• Price: $19.99 USD (currently on sale for $15.99 until August 16th)
• Developer: Balancing Monkey Games
• Publisher: Team17
• Release Date: August 2, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Team17 on behalf of Balancing Monkey Games. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

“In bygone times, humanity descended into bunkers to escape a galactic disaster. Only centuries later, when the cause of the calamity was forgotten, did humanity emerge. Having lost all but remnants of their past history and knowledge, they begin once again on a planet born anew…” And so begins Before We Leave, a civilization builder game in which you must start a society over again on the surface of the planet – and also keep it safe.

There are a few different ways for you to play Before We Leave. The first is more of a regular campaign, which also gives you the optional – yet recommended – tutorial. What I really like here is that you can choose between very easy, easy, default, hard, or very hard modes. Or you can customize your campaign with the following options:

• Number of planets (3-7)
• If you’ll be attacked by Space Whales and other enemies
• Number of resources you start with and how many are used when building something
• Pollution
• Weather
• Terrain

I was impressed by the customization options, and once I saw the number of resources, buildings, and transportation options in the game, I was even more impressed.

We start off by building huts to shelter our newly surfaced people, who are called “Peeps.” (And now I’m picturing marshmallow creatures building their own society… 😂) You must build everything next to preexisting roads you’ve built. First you’ll want to build the basic hut, then a potato field and a well to feed your Peeps. After that, you’ll want to construct a library and explorer’s hut; each island has a limited amount of “ancient technology” in different types/colors. Peeps will use the explorer’s hut as a home base for research based on that technology, and then you can choose what you want to use that research on at the library, where Peeps will invent things. Each task will take a set amount of time, but thankfully they included a feature that allows you to speed up time by up to 4x.

Obviously, the earlier buildings will require more common resources such as wood and stone. Islands will come with a set amount of trees initially, and forests do not grow back. Some facilities will require specific kinds of terrain and fertility levels, like cotton fields and orchards. Generally, the first island I arrived on in each campaign was not fertile enough for those, so I’d have to wait until I’d colonized the next island and had the required research completed. There are different biomes on each island – some have more desert tiles or snowy tiles, where Peeps get more tired the farther they go. Others might have rainforest tiles, which increase productivity but give you penalties for deforestation.

A lot of wood is necessary for construction, so I figured out that I needed to build orchards as soon as I made it to the next island (with fertile enough soil) because I could use the seemingly infinite amount of water from wells and fruit from the orchards to build more forests. Then I’d chop those down for more wood and start the process again. Tools are another resource that, as the name would suggest, are used to build other things. The problem I had was that tools require a decent amount of wood to make until the Toolsmith is unlocked, and I had a hard time keeping up with the demand for tools.

To access stone as a resource, you’ll need to research mining to develop quarries. Peeps will need elevators to be invented before they can access the mountains, which is where you place the quarry to mine stone. There are also iron mines and smelters, sand mines, glass smelters, iron smelters, oil wells, and fuel refineries for you to work up to in the research trees. Many buildings such as the quarry will contribute to pollution in the area, which reduces Peeps’ happiness levels. You can eventually build cleaners to remove pollution, but until then it’s important to keep an eye on pollution levels.

In order for you to get your hands on resources to build those facilities on multiple islands, your Peeps will need to construct a port and a shipwright to build colony ships, scouting ships, and trade ships. Some campaigns don’t allow you to sail until you have unlocked the shipping research, while others provide you with one broken ship to repair and use until you unlock the ship-related research.

I really liked the shipping lane function – you can set up automatic shipping lanes, or you can manually select the goods you want to load/unload onto ships to take to another island. You can set up multiple shipping lanes (only between two islands per lane), then choose what resources you want shipped between the islands. They even let you choose the minimum amount of that resource to reserve on the initial island as well as the amount you want regularly sent over.

Eventually, space travel becomes available through your research as well. Similar to the boats you build, the spaceships include colony and trade options. I thought it was so cool to be able to create interplanetary shipping routes because I personally haven’t seen that in a game before. The new planets you arrive on will have more ancient technology to discover and use for research. It’s a pretty neat progression system.

Besides the main game, there are also some different preset scenarios for you to complete. One scenario is considered a “prequel” to Before We Leave, which has you work to protect your Peeps from the impending galactic disaster. Other scenarios require you to keep 1,000 Peeps happy, find seeds throughout the solar system to help feed your Peeps, or they’ll have you rebuild civilization according to a specific set of rules.

The prequel scenario, Apocalypse Soon (great name), has all technology unlocked from the start, and you’ll have to transport resources between planets and construct a shelter on a specific planet before the disaster reaches you. The game only gives you 2 hours to get from the first planet to the next. I ended up failing to even get to the second planet in time, and whaled wailed in defeat when the space whale annihilated the planet and therefore my Peeps. 😭 🐳 Outside of Apocalypse Soon, depending on the scenario you choose, a planet may confront larger dangers such as the aforementioned space whale, or your islands on the planet can be attacked by Sphinxes, Gremlins, and Minotaurs (oh my!). I don’t usually think of Minotaurs in space exploration, so that was a creative idea.

Another scenario, “Getting Busy,” requires you to handle the massive population growth that has occurred faster than the demand for resources such as housing and food can keep up. In this scenario, the population will continue to grow even without the school function that is usually used for population growth, and you’ll have to make 1,000 Peeps happy (and ensure that the unhappy Peeps don’t reach 200) in order to beat the scenario.

The Hut Owners Association scenario – again, I love the name – makes it so that there are specific requirements for you to fulfill, such as the inability to build houses right next to each other, or requiring work stations to have houses right next door to reduce the Peeps’ commute. If there isn’t a house by the work station, it can’t be used.

The final scenario is “Seed Hunter,” which requires your Peeps to travel across the solar system looking for seeds to plant for food. (Apparently the bunker’s seed stores ended up with a mold infestation.) In this campaign, all of the plant fields will require you to have the plant to build its field. If you only have that plant on one island, you can’t grow it on the others until you’ve shipped some to the desired location. You’ll have to gather 100 of each kind of plant (x6) on the original island in order to win.

I was unable to complete the first two scenarios – probably due to my struggles when it comes to time limits and racing against the clock in games. I liked the Hut Owners and Seed Hunter scenarios the best because it seemed like there were no failure conditions and they weren’t quite as restrictive. I really appreciated the creative challenges they came up with for the game, although I must say that I enjoyed the main campaign the most.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Before We Leave feels like a pretty extensive and unique civilization building game. It took a while for me to figure out some mechanics even with the tutorial, and some scenario-specific restrictions could occasionally be frustrating. (I also wish the color scheme was less muted, which is a minor complaint.) But overall, the sheer amount of playtime is incredible. The wide variety of facilities and resources is very satisfying to unlock and use, and once I got the hang of it I enjoyed it. Managing the shipping lanes for my fleet of ships and spaceships was probably one of my favorite parts of the game. If you enjoy (re)building a civilization and managing resources, you may enjoy Before We Leave. It’s definitely “out of this world”! 🌎🚀😉 8/10