To The Moon is an independent game by Freebird Games that was released back in November 2011 becoming avalible on Steam almost a year later. It still has been still remarked as a wounderful jewel of a game, so I decided to final pay for the game and see what I was getting into.
To The Moon is about two scientists, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts that work for a special agency that goes into people's memories. The sole purpose for the machine is for those who are dying to relive their lives in a different way than they wanted. The two are called on assignment to a man on his deathbed by the name of Johnny. His request is simple: He wants to go to the moon.
What first may catch some people's attention is this game looks like it came from a Super Nintendo cartridge as everything is sixteen-bit sprite based. It gives a slight nostalgic feel because everything is pixel detailed, and it's a new way of getting into the environment. And it's nice to see such a professional release of someone using the RPG Maker program.
However the game is not so much of a game, but more of a visual novel with some aspects of an adventure game. Most of the game the player will find themselves guiding the doctors clicking on objects and interacting with them or other people. There are also some puzzles as the unlock mementos in Johnny's memory so they can go further into his past to plant the idea of wanting to go to the moon. So if one is primarily concerned with gameplay, this is not something for them for the game is heavily based on story.
That being said, how good is the story? It's pretty good actually. Granted I often find one of the most amazing aspects of gaming is that it is like an interactive story, so I was easily hooked onto the premise. It starts off with lots of explanation, setting up the story, but once it gets going, it gets going. There are also good moments of comedy to lighten up certain situations, and other parts that are just plain enjoyable. It is without a doubt the creator of the game, Kan Gao, highly enjoyed writing the story.
The characters start off very simple and I wasn't interested in them so much until the story progressed. At the beginning I didn't know what to think of Neil has was arrogant and seemed rude, but then made all kind of nerd culture references that I began to like him and laugh at his jokes. However near the end his true character began to shine in situations that I really favored him to originally favoring Eva.
However controls at time were frustrating. In order to move characters around, the player has to use the arrow keys to move, and the enter space to interact and continue text. Or use the mouse clicking where to move the character next, which they could move in the direction you didn't want or interact with something you didn't want to. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it got annoying from time to time.
In the end, To The Moon is a very short game, but it is worth the experience. I found myself glued to the screen, not wanting to stop as I wanted to find out what happened next. I was worried about what was going to happen to Johnny in the end, and the game did that very well. So if you've ever wanted a good story focused video game with some fun humor and won't take up all your time, you owe to yourself to pick this game up.
Score: 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment