Minds Beneath Us Review – A Haunting Sci-Fi Exploration of a Dystopian Future

Introduction to Minds Beneath Us

Minds Beneath Us is a sci-fi adventure and the first game by indie Taiwanese developer BearBoneStudio. It already seemed like a stylish experience by looking at the Steam page. However, playing it, I got to know an impeccably written, scathing look at the future prospects of society.

A Dystopian Future

Imagine a future where society has advanced so much that there’s barely any need for humans in most industries. Automation and AI development have destroyed the livelihoods of many, especially the people who were already in worse conditions.

In this futuristic society, a new industry has become the norm: using human bodies as part of internet infrastructure. The new hardware generating energy as the backbone of society is using people’s neural systems in an induced inertial state, feeding them the bare minimum to keep their bodies alive during the contribution time.

If things already sound bleak, I have to say they actually get worse. The government and the companies treat it almost like a charity, a way to employ people in less favorable life conditions, giving them a job that will pay reasonably well once everything is over.

In this society that runs on such a disgusting system, we assume the role of a young man called Jason Dai, who’s starting a job on a “farm” for internet flops. Or rather, your character is inside his body, as you now divide it with the real Jason.

Compelling Narrative and Characters

Amidst the game’s era of experiments, there seems to be a top-secret one that generated minds that can possess some people. Details are scarce, and your character doesn’t even know how they came to be, but it’s a fact that it’s an M.B.U., a separate entity from Jason himself despite having control over his body.

With that in mind, we have the chance to significantly affect his life in just a few days. We get to change how he interacts with people, help those around him, and find out shocking truths behind society and the circumstances of Jason and the M.B.U.s.

What Minds Beneath Us offers is a dreadful scenario for the future with a deeper cut in how it portrays society as a whole. It all feels very human, way too credible in how it represents people’s behavior as well as politics. Even with IT technical elements that may require suspension of disbelief, once I crossed that bridge, I was deeply immersed in its worldview.

Better yet, it manages to present its world in a compelling manner without ever feeling like it’s doing a random exposition dump for the sake of the reader. The situations escalate over time, and characters may talk a lot, but it all feels like natural, human-like moments of bonding and nurturing connections.

Innovative Gameplay Mechanics

As far as the gameplay experience goes, Minds Beneath Us is a text adventure. While most of the experience is text-based, like a visual novel, we have direct control over our character. We can move it around during various moments, choosing where to go and when to initiate a conversation with NPCs (or just ignore some entirely).

Minds Beneath Us offers a dreadful scenario for the future with a deeper cut in how it portrays society as a whole.

During some conversations, we may have to choose between a few responses. Most of the time, the selection has a timer, so players have to pick what they want to say before it runs out. Thankfully, the timing is usually generous, so it doesn’t negatively impact the process of thinking choices through.

Another element of the gameplay is a few QTE sequences. At some points, our character will have to face close-quarters combat, and it’s up to us to dodge pressing Space and counterattack with E at the appropriate moments. The commands vary slightly, so if players want to avoid being hit entirely, it’s important to pay attention to what is on screen.

Atmospheric Visuals and Sound Design

Minds Beneath Us also deserves credit for its charming, atmospheric visuals. The futuristic environments are filled with lights and colors that make them pop out. There’s a huge amount of detail in every area, making these areas feel alive and real.

From the small mess of Jason’s room that clearly gives us a picture of how it’s used to the sterile, extra clean corridors of the “farm,” every place is meticulously planned and framed around how the player will see it. While the characters are 2D, the environments are 3D, but we explore areas in a linear sidescrolling fashion. Despite that, things don’t clash, and everything feels organic and pleasant to the eyes.

When it comes to basic text adventure and visual novel features, the game includes a log system but doesn’t have auto or skip functions. Those could be helpful when replaying the experience, but they don’t weigh much against it.

Challenges and Flaws

What does hinder the experience is the total absence of a manual save system. The game only saves automatically and does this in an erratic fashion only once the player has reached some specific checkpoint in the story. According to the company, there will be more Save Points to make it more convenient, but that would not be enough to eliminate the negative side of the current savings system.

The narrative, visuals, and ambient music create a compelling, meticulously crafted pack that had me on the edge of my seat until the end.

This choice significantly impacts how players can navigate through the game. The reduced convenience of possibly having to redo exploration discourages exploring other plot ramifications. Worse still, the autosave overwrites previous data, so the only way to go back to a previous point in the story is by using the chapter menu, which has very limited checkpoints. That means even more wasted time redoing actions.

Honestly, this bad choice for a save feature is the only point that makes Minds Beneath Us not worth a full mark. When we get to everything else, the plot, visuals, and ambient music create a compelling, meticulously crafted pack that had me on the edge of my seat until the end. This sci-fi plot is honestly one of the best-written games I’ve had the chance to play, and I don’t say this lightly.

Conclusion

Minds Beneath Us encapsulates one of the most compelling aspects of sci-fi stories: a human look at a very flawed but frighteningly relatable reality. It’s the kind of game that reminds us of the worst and the best sides of humanity and gives a ton of food for thought, making it an unforgettable experience.