Title: Moons of Madness
Format: PS4, PC, Xbox One
Price: USD 29.99
Moons, is it? Not Mansions. OK, still meets the pseudo-alliteration test, still very clearly Lovecraftian, if the big generic sea creature tentacles on the box art and digital icons for the installed games weren’t also doing their bit. We’ve a reasonable idea what we’re getting into here, a space-based Cthulhu-inspired mystery. That understanding of the background mythology is no bad thing, Cthulhu is very popular, which may be why many potential buyers turn up here, and indeed the mythos is cosmic in its very exposition. It also doesn’t mean we automatically know how this game is going to turn out. So, we who like Lovecraftian horror are interested to know what’s going down on Mars. Should we care?
Coffee options on Invictus Station are better than home. OK, I’m in.
We awake in a space facility of some kind, all is dark, all is not well, and on first steps through the station we’ve got a bit of Dead Spacery writing on the wall, flickering lights, and some curiosity-inspiring juxtaposition of something normal against the horrible I won’t spoiler here. Certainly the game is jumping straight into the action, but also, so far, so SciFi horror game.
OK, Mars, after your initial offer, we’re getting off to a bad start here.
When this foreshadowing bit of weirdness is over, however, a rather more interesting and varied game presents itself, and one with some truly excellent world building in place as well. The game proper, then, begins with protagonist Shane Newehart (yes that’s the spelling) waking up in the same place as the foreshadowing weirdness, which is his room on the Invictus Mars station. The crew is expecting refill and relief from the inbound starship Cyrano.
Oh, I see, Mars – this is your counter offer? Am I allowed to play games on that monitor? Say…horror games?
Yet as Shane leaves his room, his fellow crewmates are absent, and the station seems to be experiencing some errors that need rectifying, as quickly explained over radio by fellow Mars station mate Declan. In fact, Declan is a chatty fellow. Which, this being a horror title, immediately makes the player deeply suspicious. Except then the game does an admirable job of maintaining the ambiguity as to whether Declan is real, alive, and working to help keep the station functional so everyone can survive, or something else.
Guys, can we stop using the message board as a wine glass coaster? Thanks.
This is no FPS, but it is very much not a walking simulator either. The player needs to explore locations, solve puzzles, and occasionally deal with very overt threat. Puzzles have reasonable variety and are not obtuse, nor do they descend to the “irrelevant NPC needs three of [X]” variety. Locations also vary, and initially surprisingly, and deal with the interplay of two narrative threads: what is happening on Mars now, and, of course, the broader, deeper more threatening arc of other powers. How these two ultimately relate to each other is the denouement of the game (and again shall not be spoilered).
Is that a….? Nah. Cthulhu eats faces, no hugs.
In exploring this, there are some weaker aspects to the game, it must be noted. There is a bit of Resident Evil-style “Evil Corporation Doing Things It Really Shouldn’t” going on which will uncover secret basements underneath Raccoon Mansion. Sorry, Invictus Station. Shane as protagonist has obvious scars on his hands which he doesn’t ever comment upon until they suddenly become relevant. The Videogameitis continues in a mission where the base doctor wants you to perform a task, you don’t have the security clearance to do so, you ask about this and get the “I’m too busy! You figure it out!” response that requires you to go off on a side quest (if this is so important, doctor, unlock the bloody door!) and, unfortunately, the Big Bad has some very hammy voice acting when deciding to come deliver their interventions.
Orochi Corporation?? I thought I’d signed up for the Ecchi Corporation (Japanese humour…look it up)
I’m not going to put this down to the developer, Rock Pocket Games, being indie, and I am not doing so for two reasons: first, top tier publisher, major developer, big budget titles have also produced such kind of generic content, and indeed far, far worse. Second, what Moons of Madness does well it does really well.
Good enough for Resident Evil, good enough for me.
For me, the game stands out from the exploration horror game crowd for two main reasons. First is graphics and worldbuilding. The environments look fantastic, and also display a realistic proportion and layout for a planetary station. The look and the detail of the station environments is very compelling. This is not a giant Doom facility or Dead Space 3’s Tau Volantis colony. It looks more realistic in both scale and detail. I remember heading to the satellite station and being impressed again with how convincing it seemed.
Now that is a communications array. No mistaking it. I’d kind of like to work there. World ending otherworldly nightmare horrors aside.
Second is mechanics and puzzles. Entering and exiting an airlock is not an excuse to cover up a load screen. Rather, Shane will engage the locks, twist, open, and exit. It’s a nice piece of realism that is perfectly paced so that it doesn’t interfere with the game, it doesn’t feel like an irritating fixed animation you want to skip. I actually enjoyed it as it was brief, yet supported my willing suspension of disbelief that I was in a Mars-side station. Similarly, the puzzles, while still videogame puzzles, are sufficiently woven into the mechanics of operating a station of this nature that it definitely felt like carrying the story forward, not filler.
Oh. Crap.
As the game builds tension there are some later sections where enemies are in pursuit. If your instinct in such circumstances is to want to blow their goddamn alien heads off with a plasma rifle, then yes this game isn’t for you. It’s also not an Amnesia style hide-a-thon either. If you’re into the story, these are tension moments to keep you going.
Steve? Steve, is that you? Fun fact: my Starbucks name is Steve. What, you don’t give them your real name, do you?
The story is overall well written, and as noted has two threads which will ultimately lead to end game. It’s a short title, but a well crafted experience, and I enjoyed learning its story by passing through its very well crafted world. 8