Beyond Words Nintendo Switch 2 Review 9/10 "So Good That it’s Almost Beyond Words!" 📖 @PQubeGames #IndieGame #GameDev

Beyond Words is exactly the sort of game you’d expect from era-spanning veterans of some of the most celebrated FPS titles of all time… a word-centric puzzle game with deck-building / roguelite mechanics. Yes, the only head-shot you’ll come across here will be a word comprised of Scrabble tiles and will net you some tasty points and multipliers...not a frag.

Word-based games are treasured here at the Welsh branch of GF, with one of the best-loved here being Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey, but Beyond Words takes a different approach that rewards failed runs and scratches that one-more-go vibe by constantly rewarding you with unlocks and bonuses that can make or break on the tougher stages.

Beginning with a snappy tutorial that sets the stage for the simple game mechanics, you’ll find yourself making words up from the hand you are dealt, with the ability to shuffle and change a few, if needed. The main game board has a simple image behind it to add a bit of personality and colour to the proceedings, whilst there are also special tiles that act as multipliers or upgrade tiles to boost your word score. 

The game effectively has Scrabble rules at its absolute core, but is bolstered by the various boost cards and upgrades that you can pick up through your runs. Each round has a score that you must reach to be successful and proceed, and there is a boss after a few of these rounds. The boss exists in name only, in effect, as these boss sections effectively comprise a rule that hampers you in some way, perhaps certain letters have no point value attached, your boost cards are ineffective, or you can’t gain points on multiple words, causing you to spend some extra time on your strategy. As each round only consists of a handful of turns, you have to maximise those sweet, sweet points!

You chose your rounds from the forking path that acts as the stage select screen. The setup and premise gets no more complex than this, as the bulk of the game is spent hips deep in wordplay, the accessible and light approach works well, and as the game is a deck-builder, you won’t be pounding through levels and finishing this all off in a couple of hours, having seen all that the game has to offer - you’ll be involved in Beyond Words for a long time in your single-player journey to the end. 

This is absolutely fine, though, as the natural randomisation and fun of the inherent fundamentals here mean that it’s a great game to play alone or with a partner, as you can discuss the best words to use and which placement is the most beneficial to ensure you hit that score quota! Visually, Beyond Words is made up of pastel colours, humorous booster cards, and a sense of gentle humour in the card names, gelling really well as a whole.

Honestly, the only negative I can think of with Beyond Words is that the music is desperately in need of some variety or even just additions; the gentle, bubbling ambient soundtrack is fine. Still, it felt like one long looping track, and I would have loved, possibly, a list of tracks to choose from, as it does get old quite fast, and as this is quite a static game, some more lilting tunes thrown in the mix would have gone a long way.

SUMMARY
Beyond Words is an absolutely fantastic twist on the word puzzle genre, and it’s clear that the brains at MindFuel are masters at more than just the FPS genre. A highly recommended title for fans of word-based action, and one that’s fun for all the family!

9/10

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