Moons Of Madness

Maybe I’m a bit biased towards the projects produced by Funcom, especially since I was a fan of The Park, but I still think this project is worth the praise. Moons of Madness is an experience all its own that combines the creepy, unsettling nothingness of space with the demented and decrepit ideas of H.P. Lovecraft. There’s a lot to love and a lot to fear in this sci-fi take on the madness that lies within humanity itself and in the monsters that lurk beyond humanity’s comprehension. However, there’s a lot that’s left to be desired by anyone that takes the time to finish Moons of Madness – especially considering that the plot is nowhere near the depth of The Park. Still, I appreciated this title for the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and dread it instilled even if the plot aspects were fairly weak.

Hunt down ‘The Witch’

I won’t get very into the plot of this game since, if I did, I would spoil the entire experience. This isn’t something that I really relish in saying simply because it means that there’s not a lot to discuss outside of the main plot that won’t give away the ending. Assuming the role of Shane Newehart, you’re essentially tasked with figuring out what’s going on concerning the surface of Mars. Over time, it becomes clear that various members of the crew have gone crazy and that Shane is, more or less, the only one left. Tack on top of that the fact that Shane has had recurring nightmares about an entity called ‘The Witch’ and you’ve got yourself a classic horror setup.

Beyond these ideas, the execution of the story is poor to say the least. I really wanted to dive in and love this game – I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the occult horrors of Lovecraftian stories, though I still believe there’s a lot of good that can come of it. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that the only real reason that that there’s Lovecraftian horrors on Mars is because the developers wanted them to be there to capitalize on the sci-fi elements. That’s a long way to say you could swap out the setting and the story would be unchanged, which disappointed me because a space-based Lovecraft story could’ve had a lot of potential.

Discover the Truth

The truth about the gameplay is that it is equally unengaging. Like many horror games, its simply a walking simulator with a couple of puzzles tossed in here and there. Since it’s a horror game, this generally gets a pass. However, since the story and setting are weak, this quickly begins to draw on the entire experience easily within the first hour of play. That’s a huge handicap, especially considering it won’t take more than a few hours to get through as it is. To top it all off, the game doesn’t run that well. I wouldn’t say my system is top of the line, but it still had trouble here and there in areas that should have run just fine.

Smooth framerates would suddenly nosedive and pop back up, which persisted even after a bit of troubleshooting. Overall, the unimpressive gameplay was only made worse by graphical issues. I will say, however, that the game was well detailed and the environments had good lighting and vibrant design in the right places.

Pros:

• Environmental design was solid along with lighting
• Unique sci-fi Lovecraft idea
• Ominous atmosphere

Cons:

• Story subpar and lacks depth
• Steep frame drops randomly
• Walking sim with no compelling story is not a good mix