It all then feels like a chore as you go through the motions, but don't rely on your brainpower. None of the puzzles are challenging, usually just relying on you knowing what red and blue are, or following a diagram put in front of you. Other times you have to scan a piece of tech and complete a pipe puzzle to "hack" it. Then, you typically have to turn it to the proper setting before putting it in the correct space. Puzzles mostly consist of finding items across massive levels with little to guide you but a scanner that will point you in the direction of the objective, but only works half the time and is little help when a lot of the levels look the same. It doesn't offer anything new for the genre, doesn't present cool or challenging gameplay, doesn't do anything with the tropes presented, and gets caught up in its own story.Įven worse than the game being bland is how it doesn't work as it should.įor one, while the decision to keep the gameplay basic was a good one, not much is done with it. While Moons of Madness takes the extra step of setting itself apart by being a Lovecraftian game set on Mars, it's not enough to make it an essential play for horror fans or people looking for another Lovecraft story. Source: Funcom (Image credit: Source: Funcom) What I didn't like about Moons of Madness: The bigger picture This is very welcome, considering that the rest of the game doesn't have much to offer. Some of these points border on lazy - like how Shane graduated from Miskatonic University - but there's a cheekiness to the writing that gives it personality. The company Shane works for is called Orochi - a legendary eight-headed beast from Japanese folklore, which gives you some idea of what kind of company this is. It's tough to tell sometimes what tone Moons of Madness are going for, but there are bits scattered around the game that give you some clues.
Some elements drive home what kind of game the developers wanted this to be. It's a small character moment that shows there's more depth to what's being presented than you might realize. Later, when you come across his journal, you find out that he's terrified that a witch is watching him. Another small story moment that I appreciated was when another character, Declan, joked about there being witches on Mars to Shane.
There are moments, for example, where Shane has learned something horrible or seen something traumatic, and his hands shake or interact with objects in a more panicked manner. Plus, it also means there's more room to pay attention to tiny details, specifically with the story and animation. Since the game is only five hours long, keeping things simple was necessary to keep it from being too dense (whether the game succeeds is another story). Since there isn't any combat and gameplay is limited in most other capacities, it is easy to get a hold of what you need to do quickly. Occasionally, you have to sprint to get away from creatures that are chasing you, but as I'll get into in the next part, these are simple and short segues, mostly used to get you from one section to another. Most involve walking around looking for pieces and then correctly combining them to activate the next phase of the game. The developers combine the limited mechanics to create puzzles, which serve as the main interactivity point for the player. Moons of Madness is a deceptively simple game.
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