Between Horizons

Between Horizons is a neat detective click-and-point puzzle adventure game with a brilliant story and compelling cases to solve.

77%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, replayability

88% User Score Based on 329 reviews

Critic Score 53%Based on 4 reviews

Platforms

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About

Between Horizons is a single player real-time strategy game with drama, mystery, thriller and science fiction themes. It was developed by DigiTales Interactive and was released on March 25, 2024. It received neutral reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

Between Horizons is a narrative 2.5D sci-fi detective adventure. 33 years into the Zephyr's journey, its mission is suddenly jeopardized. Can you find the culprit before it's too late? Experience an enthralling story set in a semi-open world that branches and ends based on your choices.

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88%

Audience ScoreBased on 329 reviews

story137 positive mentions

grinding16 negative mentions

Compelling sci-fi setting aboard a generation ship with thoughtful worldbuilding and moral dilemmas.
Engaging detective gameplay requiring logical deduction and careful investigation with multiple cases.
Well-executed 2.5D pixel art visuals complemented by atmospheric soundtrack and quality voice acting.

Tedious and slow navigation due to limited fast travel options and extensive backtracking required.
Clunky user interface with poorly organized evidence system making clue management frustrating.
Lack of manual saves combined with permanent consequences can be punishing and reduce replayability.

story
345 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
59%
1%
The story centers on Stella, newly promoted chief of security aboard the generational starship Zephyr, tasked with investigating sabotage and dissent as humanity journeys to colonize a distant planet. While praised for its compelling sci-fi setting, moral dilemmas, engaging characters, and impactful player choices that influence multiple endings, some critics found the plot occasionally rushed, linear, or lacking depth, with story elements sometimes told rather than shown. Overall, it offers a strong detective narrative with thoughtful themes, though its pacing and presentation may not fully satisfy all players.
- “The game stands out for combining a structured detective system with a story that unfolds aboard a generation starship, creating a self-contained society where every action can ripple through an entire community.”
- “The story is wonderfully portrayed, the retro-style artwork is beautiful, and the game is full of memorable characters and moments.”
- “Between horizons is an excellent game, and an excellent story, that speaks to what 'justice' or 'ethics' mean in small, remote communities.”
- “The game is also very linear - despite the constant claim that the story would react to your choices, I never felt that was really happening.”
- “Secondly, and this is my main issue with the game, but the writing is quite lacking for many cases and for many elements of the story.”
- “The story goes far too fast, I don't really have any connection to the crew, outside of my 'case-work'.”
gameplay
83 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
65%
6%
The gameplay centers on detective investigation and deduction within a richly detailed sci-fi setting, offering engaging case-solving mechanics that balance challenge and accessibility. While exploration and clue-gathering are immersive and rewarding, some critiques highlight issues with UI polish, occasional bugs, and pacing that can lead to aimless wandering. Overall, the gameplay is praised for its depth, player agency, and improvements over similar titles, providing a satisfying mystery-solving experience despite minor frustrations.
- “I played an absolutely brilliant detective adventure with unique clue mechanics and excellent stories.”
- “The evidence-gathering and mystery-solving mechanics are pretty good, and they cleverly ensure that there's no way of guessing your way through.”
- “Great, engaging story and gameplay.”
- “I found the story in Between Horizons to be pretty good overall, but after a few hours, it becomes quite clear just how dreadful the gameplay is.”
- “There is a decent game here but it was compromised by aimless wandering, trial and error gameplay, and a terrible user interface.”
- “However, the gameplay and user interface does not cut it for me.”
graphics
82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
44%
4%
Between Horizons features a distinctive 2.5D pixel art style that uniquely blends retro aesthetics with modern lighting and 3D voxel elements, creating a compelling sci-fi atmosphere. While the graphics are widely praised for their beauty, charm, and originality, some users note minor technical quirks and occasional style inconsistencies, though overall the visuals strongly enhance the game's immersive storytelling and world-building.
- “Visually, the game presents its world through a distinctive 2.5d pixel-art style that blends retro aesthetics with modern lighting and environmental design.”
- “The graphics are perfect: a simple pixel aesthetic which had me pausing to appreciate how beautiful the art was.”
- “The art style manages to balance nostalgic pixel art with contemporary visual techniques, creating a look that feels both classic and fresh.”
- “The graphical side felt heavy and unnecessary.”
- “However, there are minor technical quirks, like a somewhat clunky interface and a graphics style that feels uneven (characters deserve more pixels, the environment could do with less, so that it feels more akin to pixel art adventure games instead of Octopath Traveler -- but maybe that's just me, as I do not like the mixed style much).”
- “What is a pixelated player character doing in a game with high-resolution background graphics?”
music
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
43%
7%
The music in the game is generally praised for its atmospheric, moody, and fitting sci-fi compositions that enhance the investigative and suspenseful tone. However, several users note that the soundtrack can become repetitive and loop frequently, which may detract from the experience for some players. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong aspect that complements the visuals and story well.
- “The musical score complements the investigative tone with subdued, atmospheric compositions that heighten moments of suspense without overpowering the narrative.”
- “Once again Julian Colbus has come through with a wonderful soundtrack that I am purchasing to put on my phone right now.”
- “The music does a great job of capturing both the sci-fi and mystery moods of the game, and provides a good ambience while usually not being too attention-grabbing.”
- “Background music loops every 5-10 seconds, becoming very repetitive.”
- “I couldn't tell if I was just hearing the same song through five different pitches, but by the end it's repetition and repetition and repetition made me consider turning the music off entirely if I hadn't finished the game first.”
- “The biggest issues I have is probably the music feeling very samey and looping over and over again, and not having more options for chapter selection to try out the different endings/choices.”
