Before We Leave asks you to rebuild a civilization from a bunker, then hand it a spaceship. Developed and published by Balancing Monkey Games, with Team17 also publishing, the city-builder landed in 2020 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It is a simulator and strategy game with a science fiction sandbox wrapped around it, played from a bird’s-eye isometric view, single player only. The hook is simple: your people forgot the world above. You remind them.
Trailer, via Balancing Monkey Games.
The Peeps Leave the Bunker
You control a group of people called Peeps. They emerge from a long stay underground, and your first jobs are plain ones — build huts, harvest potatoes, expand. Maintaining happiness by providing for the Peeps’ needs raises their efficiency, which cuts the time their actions take. That loop is the whole engine, and it holds.
Potatoes and Huts First
The opening is deliberately slow. You explore the area around the bunker, then guide the Peeps as they rebuild on the ruins of a fallen civilization. No weapons, no neighbors to fight for resources. Just food, shelter and time.
Ancient Guardians Demand Attention
The game is non-violent by design. Ancient guardians, remnants of your ancestors, demand attention and challenge your cities. The planets are scarred by the disasters that drove your forebears underground, and mismanaged, those disasters still plague you.
Space Whales Eat Planets
And most of all, watch out for vast planet-eating space whales coming to graze on your planets!
That line is the pitch and the warning. Unless you fail to handle an incoming whale, your people will not die.
Launching Into Space
The ultimate goal is for the Peeps to build their society up enough to launch into space and colonize other planets. That means other continents, then other worlds, managing resources and discovering ancient tech until you have a multi-planet network. The end state is a solar system of rehabilitated planets.
| Element | Before We Leave |
|---|---|
| Combat | None — no weapons, no fighting neighbors |
| Death | Only from an unhandled space whale |
| Goal | Launch into space, colonize other planets |
| View | Bird view / Isometric |
A Cozy Corner of the Universe
The 4X elements are real but soft. The pace is yours, and the game wants you to chill out in your own solar system.
What the Design Gets Right
Before We Leave could have armed the Peeps and turned the whales into a boss fight. Instead the threat stays environmental, a resource problem with teeth, and the happiness-efficiency link gives every choice a cost. The guardians and the old disasters keep the cozy frame from going slack.
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