Moons of Madness | Xbox One Review

I have very little experience with any of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, or Lovecraftian horror in general. Which is why I was eager to jump into Moons of Madness from developer Rock Pocket Games. As a huge fan of sci-fi horror, this seemed aligned to my tastes, and a possible introduction into a genre of fiction I had yet to discover. Although the game’s premise caught my attention early on, I walked away a bit underwhelmed. Additionally, the gameplay felt unnecessarily tedious at times. It still has its merits, however, and might be worth your attention if you’re a fan of walking simulator horror games.

On Mars, Your Crew Can Hear You Scream

You play as Shane Newehart, an engineer stationed on Mars. His employer is a space exploration company by the name of Orichi. He awakens to a nightmare in the living quarters of his and his colleagues’ habitat. The place is crawling with tentacles, there are voices in his head, and a woman who has it out for him for some yet to be determined reason. It’s a great setup that drew me into the game immediately.

Unfortunately, that’s where the story stopped being a lot of fun for me. As the mystery unravels, it has pockets of promise in terms of a psychologically charged narrative. I won’t go as far as to say I didn’t “get” the ending, but it simply didn’t satisfy. The majority of the major plot points were buried in computer text, which felt like a chore to read by the end of the game. I’m not against reading, but when each terminal can have eight to ten paragraphs of e-mails to go through, it gets a bit frustrating. I’d much rather have an interactive experience show me the story instead of burying it in text.

Yes, Another Walking Simulator

I have nothing against walking simulators; in fact, I’m not a fan of the derogatory nature behind the term. As long as the narrative is told well, I don’t need a lot of gameplay. Moons of Madness, however, is plagued with tedious tasks the pad the length of a story that could be told in a couple hours instead of five. Getting into the Mars land vehicle, for instance, takes several clicks. First, you hit a button on the outside. Then you walk inside, click another to close the hatch, click the inner door to open it, and then click the driver’s seat to enter it. If I only had to do this once or twice, no big deal. But I had to follow this procedure every time I entered or exited the vehicle.

On the bright side, I found the puzzles to be quite satisfying. They were never overly difficult, and each one was very different from the last. I also appreciated that none of them had any kind of time limit to solve them. I could take as much time as I needed.

Outside of the puzzles, the rest of the gameplay mostly consisted of walking from point A to point B, unlocking doors, and a few minor stealth sequences. I wouldn’t have minded the lack of gameplay if the story were more engaging, but I walked away more confused than anything else.

A Slight Sense of Dread

Although it appears the budget wasn’t very large for Moons of Madness, the art style was quite effective. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the characters or enemies looked real, but Rock Pocket Games succeeded in what they were going for. The voice acting, in particular, was top notch. I never felt like any of the actors were merely reading lines. Every reaction felt like how I would respond to each situation.

With that said, most of the “horror” felt like cheap jump scares. On multiple occasions, a figure would randomly appear in front of me, only to disappear right away. Other times, a horrible creature would show up and take off in the only path I could take. I felt like one of those characters in a horror movie that heads directly towards the danger instead of running from it. Sadly, I had no other choice.

Moons of Madness Final Verdict

Look, this isn’t a terrible attempt to tell this story. It just hit less often than it missed, which is saying something for such a short experience. Shane’s story is a somewhat worthy tale, but it made me more interested in reading Lovecraft or playing other games based on his work. In my humble opinion, a game should make me want more from the developer instead of merely looking at other sources for a better option.

To hear me talk more about Moons of Madness, be sure to check out Episode 293 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on an Xbox One copy of Moons of Madness provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.