atmosphere
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
72%
24%
4%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive, tense, and richly detailed sci-fi setting, enhanced by subdued musical scores and charming pixel art. Reviewers highlight the strong blend of sound, visuals, and storytelling that creates a gripping and memorable experience, though a few note occasional missed opportunities in dynamism. Overall, the atmospheric design significantly contributes to the game's appeal and narrative engagement.
- “The audio design reinforces the atmosphere of quiet tension that runs throughout the game.”
- “The musical score complements the investigative tone with subdued, atmospheric compositions that heighten moments of suspense without overpowering the narrative.”
- “Digitales creates these fantastically atmospheric pixel sci-fi worlds that are an absolute pleasure to play in.”
- “The game lacks atmosphere and dynamism, which is a missed opportunity.”
grinding
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is widely described as tedious and frustrating, largely due to excessive backtracking, clunky navigation, and a lack of efficient fast travel options. Players find the exploration and puzzle-solving often monotonous, with UI issues making evidence management cumbersome, which detracts from the overall experience despite a strong story. Some comparisons note that similar titles offer less grindy, shorter gameplay, highlighting this game's pacing and traversal as major pain points.
- “I spent more time running back and forth across the map than doing anything else and it quickly became tedious.”
- “The one thing that bugged the hell out of me was the lack of actual fast travel; it made traversal tedious.”
- “Evidence collects in a panel that, although you can sort by 'type'; so physical evidence/person/location lists, it is still one giant jumble that is tedious to scour through when you're trying to find someone you met two chapters back.”
emotional
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's emotional impact is highlighted by powerful moments and narrative tension, with some players moved to tears by its conclusion. However, many felt the emotional connections lacked depth due to underdeveloped characters and superficial relationships, limiting overall emotional engagement. Improvement in character development and protagonist expression could enhance the emotional resonance in future titles.
- “This design philosophy reinforces the tension of the investigative process and ensures that every conclusion carries emotional and narrative impact.”
- “There are not a lot of games that made me cry out of joy at their ending, but this game is one of them.”
- “Stella’s story is affecting, and the Zephyr works well as the setting for a science-fiction mystery that features fundamental ethical dilemmas and big emotional moments.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
28%
43%
The game offers moderate replayability mainly through multiple endings and varied choices, allowing players to explore different narrative outcomes. While not highly complex, it provides enough variation for at least one additional playthrough and encourages discussions with friends. Fans of story-driven detective games will find this aspect enjoyable despite its straightforward structure.
- “Neat that there are multiple endings if you like replayability.”
- “It gives great replay value and discussions with friends!”
- “Fun little detective game, relatively limited and straightforward narrative, replayable perhaps once after finishing to see how your other choices may turn out.”
- “There's not much replayability, but if you like story-driven detective games, you will have a good time playing Between Horizons.”
- “There are a lot of different choices one can take, meaning there is a reasonable amount of replayability, even if it's not a Baldur's Gate 3 when it comes to choices and consequences.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Stability in the game is mixed, with some users experiencing persistent glitches, freezes, and buggy input issues, especially shortly after release, while others report smooth performance without bugs. The developers appear to be actively addressing these problems, but some UI and branching dialogue glitches remain. Overall, the core gameplay runs mostly well, though a brief waiting period is recommended for a more polished experience.
- “And then there are a lot of annoying issues like glitches and freezes that seem to have been known for some time but are still present, some of them claimed to be fixed already.”
- “I will say, it's quite buggy, with a lot of branching dialogue issues at the moment (a few days after release), so I might wait a couple of weeks for things to get ironed out.”
- “The gameplay is mostly solid with just a few buggy input issues occasionally.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The optimization of the game is mixed: some users experience unnecessary loading screens, overheating, and stuttering, suggesting poor optimization, while others report smooth and stable performance without issues.
- “No issues with performance at least.”
- “It also runs as smooth as butter so I can't complain about performance.”
- “Not sure why such a small game with 2.5D needs loading screens. It also made my laptop very hot and caused stuttering at some points, so I'd say it's just not optimized correctly.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is somewhat limited, with side characters lacking depth due to the game's strong focus on the mystery. A slower pace and additional slice-of-life moments, especially early on, could have enhanced character growth.
- “In a longer game, I would've liked to see more character development from many of the side characters, but the game's focus is clearly more on the mystery rather than the characters.”
- “The intro's pacing is too fast; I think having some slice-of-life elements after the funeral would have helped with character development.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game provides a welcome balance to its heavy political and existential themes, offering moments of lightness and delight amidst a serious narrative.

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53%Critics’ scoreBased on 4 critic reviews

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8h Median play time

8h Average play time

7-10h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Between Horizons is a real-time strategy game with drama, mystery, thriller and science fiction themes.

Between Horizons is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 8 hours playing Between Horizons.

Between Horizons was released on March 25, 2024.

Between Horizons was developed by DigiTales Interactive.

Between Horizons has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked Between Horizons for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Between Horizons is a single player game.

Similar games include Lacuna, Whispers of a Machine, Gamedec, The Séance of Blake Manor, Paradise Killer and others.

Between Horizons

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