Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2023
Beyond Contact
Developer Playcorp Studios
A fiercely formidable sci-fi survival game, set on a hostile alien world that wants you dead! Alone, or with a crew, do you have what it takes to survive? From the Steam store page
194 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
62
Fresh
118 positive · 73 negative
95% range 55–68%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 118 | 73 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
818 of 1,149 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 194 · most liked firstTL;DR: Buggy abandonware. Okay if you get it for 5 or less, but otherwise you can find better survival games out there. The good: - There is a story, even if it's somewhat predictable. - Trading and NPC Quests. You are not just thrown into a sandbox to "find your own goals". - There are 4 characters with their own bonuses and skill tress to give you some variance of gameplay. - Base defense. - Additional gamemodes. The bad: - No real innovation of the genre. You can skip the tutorial, there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The playable characters are locked behind a paywall of a currency only obtainalbe through 'daily challenges'. You get 10 credits for each day in-game, 20-30 for each challenge and there are only 6 challenges per day, whereas some of them require you to progress quite a bit into your playthrough. Your first character unlock costs 200 and the rest costs 500 each. Locking gameplay, in a story game, behind a grind of daily challenges is ridiculous to me, cosmetics is fine but not locking characters…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ABANDONED after getting to v1.0. Suffers from small inventory syndrome. Has bugs that will never be fixed. Nothing to do but constantly gather resources, gets boring after a while. On normal difficulty you will die a lot from starvation or lack of oxygen. With multiplayer (normal difficulty), it's just easier to die and get rezzed then to try to stay alive. With easy, you actually get to live forever. It's just poorly balanced with the difficulty settings. I tried a few games, never really…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked the game until I found out it is timed. Timed games are just not for me. Recommended if you like timed games and not if you do not.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Saw this game on sale when I was looking for something new to play, bought it on a whim, and I'm glad I did. Beyond Contact is a slightly different take on the survival-sandbox genre. Kinda reminds me of Don't Starve (except I hated Don't Starve :P ), with the more action-oriented gameplay and three-quarters view that's different from the more typical first-person games I've been playing lately. Like most survival games, the beginning is very grindy - you have to grind for food, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game looks nice and plays good for the most part. You build you scavenge, you farm and search for answers but the game has few MAJOR ISSUES: After building anything raids will start. - They are frequent, Hell frequent. YOu will not be able even to finish calmly conversations with NPC. If the conversation leads to request for another covnersation with different NPC you will easily end up with 2-3 active raids on your base and outposts for doing nothing. - YOu will be under constant pressure…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game swallowed me for a few days. The dopamine dosage of effort vs. reward was juuust right to keep me hooked x) I like how all the elements: gathering, hunting, survival, crafting, base construction, RPG skill and tech trees intertwine just right to deliver a fun experience. Some parts are difficult at first but once you figure them out survival is not that difficult any more. for those who complain that some chars or skills are useless or that survival is too difficult, please check…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got hardlocked when a quest NPC didn't spawn. Apparently it's not an uncommon problem to get hardlocked and the solution is to start fresh. That'd be understandable if it was still EA, but it's well past that point. Game itself was fine, a bit limited but reasonably interesting take on don't starve, definitely not worth restarting though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →UI is trash. Items disappear, then when you pick something up, it duplicates but the other copy is not usable. Was cooking meat and the cook button disappeared preventing me from cooking anything else. Sometimes you can neither pick up nor scan items on the ground. Nothing here is intuitive. Terrible gaming experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Much improved since release. The beginning can be a bit tough, but nothing a player paying attention and checking tooltips could not handle. Oxygen consumption can be handled easily with the Rebreather, while food can be cooked with the stove (even the plant one, it doubles the stamina regained). So focus on spending Research on Rebreather then Stove, and you are good.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting story lines, I really give it that. I love a good sci fi survival game. Unfortunately, I feel too much time is absorbed in basic needs (food, oxygen, etc) that it becomes a menial and repetitive chore. After two hours of this gameplay loop, it was time to turn in. To play the other characters available, you need to redeem in-game currency that I've never seen a drop of in my playtime. Being forced to play the one character that I was growing tired of really killed my interest.