Moons of Madness may be the best implementation of traditional puzzle-solving we've seen so far in an interactive narrative experience, in a setting that skillfully merges unearthly horrors with more "tangible" science fiction.
Moons of Madness is a wonderfully chilling outing that blends horror and sci-fi to excellent effect, delivering a palpable sense of dread. Most pleasingly, it channels the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft without yelling “CTHULHU!” in your ear every five minutes.
Amazing from start to finish. As a lover of The Secret World, it settles into the lore nicely and keeps that same exact tone and atmosphere. If you haven't played TSW but loved MoM's lore, give it a shot!
I really liked this game Moons of Madness is a first-person, story-driven cosmic horror game where the scientific exploration of Mars meets the supernatural dread of Lovecraft.
This is also the first time I've played a second-person horror game, and not even something else that I thought was a good game, and in this case that was the first time that I had no idea what was going to happen.
The premise is that an expedition to Mars has gone horribly wrong.
But it was really good when you put it on a 4K TV, too. The controls were responsive and the controls for the camera were perfectly optimized.
Moons of Madness is a welcome addition to the wider Lovecraftian catalogue, and its cosmic aspects really get to the heart of the mythos’ insanity. While there are annoying moments when the developers see fit to include some of the worst excesses of modern horror games, the quality of the writing and the atmosphere is enough to justify seeing things through to a conclusion that is as epic as it is satisfying. This is one trip to insanity that you shouldn’t pass up.
There is a lot here to recommend. Moons of Madness delivers, and like the best horror experiences doesn’t outstay its welcome, or let you become too comfortable with your surroundings.
At the end of the day, if you feel like getting startled and wandering around a horror atmosphere for a few hours, Moons of Madness will serve adequately. The visuals and sounds are well crafted and immersive. Just be aware that the game itself is mainly a walking simulator with a B-movie plot and some minigame puzzles mixed in.
A barely above-average horror game which wages everything on the Lovecraft licence and its impressive, exotic Mars. The rest of it is just pathos, boredom and frankly not a very good game.
I enjoyed my time with this game.
It had a rough start and I found the interface took a bit of getting used to but it picks up nicely and has good pacing, a mix of scares and nice attention to detail.
The graphics are above average, from an artistic standpoint, and lighting is used well to enhance the atmosphere, as is sound and ambient music.
Puzzles are logical and the guidelines to solve them are almost always presented in a way that makes sense given the environment and narrative.
Voice acting is ok, with the two key characters doing a better job and the script keeps things simple, without straying into over-ambitious territory that might bite off more than it can chew.
The horror is a mixture of jump-scares and general tension and, along with a variety of horrifying entities, they are spaced out well, which led to me never really knowing what was around the corner.
It's not very long, around 6-7 hours, but that is sometimes a plus for those who like things short and sweet.
Worth picking up when it suits your budget, if you enjoy games like Amnesia or Alien Isolation. I'd probably give it closer to a 7.5 but metacritic still don't allow .5's. Why?
So people said there is to much walking and annoying simplistic repeating puzzles. While i had more feeling from the game that puzzles weren't annoying and are quick to solve. And there were different puzzles, at different locations, while there were also dialogues, so it is not like you would have to do repeatedly annoying puzzles just to move on. You were there to do task, it was very quick, while story was evolving at the same time. Except one puzzle was counter-intuitive.
Game has amazing graphics and atmosphere. Didn't noticed anything wrong with acting. If you expected master piece like Call of Cthulhu you should look elsewhere, but it is still decent game and fun to play. It doesn't have story deep as Cthulhu. But it is still okay. It is more horror/adventure than about complex story and it does fine in my opinion, tho i expected maybe more monsters, or some scary chase/fight. There is also bug preventing you from finishing the game, not fixed months supposedly.
Also this should be probably VR as well, that would ramp up sales massively !
PS: It is pity we don't get better more of an adventures like Call of Cthulhu - old game. Probably because people don't like horrors, or not many studios make them, as they don't sell that well and if they don't do it right, it is problem.
Positives:
- Awesome Graphics
- Decent Story
- Beautiful Environment
- Layered Story Telling
Negatives:
- NPC interaction is limited
- Little interaction with enemy NPC
- Little Interaction with Marian Environment
I enjoyed the game. It was somewhat short, but the Story telling via dreams, flashbacks, and reading was well done. Great to see a Lovecraft Story taken to a different planet, but at the same time, you do have little intersection with it so it more of a look but don't touch situation. Would have loved to see more interaction with Monster or Lovecraft Monster Minions. All in all, it is a great scripted gameplay that has you involved as part of the story that it is telling you, instead of you driving the story. Worth the time and would actually recommend this to any gamer.
Moons of Madness
Unenjoyable from start to finish
Moons of Madness is a first person adventiure walking simulator that takes place on mars, and basically this is a game about doing spooky chores…
All 4 hours of this game is a chore to get through, and they aren’t even interesting chores until an hour in.. aka 25% of the entire game… the game starts with you setting out to fix some solar panels, but youre noticing everything unplugged, who would do such a thing?
Until you find out.. oh.. of course aliens… so this becomes a game of being stalked by these creepy creatures and doing puzzles…
Moons of madness has glimpses of being enjoyable during these intense chases, or environment based puzzles.. .but those glimpses evaporate as the monotony of this game smacks you over the head…
constant button prompts, constant putting in and finding power sources.. constant puzzles, unfun and uninteresting traversal and exploration through these space stations…
Moons of madness will drive you mad…
Theres really no redeemable quality here… the story is boring and unengaging, the puzzles are annoying progress stoppers more than an enjoyable brain teaser to break the tension.. the environment is **** game starts out slow, it drags with glimpse of potential, and none of this potential is ever realized…
I give Moons of Madness
a 4.5/10
While the quality of MOM's visuals are notable, the dialogue, acting, world, soundtrack, animations all felt sub par for a 2019 release. I stopped playing before the first hour was up. For a game so focused on storytelling, as the player I just didn't feel any connection to what was happening.
SummaryMoons of Madness is a first-person, story-driven cosmic horror game where the scientific exploration of Mars meets the supernatural dread of Lovecraft. As a technician stationed on Mars, you begin seeing and hearing things that aren’t there. Visions, hallucinations — is that even what it is? Or are you slowly descending into madness?