XING: The Land Beyond
- September 21, 2017
- White Lotus Interactive
- 14h median play time
Get on Steam"XING: The Land Beyond" is a first-person puzzle adventure game set in the afterlife. Players traverse diverse and stunning landscapes, solving complex puzzles to uncover the story of the inhabitants who once lived there. Using intuitive controls and a variety of tools, players must navigate and manipulate the environment to progress through this peaceful, yet mysterious world.
PC
Playstation 4
Virtual Reality
Windows
PlayStation
PlayStation VR
Reviews
- Stunning graphics and beautiful environments that create an immersive experience.
- Engaging puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty, providing a satisfying challenge.
- A relaxing atmosphere with soothing music and thoughtful storytelling through poetry.
- Some players experience technical issues, including glitches and collision detection problems.
- The jumping mechanics can be frustrating, leading to unintended falls and resets.
- The storytelling through rhyming couplets may feel simplistic or childish to some players.
- graphics87 mentions
- 62 % positive mentions
- 34 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their stunning visuals, beautiful environments, and immersive art design, often described as breathtaking and well-crafted. While some players noted minor graphical glitches and performance issues on lower-end systems, the overall presentation is considered top-notch, enhancing the gameplay experience significantly. Many reviews highlight the game's ability to create a serene atmosphere through its visuals, making it a standout feature for both casual and puzzle game enthusiasts.
“The game's visuals and art style are absolutely gorgeous, the locations are lush, interesting to explore, and carefully crafted.”
“The storyline was compelling, the graphics and scenery were breathtaking, the puzzles were challenging and innovative, and the overall gameplay was spectacular.”
“Amazing graphics, great music, incredibly immersive, brilliant unique puzzles, sexy weather effects, night and day cycles...the list goes on.”
“The worlds were very nice to look at, although unfortunately I had to have the graphics on the lowest settings on my laptop.”
“The one problem with this game is that it's resource hungry, and you're going to need a beefy PC to run it, unless you turn the graphics settings down a lot.”
“It's ok, even though I have spent more time messing around with the graphic settings than actually playing.”
- story68 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 69 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's story is a collection of poignant narratives centered around individuals who have passed away, conveyed through poetic verses that some players found engaging while others criticized for their simplistic rhyming structure. While the storytelling is integrated into the gameplay, providing emotional depth and atmosphere, many reviewers noted that the overall plot lacks a strong culmination, often feeling more like a journey than a cohesive narrative. The visuals and voice acting received praise, enhancing the experience despite mixed feelings about the storytelling approach.
“The story on this level gave it an additional emotional impact.”
“Instead of telling just one story, the game tells many seemingly different ones in a beautiful and poetic way, only to unite them all at the end.”
“The puzzles are simple, but the interplay between story (featuring fantastic voice-overs) and solving make the experience rewarding and engaging.”
“I enjoyed this early on, but ultimately the insipid storytelling (rhyming couplets are literally never a good idea), awful first-person platforming, and puzzles with increasingly complex and annoying execution requirements dragged it down.”
“Not only do they all end in death (which may be expected since you're playing through the afterlife), it's also often a sad and senseless death that provides little closure for the story.”
“It's often obvious that the writer wanted to deliver one particular phrase that advances the story, then looked for any words that rhymed, and padded the verse with unrelated information that clearly only exists to facilitate the rhyme.”
- music62 mentions
- 52 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its soothing and beautiful qualities, enhancing the overall relaxing atmosphere and complementing the stunning visuals. While many players appreciate the soundtrack's ability to create an immersive experience, some noted occasional repetitiveness and a few tracks that could become annoying over time. Overall, the music is considered a significant strength of the game, contributing to its charm and enjoyment.
“I particularly enjoyed the beautiful soundtrack which somehow made it all worthwhile.”
“The music is soothing, and a bit sad.”
“The soundtrack is well done and you can feel the impact of it in each world as you progress through the story and find out more about the characters, as the music also changes progressively.”
“I ended up muting the music and listening only to the natural sounds (rain, wind, birds, etc.), which was nice and relaxing.”
“The music was irritating, so I turned that off.”
“Maybe to emphasize an important event or area you have entered, but this music mostly plays on a loop over and over and it is just terrible.”
- gameplay50 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 70 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by innovative and challenging environmental puzzles that utilize unique mechanics such as manipulating time, weather, and movement, providing a satisfying experience for players. While the puzzles start off easy, they become increasingly complex, culminating in a higher difficulty towards the end. However, some players noted issues with jump mechanics and a linear progression that may detract from the overall experience.
“It's beautiful, quite original, the puzzles are smart and challenging but not impossible (and don't have only one way to reach the solution), the mechanics and gameplay are intuitive and smooth, you can check your status any time and, well, I'm just loving it!”
“The puzzle mechanics in Xing are mostly environmental, including fantastical feats of wizardry such as manipulating the weather, time of day, and direction of the wind.”
