Bears In Space

Bears in Space was provided by Ravenscourt for review. Thank you!

After initially seeing the trailer for Bears In Space last year, I became overly excited about it. The concept was wacky, the first-person shooter gameplay looked tight, there was a large variety of locations and mini-games, and I loved the aesthetic the team was going for. It seemed like 4-5 games in 1 at the time, and I was shocked at how much was put into this. Now that I have played it, I can say it delivers on almost every front I expected from it, and it is easily one of the funniest games I have played in a very long time.

Bears In Space never takes itself seriously and instead focuses on ridiculous scenarios to help it stand out from the competition, which it does tremendously. The story starts with you as Maxwell Atoms, who is transporting a criminal bear named Beartana. After a run-in with a group of other bears sent to rescue Beartana, you accidentally merge your DNA and become a bear-man...thing. And now, you have to find your way back to Earth and maybe even save your crew while you are at it.

This journey to get back to Earth will take you across a variety of different locations, each one of them feeling very distinct. There's a Wild West-like town, prisons, medieval castles, fairy-tale forests, and even war-torn wastelands. Each looks fantastic thanks to the aesthetics and the more simplistic yet detailed models. I loved going through and just checking out the different levels, and I found myself going back to replay them in part because I love seeing the way each location is built.

Luckily, the diversity of levels didn't keep the developers from the gameplay side of things. Bears In Space has over 25 different weapons, ranging from staple regulars like the starting pistol and shotgun to unique ones like an exploding square basketball, a mini anvil slingshot, and even propeller hats that can make enemies that are hit fly upwards. On top of that, a majority of the weapons can be upgraded the more you use them, which is done by killing more robots with each weapon. I loved this, and it was interesting seeing each weapon get a bit more powerful just by using it. There is currency you can get in-game to buy new weapons, upgrade ammo capacity, and refill your health and armor, but upgrading must be done by using the weapon more. And, even though the assortment of different enemies didn't change the weapons I was using much, I did find myself running out of ammo enough to keep switching weapons, and I did find ammo refill shops fast enough that I never had to resort to the starting pistol.

We also have a ton of different mini-games sprinkled throughout each level. We have a basketball match, investigating a crime scene, a Time Crisis-like shooting game, a Space Invaders-like game, and so much more. It was a nice change of pace, so it wasn't shooting constantly all the time. But, quite possibly, the biggest reason I would recommend this game to others is the humor that the developer sprinkled into every nook and cranny of the game.

Bears In Space is riddled with jokes and hilarious moments that range from cliche and dumb to hilariously ridiculous. 30 seconds into the game, you will slip on a banana peel with the very obnoxious slipping sound playing, setting the tone almost immediately. One of my favorites is a robot you meet blocking the doorway who says he can't let you through but admits he has questionable morals and will give in for a battery. Something about him admitting it almost immediately was too much for me, and I bust out laughing. Each level has challenges/secrets, too, which are hilarious. Like the one where I had to find a party invitation and bust in, only to accidentally destroy all the robots in the room waiting to surprise the birthday bot. Then, they come in and assume everyone has forgotten their birthday. Completing each challenge/secret gives you $1000 of the in-game currency, but it was the experience of each challenge that made it worthwhile to find.

While there are a lot of positives, there were some issues I found that impacted my play. The game does have auto-aim enabled by default, and while it helped me a bit, I didn't want it turned on in the end, Beartana's raspy voice wore on me a lot, to the point I had to turn the volume of the game down a bit, some levels can feel a little bit too long, and there are times when the bosses can feel a little bit too bullet-spongey. I also died a lot at some of the bosses due to it being more of a bullet-hell FPS, and it was a bit difficult for me. There are also a LOT of jokes, and if you don't like Adult Swim-style humor or High on Life, you may not enjoy it as much. I really like it, but I also enjoy that humor.

Overall, I did enjoy the game, and I can happily enjoy it on the Steam Deck.

Bears In Space - Steam Deck Performance

Bears In Space runs well on the Steam Deck for around 80% of the time. I was able to hit 60 FPS on Medium/High settings, and it felt/looked great. But there are a solid number of bigger fights that can bring down performance dramatically, and it can become a nuisance. I did come up with a couple of loadouts to give variety. Still, unfortunately, no setting combinations were able to keep a solid 60 FPS throughout the game without making it a blurry mess.

Turning Resolution Scale down is the biggest boost in performance, and while setting it to "Low" helps tremendously with performance, it also makes the game look extremely blurry. Just going to Medium is a huge step up:

I also noticed that RAM usage for the game is quite high, but the 4GB UMA Buffer and CryoUtilities did not do much to improve performance.

Recommended Settings

So, when it comes to the way I would recommend playing, I opted for Medium-ish settings with a 45 FPS/45Hz or 90Hz lock. This allows the game to feel much smoother than the bare minimum framerate (30 FPS) and save a bit on battery in the less demanding areas. There are still some parts where the framerate has dipped to 39 FPS, but this is the lowest I could go without making the game look horrible. In the end, even with all of this, I still prefer it over 30 FPS and better visuals. It's hard not to prefer framerate in first-person shooters.

Visuals + Battery Life Loadout

If you want a slightly more stable experience with better visual quality and battery life, these are going to be the settings to use. With a 30 FPS limit, you can push resolution scaling to Ultra, making the game as clear as possible, and battery drain will usually hover around 12W - 16W in a majority of areas. I did try increasing Shadow Quality above low, but it would make the game drop in the places with a significant amount of enemies, and it didn't seem to make the game look better overall.

Luckily, this is the only change needed, and I was able to keep a solid 30 FPS most of the time, and it felt quite good despite the lower framerate. I still preferred the higher framerate, even if it had diminished quality, but the smoothness feels so much better than anything else.

Accessibility

As far as accessibility goes, you have a lot of options you can change to scale difficulty the way you want. You can change the platforming difficulty, outgoing and incoming damage, respawn mode, crosshair opacity, control sensitivity, aim assist, and change audio sliders.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars while playing, and it has a controller and cloud saves. The cloud save also syncs settings, so if you play on a PC at 4K resolution and then go to the Steam Deck, it will be set at 4K resolution. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Bears In Space is a hilarious experience that doesn't hold back in terms of humor, gameplay, and locations. There is a ton of different gameplay in the game that keeps things interesting, along with over 25 weapons that can be upgraded in multiple ways and tons of awesome locations that keep this first-person shooter very interesting when compared to others. There are a couple of small issues here and there, but in the end, the pros heavily outweigh the cons. And while it could be optimized a little better overall, it runs decently on the Steam Deck, and I enjoyed it nonetheless!

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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