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Good: - Beautiful 3D-"isometric" Open World Survival Crafting game - Well supported gameplay with tutorials and web addresses - Diverse biomes to explore - Very good user interface and tactile controls - Initially the tech tree is enticing and the progress is engaging. - Items are evenly scattered, it's slow to collect enough resources but relatively balanced. The Bad: - My bad, I didn't realize the game was a roguelite until almost one hour in the game, and after my second death…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I highly recommend the game. The story is decent, nothing to write home about, but for me that's not the point of the game. Good progression, amazing setting and details, the available playable characters (4 at the moment) are quite different and allow for different playstyles. Played it both solo and 2-man co-op and it was fun either way. I saw in other comments that the game is grindy -- I don't quite agree. Once I discovered what data mining does... Just build it and try it out. "I can't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got it on sale, and I feel it was worth the 5 bucks. It's a 2023 game, and in v 1.2 even though the store stamp says 1.0. Not really sure what is going on with support via steam, but it seems to lax. The discord channel also seems to be out of date. Last few messages were spam in the discord. Gameplay seems fine. Seems very polished. Not sure what people are having a problem with with it, but I just arrived so. Yea. I'll let ya know more moving forward. But, even if it is abandonware it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played several dozen hours and now, with the end in sight, I can say that I have definitely gotten my money's worth. This isn't a game I will come back to, but I have enjoyed playing it. The core game is solid. I encountered no bugs. The graphics are enjoyable. And the storyline is sufficient. That said, there are a LOT of things I wish this game did differently. This is a top-down isometric game with an absurdly small zoom-out range. Given how small and cluttered the mini-map…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit/Update: I rushed to finish the game because I was just done with the building mechanics. It's still fun and I do recommend it with 1 last tip before signing off: build small until you find a good open space to set down your permanent base. Original post: I've been playing for a few hours and I like this game. Scavenging for resources, refining them into useful equipment and items, base building, and there are NPCs to interact with. It's got the features that make survival games fun for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really don't buy this one, I'm currently refunding. It look alright for the first minutes but it feels soulless and void of any intellectual actual gameplay. You are just going to be running around to the same stuff for hours without much progress.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm glad this made it out of Early Access. The lack of a playerbase and mid reviews never made me play it though up until i grabbed it on a steep discount for under 10$. Ngl it's pretty much what I want from a space survival game. Has it all, research, crafting, learning-by-doing instead of complete hand-holding, base building etc. Controls feel good enough, even on a Gamepad and it's visually pleasing. BGM also does its part to contribute to the immersion of fighting for survival on a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I do need to give this game more of a chance, but man, a survival game with heroes to unlock is a bad mix in my opinion. But that is not my problem, the controls and UI are unintuitive and clunky. I started playing, and it said to rotate view with 'Q' and 'E', which I thought was odd, but the top down view indicated to me that it should be played with a controller, and that does fix camera interaction, but then selecting gear, creating anything, or researching is a nightmare. I do not know how…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had some fun at first but the grind just got to me. I didn't find the story compelling enough to continue once I realized I just wasn't having fun. Game on!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You have to run dailies to acquire in game credits in order to purchase characters or equipment. WTF
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sucks that I didn't like it, I enjoy these kind of games, even if they had plenty of issues, as long as they are fun. The most annoying thing for me is that all the areas are almost the same more or less, same enemies, loot, etc, would have been better to have 3 big areas which are different and feels like you are progressing. Another thing that annoyed me was not being able to fast travel back to your place, especially with night and day cycles being VERY short, and you keep freezing at night,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Even on sale, not really worth.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Multiple bugs make it a little frustrating at times, but overall a fun sci-fi survival game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sorry, but the moment you put in daily quests in a nominally single player or co-op game, you've totally screwed the pooch! Yeah, nah!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got the game in EA, played enough but it was very grindy. Stopped playing for awhile. Came back and play, and it's still, like almost all negative review, I really don't understand the dailies grind to get new characters. Lastly, this game is not solo friendly, best play with friends. Or you might have to grind the ♥♥♥♥ out of all resources. Another thing that's is very annoying is when you mass deconstruct, you can't choose what you deconstruct, it just deconstruct your entire base. :/ 5/10 I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got this game for like 70% or something, I regret it This game is super meh. From its writing to its mechanics to its execution. It suffers from a serious problem of tell don't show. The story line is almost completely unbelievable feel good nonsense. The UI in the game is terrible. It doesn't give you enough space to really feel like you are progressing at an even pace, I spent like over an hour running around just looking for materials to upgrade my stuff so I could get more stuff so I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's just mediocre
