of settings (not even the basics like resolution options, fullscreen modes, or v-sync are present) with lackluster image quality due to forced defaults being subpar. It has a forced sharpening filter with no anti-aliasing, resulting in a very over-sharpened look with artifacts, and no anisotropic filtering. The intrusive vertigo mechanic serves no purpose other than to enable YouTube and Twitch squealers to do their totally real and not fake at all reactions for views. The game couldn't stand on its own decent merits and feels insincere because of it.”
“Performance is a problem too; the game has severe screen tearing by default and no v-sync setting included. I could only raise the FPS to 120 to try and minimize the problem.”
- replayability6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability, largely due to its workshop implementation and map editor, which, despite needing improvement, provide an endless variety of user-generated content. Players are encouraged to experiment with different strategies and paths, enhancing the overall fun and replay value.
“You're encouraged to optimize your paths through parts, finding skips organically, testing stuff out, taking risks... fun and with great replayability.”
“The workshop implementation and map editor could use some work, but ultimately it adds an infinite amount of replayability to the game, and some of the maps on show have matched the quality of the base-game maps (shoutout to evan).”
“This game has quite a bit of replayability.”
- emotional5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the game enjoyable and engaging, often replaying sections for fun, but many express that the emotional toll of repeated failures—particularly falling significant distances—can overshadow their overall enjoyment, leading to feelings of frustration and sadness.
“Fun but makes me want to cry a bit”
“Good game, I want to cry”
“Looking for shortcuts is pretty fun, many sections I've replayed a dozen times I absolutely loved for some amount of time, but emotionally the negative feeling of falling to 100m-150m has grown to the point of completely ruining any enjoyment of playing the game.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's humor is described as wildly entertaining, with players finding it so funny that it could drive them to the brink of madness. It balances its comedic elements with accessible gameplay, making it both enjoyable and lighthearted.
“Yep, we've found it... the game that will make me end up in a mental institution, wearing one of those straight jackets while laughing hysterically in the corner of the room.”
“Funny and sometimes easy game”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players have reported significant stability issues, particularly with buggy ladders and platforms that disrupt gameplay. While the initial sections of the game are well-received, the latter parts introduce frustrating mechanics like ice-boosting and inconsistent jumping, leading to a less enjoyable experience. Overall, the game's stability is marred by these technical flaws.
“I'm honestly incredibly surprised at the lack of comments mentioning how buggy the ladders are in the red section or how you will take a jump and completely lose all speed without letting go of sprint.”
“The first 300 meters are exactly what I always wanted from climb maps and I was excited to see how the game would up the intensity from then on, but from 300-500 I was instead met with gimmicky ladder jumping, unintuitive ice-boosting, and buggy platforms.”
- story2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The story is noted for its inclusion of various abilities, dangers, and secrets, suggesting a layered narrative that enhances gameplay. However, the details provided are somewhat vague, indicating that while the story has potential, it may lack depth or clarity.