#Moons of madness review how to

The moments when you come across monsters feel a bit flat and uninspiring.

Again, I praise the level design and the intricateness of the world for this. The pathways to get to locations are creepy and make you feel as if danger is around every corner. When tensions are high, the music swells with a low baritone hum that fits perfectly with the mood. I would think that adding idle banter would mitigate this problem, especially since he’s hallucinating. The story often gets lost as you go minutes without hearing a word from Shane or anyone else. Unfortunately, the game does a mediocre job with storytelling, but it makes up for it with small moments of tension.

#Moons of madness review how to

Many times, the character’s dialogue told me how to complete the objective before I even had a chance to survey the room to determine it myself.

Many of the animations appear cinematic, with the camera panning over large areas to give the sense of vastness. And because of this, the game often feels like a film adapted to a game. It can also be used for learning about items in the area you’re searching, reviewing an objective, or information in the world.Īs you work with your co-workers that seem to be the ones giving you objectives, storylines become vague as you complete fetch quest after fetch quest. You can use the scanner on your wrist to access systems that have been destroyed, like when I had to reset the solar array panels. None of them challenge you to think outside of the box, nor do they feed off the alien world that you are forced into. Many of the quests are puzzles that you must solve by using the scanner on your wrist or by simply using common sense. Objectives are usually fetch quests that have you moving from station to station, trying to fix things like solar panel arrays, fix a leaking water system that’s spraying mist into the habitat, and locate key cards to access areas that are above your pay grade. Want to crawl into the duct work? You have to select the opening and choose to go into it, as if there were another option. That shouldn’t be a choice because it is an essential tool to progressing in the game. Want to pick up a flashlight? You have to pick it up and select to put it into your inventory. There are times when interactions feel overly engineered. Even as you move about the world completing quests, you must monitor your oxygen levels and refill them at stations scattered in the objective area. Important steps such as these are crucial to your survival, and you’ll find yourself paranoid the first few times you do it.

When you’re about to enter the “oxygenless” world that is Mars, you must enter a pressurized room and close the door behind you, put on your helmet, depressurize the room (do so, or know what a deflated balloon feels like), then exit to the surface of the planet. You will often feel as if you are actually performing these actions that you command Shane to do. The ability to interact with objects in the world is simply amazing as well. This is a major problem as you use a flashlight quite a bit in dark areas of the habitat that suffer power losses. Unfortunately, it comes at a price: I experienced framerate issues throughout my playthrough of the game, especially in areas where there’s intense light or particles.

And with dust storms off in the distance limiting your view, you instantly become claustrophobic inside of your fishbowl helmet. Even when venturing onto the barren surface of Mars, it feels dead. The visuals are intricately thought out and help tell the story of a planet that is completely alien. What the game does successfully is trick you into believing or not believing what you saw is real or fake by having Shane suffer from hallucinations as you progress in the game.Īs you move throughout the habitat on Mars, you can tell much care went into crafting the environment and making it as believable as possible. Because you get a peek at the horror that you’ll face later in the game, it deflated the tension and fear I was supposed to feel when I progressed in the game. The game uses this moment to also show you how to interact with objects in the world. Actually, we’re still in his dream and are about to get a taste of what a cold, isolated alien world feels like. The game begins with Shane frantically waking up in his quarters from a nightmare, or he thinks he’s awake. I thoroughly enjoyed moments of the game, but I finished it with mixed feelings about how Rock Pocket Games chose to weave the many storylines that feel unfulfilling with the gameplay.