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a fantastic, unexpected gem of a game! I don't know how it's been out this long without catching my eye, but I'm very glad it finally did. 110% recommended. Beyond Contact is a great mix of combat, exploration, unlocks, crafts, base building, and tower defense. Colourful and fun. Interesting story. Characters are cute and loveable, but not excessively cutesy. Art style strikes just the right balance between realism and fantastical. The music is REALLY good, fits the theme perfectly,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →40 min of gameplay, already encountered several bugs, including one game breaking where all my keys stop working in game, couldn't even press ESC to close game properly, can't reccomend game in that state with game riddled with all those bugs, at best it should be in early early acess.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed my first 70 hrs or so, since the game has a nice implementation of all the gameplay elements I expected (resource gathering, progression via research, story-driven-quests, base building, territory-capture-point, hack-and-slash style combat etc). I liked the early-to-mid game challenge of survival with the progressively more demanding harassment from the negative weather "events" of the game, and in general I consider Beyond Contact a good game... But, at the end-game it felt a bit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those game for folks who can stand to be CONSTANTLY gathering. It's very repetative because there isn't much variety in gameplay: What you start the game doing, you keep doing with a slightly higher price tag. Only a game that will be fun for those that are okay with a very basic gameplay loop of gather-> research-> craft. Frankly there are better games out there in this genre.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**** no. I can't actually *DO* anything because I'm non-stop having to find food/oxygen. I get just enough food/oxy to run straight to the next source... and oxy doesn't respawn. Multiplayer is broken entirely. No matter what we do we get "Kicked from server" while loading. Inventory is *super* tiny. Resources are exceedingly grindy to get nothing. One of my slots is bugged because of net capture can't be dropped nor consumed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There’s a lot to like in this game, like the art style, the sound design, and the setting. However, as you progress in the game, it keeps throwing obstacles your way to a point where it feels more stressful than fun. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but I play a lot of survival games and enjoy them. Revised Review: Turned down the stamina and oxygen rate (by half), now I'm enjoying the game. Combat is kinda wonky but manageable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of those games where the yes/no recommend largely depends on what you like. For me it's a no, but it could very well be something for you. First of all, I really wanted to like the game. It feels pretty well done, polished, it looks nice and plays nice. It feels fairly intuitive, it doesn't take a lot of research to figure out how to play. Where it misses the mark for me is the balancing. It is incredibly difficult to make even a small foothold. You will ALWAYS be chasing food and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Completion: Campaign finished, 100% quests, 100% map explored, nearly all research, 13/29 achievements Overall Score: 7/10 A good co-op survival game with a strong story hook, held back by grind and awkward combat Recommended if you like co-op survival-crafting games with a real story arc and do not mind some grind. Context Platform: PC Controls: controller Playtime at review: ~24.8 hours Mode played: co-op What This Game Is in 2-3 Sentences This is a sci-fi survival-crafting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Over the weekend I played this survival craft game called Beyond Contact. It's cute, has a nice loop and it's very french despite the studio being australian, and it's only like 4 eurobucks atm. also it's finished. Imagine, an open world crafting game that's finished and has an ending? ikr?
unlabelledView post →I really want to Recommend this game. I Love the story, and world which feel suitable alien. Design and graphics are great and give this game a life of it's own. Were it falls flat is the the controls and your interactions with the world. Most of the time you fight with melee and hitting a creature is very frustrating. Also most of the time your life is hanging on a string, either starving, freezing, or running out of air. Building a base would be the main answer for this, However nothing works…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I keep hoping I'll find a survival crafting game that doesn't feel like a slog but they are extremely rare. Beyond Contact isn't any different than most of them I'm afraid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has a lot of potential, but feels unpolished. Some resources that you need for missions dont respawn, single-use items aren't marked as such, you must spend a ton of time exploring but you are constantly interrupted by battles or events. There's plenty of trial and error (requiring a lot of time to correct, but you dont have time as events/corruption progress) but no option to reload, and so on. It makes for a frustration experience that detracts from the enjoyment of exploring the very…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks fun but awful controls.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy the game play, grind, kill, loot and repeat. It gets a bit repetitive, but I still enjoy the grind and building multiple bases across the different areas. Think you would get about a good 120 hours of fun from this, or if you want all the achievements and unlock everything it might be more. Works with my controller which is another plus for me, but the aiming is a bit difficult.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the game was initially interesting it got dragged down quickly for me because of its grindy, repetetive nature as well as bad inventory management and combat and a boring story.