![]() These can be fine when adding details to a story, but when a game starts relying on them as much as Moons of Madness does, it begins to lose the meaning behind “show, don’t tell”.Īnd then there’s the ending. A bunch of new story elements are introduced far too quickly for the rest of the game to keep up, which is exemplified by the game’s increased reliance on the use of emails, messages, and logs to tell the story for it. Around the halfway point, the story starts going all over the place, becoming a little too ambitious for its own good. Okay, so the first half of the story definitely had my interest, but the game pretty much threw away most of what made it good by the end of it. Unfortunately, this just has a negative effect on the overall pacing. It’s like the devs didn’t want their game to simply be a walking simulator, so they threw in some random gameplay elements for the sake of it. You’ll be in the middle of this big climatic story scene only to then have to rotate some cubes in order to progress it. That’s just one side of the problem though, the other side being that these gameplay elements are just thrown into the game randomly, oftentimes interrupting the flow of the story. ![]() They’re not all that complex and feel more like a chore than an actual puzzle. Many of the game’s puzzles, for example, simply have you taking information from one area (like an email or a sticky note) and applying it somewhere else (like a series of buttons, a passcode, etc.). While the vast majority of the game is simply walking around, there are some puzzles and other little gameplay elements throw in here and there, some of which are fine and actually fit, but most do not. As is the case with many games of this genre, Moons of Madness falls victim to tacked-on and tedious gameplay. Sure, it may not look as good as Deliver Us The Moon, but it’s better than what we usually see in the genre. The environments are detailed and full of little things to find, the lighting and particle effects look great, and the models are pretty nice too. The fact that the game has some great graphics on top of that really drives it home though. ![]() This is where the Lovecraft influence really shines, as that is a large part of what makes his works so good. Of course, this works wonders for the game’s story, a story that thrives on this feeling of emptiness and creates this overwhelming sense of horror that you can’t see or even understand at times. The result is an atmosphere that, at times, just feels straight up desolate. Sure, you’re in contact with your crewmates, but you don’t actually get to see them. This is a game that really does a good job of making you feel alone on Mars. It’s kinda hard to describe such elements without spoiling, but I will say that the game does a good job laying the foundation for a greater mystery. The little bits of story scattered about the environment (like notes, emails, drawings, etc.) were a nice touch as well and definitely added to the overall experience. I personally love stories that take this approach, so Moons of Madness definitely hooked me there. It’s like an extra layer of story depth on top of an already interesting mystery. ![]() However, interspersed throughout the early game are sequences where it’s hard to tell if what you are seeing is actually real or simply some sort of dream or hallucination. You begin to question: why haven’t I seen any of the others? Why are base components being shuffled around? And what exactly is causing these malfunctions? You’ll be tasked with completing seemingly mundane tasks, tasks that will reveal bits and pieces to this larger mystery. ![]() You’re presented with this almost-empty space station on Mars and a mystery to unravel surrounding it. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |