Video Script:
There are two types of people in the world: the kind that like the sound of a bullet-hell shooter in the style of a kids cartoon with a human bear hybrid being chased by hordes of killer bots, and there’s normal, well-adjusted people. Well we don’t do normal or well-adjusted around here, so let’s put on our space… bear suit and see if this game is for real. See, I wanted to say “fur real” because of the bear thing. But I’m not gonna do that to you.
Broadside Games is an indie studio out of Australia, and it says right on their website that they wanna make games no one else would make. [shot of giant tongue weapon, thoughtful gaze] This is a worthy goal and I respect that. And I think they’ve accomplished that, in a good way. Bears In Space is a first-person shooter with platforming, puzzles, and pandemonium in good measure. You might think there’s a panda joke in there with pandemonium, but it’s not that kind of bear. We’re talking space bears, and robots, and a human who’s determined to get back to Earth.
Now before we get into it, full disclosure: I received a free review copy of the game through Key Mailer. I haven’t beaten the game yet, but I have played about six hours which is why this is an Impressions video and not a full review. So if you want to know what the heck this is, let’s jump in.
[Gameplay]
The first word that comes to mind for the gameplay is bonkers. There are bullets flying and enemies sprinting from all directions and the name of the game is to just keep moving. Never stop! It gets super frantic and I find myself looking for the next cover—any place to catch my breath a little. If you know anything about me as a gamer, I’m a slow, methodical player who’s just as happy to sneak around and take out enemies one by one, biding my time. This is not that sort of game.
Typically, you enter an area, run around like hell and clear it out, then you’ll hop around and push buttons and try to figure out how to get from point A to point B. And there are hidden secrets sprinkled throughout, so you can spend as much or little time hunting those down as you want. Theres a double jump and a dash, and expect to use them both a lot.
I played this game with a controller, which I appreciated during the platforming segments, but I think I would’ve enjoyed mouse and keyboard a little better during the battle frenzies. The controls were very customizable, however, with sensitivity and aim-assist options.
You’ll find health and ammo along the way, but I found myself constantly switching weapons as I drained and picked up ammo. You can upgrade weapons to increase their ammo capacity, but it’s pretty expensive and doesn’t leave you any coin leftover to buy new, zanier weapons—like the anvil slingshot. I gotta say the game was charming and I was having a pretty good time with some fairly generic weapons, but once I got my hands on the weird stuff the game really started to get interesting. You have space blasters and shotguns, of course, but there’s also an anvil slingshot and a square basketball, and even a tongue? I’m not kidding, there’s a giant tongue.
But that’s the loop. Survive an onslaught, do some platforming, visit a shop. Do that a few times and then go to a whole new zone. I’m not trying to make it sound boring, because it’s not. The weapon variety is a blast and you also have sections where you get to eat honey, and then you go into a berserker mode where you just run around and smash stuff and I’m always happy when I see a honey pot in the distance.
There are also little mini games along the way, but I haven’t found any yet that are genuinely fun or noteworthy. I would like to give a special shoutout to the Flak Cannon, which is modeled after the gun with the same name in Unreal Tournament, and blasting out those red-hot embers of death hit me right in the feels.
The game is single player only, there’s no co-op or multiplayer. Which is fine, I mean it would be nice to clear out an area with a buddy, but I’m not sure how well the platforming sections would work if you were trying to coordinate with someone else.
Plus the story is so deep I’m not sure how they’d—ok, that’s sarcasm. There is a story to the game, I’m sure of it.
[Story & Tone]
You play as Maxwell Atom, a Spacetronaut—is that a word? I don’t think that’s a word—that has somehow had his DNA mixed up with a space bear, and you have to find your way back to Earth. Now, I’m sure the game explained it better, but it really isn’t important. I mean most of the robots you come across are trying to kill you, but some of them aren’t, and some are downright friendly. I don’t really know why, and honestly I didn’t question it. It was pretty easy to tell which ones wanted me dead, although there was at least one scene where a bot was acting out a little scene and I blasted them by mistake. Were they about to do something funny? Or give me an awesome gadget? Who knows! It’s best not to think about it.
Which is sort of the same approach I took to wondering about why I have human hands and a couple of bear claws. Um, I have a lot of human hands, actually? Again, don’t think too hard. Make stuff go boom and hit some well-timed jumps—the rest just falls into place.
The game is funny, and a lot of scenes are played for laughs, but it’s humor really comes from the absurdity of it all. It’s not full of one-liners or biting humor like in High On Life, but it’s also not as annoying.
[Graphics & Sound]
The game has a charm to it: it’s not cutting edge graphics by any measure, but it does have a style that’s part 50s sci-fi and part Looney Tunes. I played this on a PC with a 3080ti, a Ryzen 9 5900, and 32GB of RAM. I had it hooked up to a TV and it always ran smoothly. They’re not going for photorealism, so you don’t need to worry about raytracing and DLSS and all that stuff.
The soundtrack was really good, and the music did a great job of adding intensity and clueing me in once the area was safe again. And the voice acting is silly in a good way, and hey I don’t know what you’re expecting from a $20 game but I think it’s probably a little better than that.
Overall, I’d say the presentation is pretty decent and I have no complaints. But… I couldn’t say that about everything.
[Bones To Pick]
I don’t know if income levels jump significantly later in the game, but from what I played collecting and upgrading weapons seemed like quite a grind. Ratchet & Clank is an obvious inspiration, but in those games there always seems to be a weapon juuust out of reach, but you know you’ll be able to afford it with a little bit more play. In that series, collecting and trying out weapons is the game in a way, and I’d love to have that part be a little more accessible in Bears In Space.
I’d also like to see a little more enemy variety. There’s a bunch of ways to destroy the bots, but only a handful of different bots to deal with. If you like variety, and you’re enjoying this, consider subscribing for bite-sized game reviews and commentary for the busy gamer.
So the mini games I mentioned earlier? The ones I found were incredibly basic and didn’t really add much. There was a crime scene I had to investigate that really just came down to finding the three items on the ground nearby. I didn’t have to deduce anything or think about the clues, all I had to do was walk to each area of the room. The basket cube game is a great idea, but the controls are clunky and there’s no finesse in shooting the ball or playing defense. There’s a button press to knock down an opponent, and a button press to chuck the ball, but that’s about it.
But hey, the mini games don’t make or break the game, and it’s not like Final Fantasy Rebirth where you’re stuck doing something you don’t enjoy just so you can advance. They’re there, they’re silly, and the game doesn’t take itself seriously enough to make the mini games matter.
[Final Thoughts]
So Bears in Space is pure, unadulterated fun. And beneath the surface chaos, there’s a surprisingly clever game lurking. Some levels require a bit of platforming finesse, and there are even some environmental puzzles that’ll have you scratching your furry head. So, if you’re looking for a wild ride through the cosmos with more claws than brains, then Bears in Space might just scratch that itch. Check out this link if you’re interested in picking it up on Steam or Epic, and be sure to subscribe for some upcoming videos on XDefiant, Tales of Kentera: Zau, and more.
And as always, thanks for watching. (editor’s note: and reading this)
