Reviews - To the Moon

Spoiler-Free Review #1 – To the Moon

(Important note: DO NOT spoil this game if you intend to play it. Do not read up on it, don’t “wiki” it, none of that. The risk you run of ruining such an amazing piece of story with spoilers is just not worth it. Also, stay away from the Steam game feed. People on there do not care if they spoil the game for you, and will do so eagerly. This write-up, hoever, contains no spoilers, so don't be discouraged from reading it.)

Being such a naturally cynical person can be a very tough job.  Especially when, like me, you are trying to help do your small part in spreading the word about something fantastic. When something comes along that completely blows you away, and makes you rethink something you often take for granted, you want to share it. But you also don’t want to share it with the wrong person. You have to be careful. Even if you don’t care what the person actually thinks, you don’t want them to dislike something for the wrong reason (or because they just simply don’t understand it) and then possibly ruin it for others down the road who have the potential to enjoy it for what it really is. This is where being such a cynic is tough.

Just last night, I started and finished “To the Moon” from Freebird Games. It only took about 4 hours, beginning to end. And at the end, I have to admit… I felt like I had ripped off the developer by getting it for $4.99 during a Steam sale. This game, in 4 hours, gave me a better storyline than ANY film I have ever seen. And it did so for half the price of a Matinee ticket at my local movie theatre. Now, for some, that may not be saying much. Many of you know that one of the greatest advantages to using videogames as a storytelling medium is that they turn the primary viewer into a participant. You’re not sitting on your couch watching the end of the film as the characters ask “What’s in the box!?” You’re not a bystander as the humans resist their Machine oppressors.  Games are different. More involved.

            Now, that said, you may not feel like you actually are Solid Snake, and that you personally are defeating the renegade FOXHOUND unit on Shadow Moses Island. But you definitely felt like you were there helping him along. You experienced the twists and turns just the same. Some games, with character creation or a large number of characters and decisions, and multiple branching storylines and endings, help to enhance that feeling and move closer to making YOU feel like the protagonist, which is something movies just cannot do. The narrative is set, you don’t make any decisions. Sure, some movies have alternate endings, but unless you buy the $375 “Special Once-in-a-Lifetime, We Need More of Your Money Edition Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy and Toaster Combo Pack”, you may not even ever know about them. (Plus, they are usually crap, anyway.) Games can take an amazing story and make it better by (even if only superficially) bringing the viewer into the narrative to experience it. Not just to watch it. This means that simple things like a tough gun battle become much more than “Ooh, that's going to be tough for them”. You know how hard it is for the protagonists because you spend plenty of time cursing at a “Mission Failed” or “Game Over” screen as the game SHOWS you how hard it is. It’s something we may not think about, but these “Game Over” moments (no matter how much we hate them) can be used to help illustrate more accurately to a Player exactly what the characters are really going through. And even though these “deaths” may not be considered canon (as games have different ways of interpreting “game over” or character death), once you pass a mission that took you 47 tries, you will likely come out of it with a much clearer understanding of exactly how tough a battle it really was.

I told you that to tell you this. To the Moon is a work of art in every sense of the word. It literally felt, from beginning to end, like a masterpiece, but it had a strange way of not quite feeling like a game, either. It doesn't have an in-depth combat system, or rigid-body physics, or fluid-dynamics simulation, or full-face motion capture technology, or problem-solving artificial intelligence. And yet, it felt more real than any game I've played that DOES have those things. Instead of trying to simulate reality, this game takes something real, and puts it into a simulation. It takes a grounded, touching, heart-felt storyline, drops in a few science-fiction elements and (despite the fact that you are traversing a person’s dreams) still manages to stay in touch. It never loses you. And the one or two times where the science fiction gets a little out of hand, you likely won’t notice, because you’ll be so caught up in it that it won’t even matter. And, in a very rare occurrence in games, the comedy sprinkled throughout isn't out of place, and isn't forced. It feels just as natural as the rest of the game. Yes, it’s built in the RPG Maker engine. Yes, it has SNES-style 16-bit graphics. Yes, it feels like an RPG you likely played in 1994. Yes, the premise is a bit contrived. But none of that will matter. 

But I digress; let’s get back to my original point. It’s tough to be cynical sometimes. In part, because our job here is to critique; and I just can’t bring myself to say anything bad about this game. It’s not flawless as a game by any means. The controls are odd. Some of the game mechanics are a bit repetitive, and the puzzles, while a welcome addition, aren't exactly challenging and may be a little out-of-place. When you get right down to it, it’s only real downfall may be the fact that it’s only barely a game. Sort of like Heavy Rain. I loved Heavy Rain because David Cage understands what a great medium this is for conveying your story. The problem was that Heavy Rain was billed as an engaging, story-driven game. And it wasn't. It was an interactive movie. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just not what a lot of people were expecting when they bought it. The game attempted to bridge that gap between amazing storytelling and presentation in films with the interactivity of a game. My biggest complaint was that it was made up of quick-time events. I HATE quick-time events. I won’t say it failed at what it was attempting. I think it did that quite well (bad acting aside). It just needed to tell people what it was doing from the start and not attempt to disguise itself as a game first, story second.

To the Moon is doing the same thing. It’s taking an inspired, touching story, and presenting it to you in an interactive way that goes beyond simple “Click to advance to the next page”. So yes, it may not be much of a “game” per se, but we’re not Gamers here, we’re Players. And this game is worth playing, worth experiencing.

The other reason it’s tough to be cynical is that I desperately want a great many of my friends to play this game. But my cynicism tells me that too many of them will miss the point. They’ll skip the story and get bored. They’ll complain about the controls or the graphics. They won’t enjoy it because they just don’t want to. But I honestly think it’s better this way. This is the sort of thing that needs to be spread among the right people.

In conclusion: Play it. Please. If you agree with our concept here, and you agree that games are an evolution of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to experience this. I’ll warn you, it’s not a happy story. But it’s worth every minute. Also, the audio is flawless, a nice little melding of nostalgic sound effects that remind you of RPGs past and a perfectly executed, high-quality original soundtrack written by the game’s writer/director Kan R. Gao. So I suggest grabbing the game/soundtrack bundle as well.

Get it, play it. And, if you love it, share it. Buy and gift it to a Steam friend. Even after the sale, it’s only $10. Two copies of this and you still are only at 1/3 of what you would pay for any new blockbuster title. And I guarantee you this $20 investment will give two Players a better experience than any $60 game you can buy right now. Not to mention, it shows Kan R. Gao and his team at Freebird Games that you don’t need a huge studio, AAA publisher backing and a state-of-the-art game engine to make people happy.