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Beacon
Mutate yourself to victory as you scavenge an uncharted alien planet in this stylish sci-fi action rogue-like. With the help of your Clone Bay death isn't the ending, just another chance to find your Beacon.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
70 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Beacon of Hope Update: In the light of new discoveries and heavy thinking, I have decided to change my review to a recommended review. While as before, I stated that it was not a negative review (more neutral), but not…”
“Beacon Sleek and gorgeous top-down action with a touch of procedural random elements and a powerfully captivating cosmic Sci-fi setting. The atmosphere in Beacon is hypnotizing, and the range of options to make each run…”
“One of the best games i have ever played, what amazes me specifically is that for a game that i would estimate to only have sold 600 copies so far, it could easily be considered a side scroller sequel to Risk of Rain 2.…”
33 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Beacon Sleek and gorgeous top-down action with a touch of procedural random elements and a powerfully captivating cosmic Sci-fi setting. The atmosphere in Beacon is hypnotizing, and the range of options to make each run…”
“Good on paper, poor execution This one is hard to summarize. The idea behind the game is interesting but with each passing hour you start to become more and more disappointed. PROS: *Nice visual style *DNA strand /…”
“As much as i want to say i love it i cant. From the game encouraging exploration whilst punishing going slow and the mutation system feeling like its just unimportant stat changes with the occasional interesting…”
30 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Beacon Sleek and gorgeous top-down action with a touch of procedural random elements and a powerfully captivating cosmic Sci-fi setting. The atmosphere in Beacon is hypnotizing, and the range of options to make each run…”
“One of the best games i have ever played, what amazes me specifically is that for a game that i would estimate to only have sold 600 copies so far, it could easily be considered a side scroller sequel to Risk of Rain 2.…”
“There's so much replayability with the DNA sequencing and potential mutations, not even to mention the diverse weaponization that alter your gameplay. I'll admit I'm not very good at the rogue-like genre, but even this…”
29 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“One of the best games i have ever played, what amazes me specifically is that for a game that i would estimate to only have sold 600 copies so far, it could easily be considered a side scroller sequel to Risk of Rain 2.…”
“Good on paper, poor execution This one is hard to summarize. The idea behind the game is interesting but with each passing hour you start to become more and more disappointed. PROS: *Nice visual style *DNA strand /…”
“A very enjoyable 2.5D top-down Roguelite with tons of content and secrets to explore and a unique "Genome" system that is sure to make every playthrough feel just that much different. The game's art style and visual…”
16 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“There's so much replayability with the DNA sequencing and potential mutations, not even to mention the diverse weaponization that alter your gameplay. I'll admit I'm not very good at the rogue-like genre, but even this…”
“*Updated Added 3/24/2019* Keep in mind this is a game still in beta phase, so it's not quite finished. I'll likely update my review as Beacon continues development. I absolutely love top-down shooters and Beacon is no…”
“Had a progression blocking bug where the game would crash to desktop every time I rotated a laser emitter in one of the seemingly mandatory puzzles. Developer replied on discord within 5 minutes to take my crash log and…”
17 of the 104 reviews raise this · 15 of them still recommend the game.
