Gibbon: Beyond the Trees

What started as a game on the apple arcade, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees has made its way to other platforms such as PC and the Switch. It is a very smart looking game and a game that is trying to have a good environmental message about it which I think is pretty neat. I would say that it is best described as an adventure style game, but it has a lot in common with an auto scroller or even an endless runner style of game. I managed to play through the Switch version of the game and thought that I would share my thoughts on the game with you guys.

Finding A New Home

The story that Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is telling is one that can make you think. We have a family of gibbons that are not just trying to survive, they are also trying to find their home so that they can be safe. The story just unfolds in front of you with no dialogue, but it is very easy to pick things up and figure out what is going on in regards to the story. I played through the entire story in one sitting (a little over an hour) so it is a very short experience.

The King Of Swing

The gameplay of Gibbon: Beyond the Trees on paper is something that sounds like it should be very simple and it is, but there is a level of skill required, which along with the less than precise controls can lead to a fair bit of frustrating. On the Switch, you just need to use the L and R buttons. The L button lets you run, slide and jump, the R button is what you use to grab onto things. You can build up momentum and then fling yourself further and you do learn new moves like a backflip which can give you more speed. The problem is that the controls, especially the grabbing controls can feel like they sometimes just do not work and this leads to a fair bit of frustration.

Short, But Is It Sweet?

Beating the main story in Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is not going to take you much time at all, but the Liberation Mode is there for you to play over and over again as you try to get better at the game. I think that if the controls were a bit tighter, this mode would actually be a great deal of fun. However, with the game being the way it is, once I beat the story and then played Liberation Mode a couple of times, I found I had, had my fill.

Curious George

The thing that really captures your attention with Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is the gorgeous hand drawn visuals that the game has. It looks like a book that you would give to a child to help them learn more about gibbons and the struggles that they are having in the world right now. It is a game that looks breathtaking on the Switch Oled and I would love to see how the PC version would look when played on a 4K screen.

Pros:

• The game looks amazing
• I liked how it offered a good and important message about the environment
• It has two game modes to play
• When the controls work, it is a lot of fun

Cons:

• I found the controls to be as precise as they need to be for this kind of game
• There is not much in the way of content in this game