Reigns: Beyond review: a space adventure full of choices

Reigns: Beyond is a card-based narrative adventure from Devolver Digital. If you’ve played any game in the Reigns series, the core mechanic will feel friendly: swipe cards left or right to make a judgment call and deal with the consequences. I played this game for hours as a student with an Apple Arcade subscription. Now, in August 2026, Reigns: Beyond has been released on mobile as a standalone title for Android and iOS.

Let’s take a look. Is Reigns: Beyond worth playing?

Reigns: Beyond story and setting

In Reigns: Beyond, you travel between planets with a galactic indie rock band, play gigs, make money, manage your resources, and try to become a legendary space band.

You wake up aboard the ship and try to work out who you are and what happened, through card-based dialogues with the ship’s onboard computer. And honestly, the beginning of the game reminded me of a minimalist version of No Man’s Sky. Even the onboard computer of the ship Sandman gave me Atlas vibes. But it didn’t take long to realise that Reigns: Beyond is going for something completely different.

You become the captain of the ship, which soon crashes on a planet, and panic. The landing is rough but spectacular. You find yourself on stage with all the attention focused on you, and that’s how you become part of an indie rock band. Now, together with your new bandmates, you explore the secrets of space. And just when you think you’re finally going to solve one mystery, the game gives you several more. You meet weird characters, like your manager Lord Shark, who wants to eat you, or Gron, a space bear.

Reigns: Beyond gameplay and mechanics

The gameplay takes place on the main screen, where you need to keep an eye on four resource bars: power, oxygen, crew morale and ship defence. If one of them reaches zero, your run can come to an end.

Next are the cards, which you swipe left and right to take action. Every decision you make directly affects your resource bars. It’s really important to understand which bar will go up and which will go down based on the card’s context. A single card can affect multiple resources at once. At first it might feel complicated. But after going through a certain number of cards, you’ll learn which decisions help you progress.

I also found it useful to check the pause menu, where you can find lists of Celestial Deeds (achievements), Memento Mori (endings) and characters.

To travel between planets, you use a navigation map. Swipe left or right to choose a flight route. The short description gives you an idea of what awaits you along the way. Once you reach a planet or a stop, you can choose from several activities, such as visiting a shop, having a drink, meeting new characters, or playing a concert.

On some planets, you’ll see a music icon that lets you perform a concert. Before each performance, you choose a guitar, which determines the song and its difficulty. At the beginning, you only have access to Brandon’s guitar Brantar, which becomes available after he unfortunately dies during the shipwreck.

The minigame itself is simple. Hold your finger on the screen to follow the musical path and collect all the hearts along the way. It sounds easy, but getting a perfect score can be surprisingly challenging. You can also practise the guitar minigame on the ship.

The soundtrack fits the game’s minimalist style well. But for me, it doesn’t really match the band’s appearance. The characters look like a KISS-style rock band, while the music is much closer to indie rock. And honestly, I found that contrast pretty funny.

Later in the game, you’ll be able to change your band’s name and meet someone who can help you with your band’s look.

There are two types of shops in the game: regular traders you can find on planets, and the Black Market. You can find a regular trader at almost every station. Unlocking the Black Market, however, requires you to meet certain conditions. For that, you’ll need a Copper Coin.

Final verdict

Reigns: Beyond definitely deserves your attention. It’s a space adventure unlike anything else, with cool characters, genuinely funny dialogues, and the easily recognisable minimalist art style of the Reigns series.

The only catch for me was that it can be difficult to get back into the story after a long break, and that the guitar minigame isn’t perfectly executed.

Anyway, if you enjoy short sessions and don’t mind roguelite mechanics, Reigns: Beyond can be a great fit. For me it’s an ideal travel game, because you can play it offline.

My biggest advice is simple: don’t rely on a walkthrough during your runs. Reigns: Beyond is much more fun when you discover everything on your own.

Is this game for you?

Reigns: Beyond vs other games in the series

Check out more information on the gamelist Reigns Games Collection on Skich!