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this on sale, but I was skeptical because of the reviews were pretty poor regarding camera and controls. I did find that true on the controller because you use right stick for moving the camera AND zooming, so you got a lot of unexpected and unhelpful camera behavior. However, once I moved to WASD, I found it far easier and very reliable. The isometric view is good, but I can see how people might want to zoom out or angle more. I am REALLY enjoying the game. There's lots to do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is my first comment on any game here on steam and i make it because the game deserves it. I almost gave up on this game until i changed one thing (the difficulty) which made it great in my personal opinion. I love these type of survival games. I enjoy that struggle starting off with nothing and eventually advance enough to thrive. On normal difficulty i was unsuccessful because the need for food and keeping warm etc was too all consuming. I kept thinking It's fine I'll unlock some tech…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks intriguing, but the gameplay is terrible. While playing, I had only one real question: 'What is the purpose of playing?'. Had refunded.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Story seems fun, the premis good but the survival aspect is horrible. the share legwork to make a shelter to store items is mindboggeling. You can't do combat until you find a pickaxe as a bare minimum. Durability plummets fast finding resources isnt the only thing you also need to research, and if you research wrong you crippel your survival and progress. I even dropped difficulty to easy and it was still annoyingly "hard", hard being wrong word here it should be tedious, it was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another game that made me play until get 100% achievements. I was entertained from the beginning until the end of the story and I quickly became familiar with the inventory, combat and base system. I started playing the game on medium difficulty and it was a wonderful experience mostly because I had experience playing similar games like Don't Starve Together. Hard difficulty was a challenge on both solo and co-op still it was awesome. Super recommended!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond Contact, developed by Playcorp Studios and published by Deep Silver, is a science fiction survival adventure that drops players onto a vibrant but perilous alien world where resourcefulness, adaptability, and curiosity determine success. The game blends the intensity of survival mechanics with the creative freedom of base building and exploration, offering both a story-driven campaign and a sandbox-style conquest mode. It is set on the hostile planet Ketern, a world teeming with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I Just got this game for like 4 bucks and it is every addicting. The combat system is really fun too. Highly recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tired of troubleshooting this sack of crap. There needs to be more warnings so buyers know what they are getting into.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good game, ignore people claiming about the raids of enemies being to hard it fun, you just need to have friend and get defences up and fences and teleporter then it easy to handle the waves without losing anything. It well worth a try if like this type thing, it really actually a good game doesn't deserve negativity.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i tried 8 other open world survival games before this in the under 10$ section. Im keeping this one. Oh yeah use your mouse on the map and left trigger is aim, use the aim or combat can feel a bit broken.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This feels like a reskin of Crashlands. The controls are very wonky and carpal-tunnel inducing. The plot is something to hold your nose and bear. Getting 100% achievements requires multiple playthroughs, which is a pet peeve of mine.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Futuristic version of Don't starve. I've played story mode and it seems easier than DS(T). Unfortunately, seems unfinished (habitats being prime example).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond Contact is an absolute gem wrapped in a survival grind. The story is immersive, the visuals are crisp, and the constant food and oxygen drain? Well, it builds character. But don’t worry—you can craft your way to a better life, building a base that turns your struggle into efficiency. Bugs? They add charm. If you love a game that keeps you on your toes (or gasping for air) while letting you tinker with high-tech creations, this is the one for you. Just remember—nothing tastes better than…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I only played 10 hours and mostly enjoyed it. It's a thumbs up considering I got the game for £3 on sale. Beautiful graphics, absolutely top-notch voice-acting and some nice gameplay. However, the game makes several survival-game errors: 1. you run out of food and oxygen at a ridiculous rate 2. tools/weapons wear out and food decays 3. inventory space is a joke (6 slots per chest) Put these two together and your gaming experience will be reduced to micro-management - fruit picking, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't understand what the game designer think when they force players to play one character and others must unlock. On a live service game or a mobile game, they do that because they want player to keep on playing their game, and they'll get more money through IAP or subscription. This game is a one and done purchase. Why force player to grind daily quest to unlock player? I bought it to play multiplayer with 2 other friends, we want 3 different character to know who is who, and to have…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Singleplayer story mode felt like a grind, but it honestly only took a little over 15 hours to finish. I got this on sale for $5.50CAD, so... Got my money's worth I guess. It's not a horrible game per say, it can definitely use a lot of QoL updates. I have yet to dabble in the multiplayer aspect, but honestly this game is a lot more "chill", than traditionally combat oriented. It does a great job reminding you that you're just a science nerd stranding on an alien planet.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and rather simple plot. But worth playing..
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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