“The game just feels too unpolished. You don't feel any weight behind your weapons or actions. And there is quite a few issues tied to the 3D approach they have implemented. Where you have to shoot up/down, and the…”
“Had a progression blocking bug where the game would crash to desktop every time I rotated a laser emitter in one of the seemingly mandatory puzzles. Developer replied on discord within 5 minutes to take my crash log and…”
“pretty good so far, nice difficulty and lots of weapons to pick up. mod system is nice aswell but can backfire easily when the wrong stat gets buffed xD loading a save results in black sreen with game running. you can…”
16 of the 104 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“I've been checking in and playing Beacon on and off for nearly a year now (I purchased on Itch). The same problems and design issues I took with my first experience still persist today. Frankly, as a casual player of…”
“Edit: My initial review after a few hours of play was negative, mostly due to the tedium of backtracking and the relative ease of the game. The developer response addresses some of those points. I have played more,…”
“It looks like it's good, but once you start playing... You enter the level, you look at the map, you figure out the best route to get all the pickups and get going. And then you run around, you fight, you collect stuff,…”
11 of the 104 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“For a quick summary of my thoughts: -Core Gameplay: Good for frantic running and gunning with plenty of room for exploration and looting. The DNA system can be a bit of a gamble but often makes planning a run kind of…”
“The game just feels too unpolished. You don't feel any weight behind your weapons or actions. And there is quite a few issues tied to the 3D approach they have implemented. Where you have to shoot up/down, and the…”
“It's still rough around the edges. The camera angle combined with the narrowness of some pathways bothers me as it often results in falling off because WASD doesn't offer enough angles for you to move at, the fact that…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“As much as i want to say i love it i cant. From the game encouraging exploration whilst punishing going slow and the mutation system feeling like its just unimportant stat changes with the occasional interesting…”
“Haven't played much hours on the steam version, but the game is wonderful. I don't think I ever played a game with such awesome graphics for polygon style. The graphics here beats many polgyon graphic games like…”
“Beacon is a hidden gem, of that there is no doubt. I say hidden because I've never heard anyone talk about it, even in circles that enjoy a lot of roguelites/ roguelikes. This game having been in early access for such a…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Fun game with a surprisingly unique gimmick; sad to see the studio behind it closing and the game being taken down as a result after having followed its development from all the way back to the itch.io days”
“Rest in peace, Monothetic. You dropped a banger and dropped out. 🕊”
“This game was real fun, well polished too from my experience. Sad to hear about the end but it had to happen eventually. Best of luck to the team as they go their separate ways.”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 86.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“One of the best top down shooters I have ever played. Beacon offers huge amount of content. You can collect DNA pieces, which later can cause mutations, which give stat boosts and different positive and negative effects. Basic player roll can be changed into a dash which leaves…”
— a player, Steam review · 244 hrs played“I remember first coming across Beacon in a Humble Bundle Sale and then got it on Steam to have it more on my digital shelf. My very first run I managed to clear the final boss since I had snagged a mini-gun with explosive rounds right at the start which only got stronger from…”
— a player, Steam review · 22 hrs played“Hearing about the final transmission makes me very sad. This game is or was a passion project for 10 years or so and seeing it all end like this is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sad. If any of the devs are reading this review. Yall made a great game, be proud of that.”
— a player, Steam review · 7 hrs playedAchievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-19.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Beacon: The Vault
As we've been shutting down the operations of Monothetic, we've collected a selection of past versions of Beacon that we've uploaded to Archive.org for anyone who's interested in exploring past versio
Final Transmission
After a long journey unfortunately it's time for Monothetic to disband. Beacon will be removed from sale in the coming weeks on all storefronts as we prepare to shut down. Players who already own the
Beacon 3.21
Patch 3.21 is released, adjusting the spawn rate of Elite Enemies and adding many community requested fixes! Patch 3.21 Balance Removed Trench Droid spawners at start of levels Increased chance of Eli
Beacon Patch 3.2
After a few delays, our 22nd content patch Wrecking Zone is finally ready for release! Thanks to everyone in the community for their patience while we chipped away at the content for this update. Wrec
Beacon 3.11
Patch 3.11 is out, including some minor balance tweaks and dozens of fixes! The most important fix in the patch is a change to the Remove Mutation DNA mod, changing it to Clear Slot. The issue that ca
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | Action Roguelike · Procedural Generation · Female Protagonist · Exploration · Lore-Rich · Loot · Space · Sci-fi · Aliens · Robots · Dinosaurs · Demons (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Cloud · Steam Leaderboards · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 76 |
| Official site | http://beacon.monothetic.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 Processor: 3.2 GHz Quad Core Processor Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 660, Radeon R7 370 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAM DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 4 GB available space