Let Bions Be Bygones Review – Atmospheric and Engaging

Let Bions Be Bygones is a narrative point-and-click developed by Bohemian Pulp and published by MicroProse. The game launched on April 30, 2024, and sees you playing as John Cooper, a grizzled detective as he unravels a missing person case in the neon-drenched sprawl of Terrahive. This is a point-and-click adventure though is fairly linear in its approach, but your choices hold weight, shaping the narrative and unlocking unique dialogue paths. The result is a world begging to be explored, with the potential for some replayability. For me though, it is the music and the world aesthetic that really had me invested in Cooper’s world.

Terrahive is a sprawling cyberpunk metropolis with a contrast between the lavish upper city and the crime-ridden lower slums which is masterfully depicted through gorgeous pixel art. The world feels tangible, thick with smoke and moral ambiguity. Every environment, from opulent casinos to dingy back alleys, pulsates with life, immersing you in the seedy undercurrents of this dystopian future. There are interactive items highlighted for you so there’s no need for pixel hunting like in similar games. And while you can move Cooper throughout various scenes, it’s all quite linear with the dialogue doing the heavy lifting in presenting you with choices.

The narrative unfolds through your choices, weaving a web of consequence that shapes your relationships with a well-developed cast. The decisions you make, from seemingly trivial conversations to major turning points, genuinely affect the story’s progression. While some characters fall into familiar noir tropes, others surprise with their depth, making you genuinely invested in their fates. Based on your previous choices, additional choices will become available while others will be disabled. The disabled choices are still shown so that if you were to do a subsequent replay, you’ll know how to make different decisions to unlock those alternate story choices.

Let Bions Be Bygones nails the atmosphere of classic film noir. The gruff voice acting of Cooper, reminiscent of a world-weary Max Payne, complements the hard-boiled dialogue perfectly. The score adds another layer of immersion, its melancholic tones echoing the desperation and corruption that permeate Terrahive’s underbelly. However, some of the other voice actors, including the one for your partner in crime, your gun, felt grating every time she spoke. It’s unfortunate because the dialogue is appropriately crass and smart-assed, it’s just delivered in the wrong tone. A gruff female voice would have been much more immersive given Cooper’s attitude and temperament. That aside, most other characters were appropriately voiced with some great humour throughout.

The game falters slightly with pacing issues, but these can’t overshadow the game’s atmosphere and dialogue choices that affect each of the three connected acts. The narrative is engaging, the characters are memorable, and the world itself is a fascinating blend of cyberpunk grit and classic noir style. My first play through was just over 5 hours, and there were enough disabled dialogue choices that intrigued me enough to start a second playthrough.

Overall, Let Bions Be Bygones is an engaging detective story wrapped in a visually vibrant and choice-driven narrative experience. Cooper is the classic disgruntled and burnt-out detective and many characters you meet are those you expect to find in the neon cyberpunk underworld locations. There are some jarring voices for some characters that broke the immersion for me, but voice acting for most characters was excellent and helped set the mood and tone, coupled with the terrific soundtrack. If you’re a fan of the older text-based point-and-click games, Let Bions Be Bygones is a case worth taking.

This review utilised a key provided by MicroProse and Let Bions Be Bygones is available now on Steam.

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