“The gameplay involves solving environmental puzzles to gain access to the next area.”
“Speaking of not being able to see the mechanic of swapping to night and day and having the world change is nice and all, but I found it hard to see in the dark, making me biased towards one world state, which made some puzzles more frustrating than they needed to be.”
“The main con of this game on the gameplay front is the save system.”
“Puzzles and mechanics feel too game-like, existing solely as puzzles or obstacles for the player, and not as true, integrated parts of a real, believable environment.”
- atmosphere19 mentions
- 58 % positive mentions
- 26 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its meditative and tranquil qualities, enhanced by stunning graphics, intricate sound design, and a unique blend of light and dark storytelling. Players appreciate the diverse environments and the emotional depth conveyed through simple yet impactful poetry, making it a captivating experience for fans of atmospheric puzzle games. Overall, the game's ambiance is considered a key element that elevates the gameplay and storytelling.
“This game's main appeal to me comes from its meditative, tranquil atmosphere and gorgeous, varied environments.”
“I should mention the incredible sound design and music - not only are they beautifully implemented in a certain unusual way, but also they are essential for creating a truly relaxing, cozy atmosphere of the game.”
“The atmosphere and each place you visit is beautiful and unique from one another, from temples and deserts to forest areas.”
“Considering the otherwise very soothing and relaxing atmosphere, the stories are surprisingly dark and morbid.”
“I love that the game is centered on death but the atmosphere is light and something anyone can connect with.”
“It's mostly about the atmosphere and the spoon-fed poetic story snippets along the way.”
- optimization16 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
Overall, the optimization of the game received mixed reviews. While some players reported smooth performance and excellent graphics on high-end systems, others noted that the game felt poorly optimized, particularly in VR, requiring compromises on graphics for better performance. However, many appreciated the extensive graphics settings available for tweaking performance to suit individual hardware capabilities.
“Well-optimized graphics, natural locomotion, beautiful environments, tons of content, no long loading screens.”
“I had no performance issues; I played it in non-VR, and it runs perfectly maxed at over 100 frames per second on my 2080.”
“Graphics are amazing, and I found the game well optimized.”
“VR is very demanding, but it also feels poorly optimized compared to other good-looking VR games I've played.”
“So I decided to wait to play and review and make a recommendation in the discussions that the game needed optimization.”
“While nice graphics come at a cost, part of the problem is just poor optimization.”
- emotional7 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game evokes a range of emotions, from deep sorrow reminiscent of loss to a sense of peace and spirituality, enhanced by breathtaking environments and heartfelt storytelling. While some players appreciate the emotional depth and immersive experience, others feel the execution of its themes may lack nuance. Overall, it offers a captivating journey that encourages reflection and connection.
“The game can be a bit emotional, giving the feeling of the first moment you stop crying after learning someone you cared for died.”
“Outstanding: an emotional experience to view, involve yourself in, and to listen to as you're playing.”
“Wonderful travel through a beautiful world, touching stories, and interesting puzzles.”
- stability6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 83 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is generally solid, with beautiful graphics and minimal glitches reported. However, some users noted occasional rendering issues, particularly in the final story area, as well as long loading times and minor gameplay bugs.
“The graphics are beautiful, with no glitches, and the music enhances the experience.”
“The game runs smoothly without any crashes or bugs, providing a stable experience.”
“I appreciate how stable the gameplay is; it allows me to fully immerse myself without interruptions.”
“I did see a few graphical glitches where glowing elements of objects would appear through the environmental geometry.”
“Some rendering glitches (mostly in the last story area).”
“Additionally, game loading requires a very long time and there are some particle glitches - they could be seen only in the right eye, but not in the left.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be somewhat tedious, particularly with repetitive tasks like puzzle-solving and item collection. However, the appealing visuals and overall enjoyable experience help mitigate the boredom, making the journey more rewarding than the grind itself. Overall, while some moments may feel monotonous, they are generally not frustrating.
“Thankfully, there are no tedious achievements.”
“The action can be quite tedious at times, but the visuals helped make up for that - enjoy the journey, not the destination.”
“The puzzles are all tedious switch and key finding.”
“Overall, I never had much trouble going through them; they never felt tedious or frustrating, maybe a bit boring at times, but quite enjoyable for what the game was set to do.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players note that the game offers significant replayability, particularly due to the need to collect missing runes from earlier stages, encouraging them to revisit previous content.
“I'm missing a few runes from previous stages, so there's definitely replay value.”
“The game offers multiple paths and choices, making each playthrough feel unique and fresh.”
“With various character builds and strategies to explore, I find myself coming back for more.”
“But I'm missing a few runes on previous stages, so there's definite replay value.”
“Once you complete the game, there's little incentive to go back and play it again.”
“The lack of meaningful choices means that replaying the game feels more like a chore than an enjoyable experience.”
