Beyond the Map Demo Impressions – An ARPG to Watch

Beyond the Map is an upcoming singleplayer survival ARPG set in a procedurally generated fantasy world, and a demo was recently held as part of Steam Next Fest. Developed by Glitch Goblins and with an early access release date of August 25, there’s not much more time to wait to dive into this intriguing world. The demo gave a tantalizing slice of what’s to come and blends a unique aesthetic with a compelling core loop that shows a heap of promise.

The isometric view and art style is the first thing that grabs you as the world is rendered in soft, muted colours. Starting on a beach, you need to collect stones and wood to be able to create a workbench which forms the foundation of starting a base. Pretty soon you need to kill some skeletons along the coast for cloth and then harvesting mushrooms or killing wolves for meat and leather straps to be able to make food and basic armour, and the game builds momentum from there.

Combat is fluid and situational where you are stationary when you shoot arrows or cast a fireball, and similarly the enemies will shoot projectiles at you. If you stand still, their projectiles will hit you. Therefore, you need to remain agile while also trying to fire off spells and arrows to take down the enemy before they get in melee range. Once in melee range, you can craft a range of weapons like swords and spears, with spears having that extra range to hit them before they get to you.

One of Beyond the Map’s innovations lies in its character progression. Instead of a pre-set class, the game offers a “choose your own adventure” approach to building your character. As you defeat enemies and find loot, you can collect skill pages. These pages are your character’s abilities, and you can slot them in and out on the fly, creating a custom build that can be adapted for any situation. The system deepens with glyphs that provide bonuses to adjoining skills once connected using skill points, encouraging thoughtful combinations. This dynamic skill system makes combat less about static builds and more about real-time, creative problem-solving.

The crafting system is also excellent, offering a steady and rewarding progression. You start with the basics using wood, stone, fabric and leather to get yourself geared in basic green gear. From there, you’ll delve into mining for copper and tin to forge your first pieces of bronze gear. This “blacksmith” path allows you to create your own weapons and fighting armour. There are also dedicated tailoring and leatherworking tables enabling you to craft gear for agility or intellect-based characters. This ensures that every playstyle has a robust avenue for self-sufficiency and progression and it’s incredibly satisfying.

There is no traditional linear story or specific characters to meet in the demo. Instead, the sense of purpose comes from the pure joy of exploring the game’s map that is covered by a fog of war. As you explore beyond your camp you find there are rivers that contain tin nodes, and monsters that are higher levels, with some that have a star that will have more precious loot. The game trusts the player to forge their own journey and find their own meaning in the vast, hand-drawn world.

Based on this first glimpse and despite it being singleplayer only, the Beyond the Map demo left me wanting more with some mechanics in-game teased for release. This is a game within a massive genre but is not afraid to be different, from its striking art style to the deep base building and crafting systems. If this demo is any indication, the early access release on August 25 is worth diving into.

These demo impressions utilised a key provided by the developers through Keymailer and Beyond the Map is set to launch on Steam early access on August 25, 2025.

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