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To The Moon * Format: PC * Unleashed: Out Now
* Publisher: Lace Mamba Global * Developer: Freebird Games * Players: 1 * Site:
freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon
Dr Eva Rosalene and Dr Neil Watts sell dreams – literally. They work for an agency that has developed technology with the power to change a person’s memories spanning their entire life. These altered memories clash with the real ones in such a way, however, that the conflict rapidly destroys a person’s mind. People contact the agency on their deathbeds, therefore, signing contracts that promise them memories of a life they never lived. A life somehow better; a life where they lived their dream.
The player joins Dr Rosalene and Dr Watts as they arrive for their latest job. A bedridden old man called John- ny, with just a few short days to live, has requested that he be given the memory of fulfilling a dream he never chased. Johnny wants to have been to the moon.
Visually all of this takes place in a world that is perhaps best described, as ‘SNES RPG’. It’s astonishing that something with such retro, lo-res styl- ing is able to present such a touching and realistic game. Very little of the game’s emotional depth comes from visual representations. The sound, on the other hand, is a whole new story. The soundtrack is quite frankly gor- geous, and never fails to match the mood of the script. There is an ever- present sadness; even considered holistically, the music (included on a separate CD in this retail release)
matches the game perfectly. Over 90% of the game can be played with just the mouse but, despite this, you’ll find that To The Moon throws a brief gameplay surprise your way whenever you’re least expecting it, keeping the experience fresh. The basics revolve around kickstarting the desire to travel to the moon way back in Johnny’s childhood memories. This involves hopping from memory to memory, travelling further and further back in Johnny’s life until finally reach- ing his early childhood. Each memory – sometimes consisting of just one or two rooms – contains five ‘memory links’ that you need to collect before connecting them to the ‘memento’. The memento will be an object in the current memory that links back to an earlier one, each time a seemingly un- remarkable object that you will later discover has a heart-rending signifi- cance. With all five memory links col- lected and the memento activated, there’s a simple yet satisfying picture puzzle of the memento to complete before hopping over to the next mem- ory. In truth this exploration, collect- ing and brief puzzle-solving makes up most of the gameplay – apart from the brilliant exceptions we frustratingly can’t tell you about. Each memory holds a lot of conversa- tion. Some between the two doctors, much between people in Johnny’s memories that the doctors eavesdrop on unseen, and – on rare occasions – between the doctors and people in the memories. You will at first approach this as just another game, as the doc-
tors initially approach Johnny as just another client. Very quickly, however, you will find yourself even more emo- tionally invested than the doctors. This game reaches through your heart and touches your soul in a way that David Cage can only dream of.
There are niggles besides the rela- tively short (4-5 hours) play time. The game can become briefly unfocussed during the rare occasions the player is given a little more room to explore, and a little less guidance as to how to progress. Your determination to find the solution will be fuelled by an unquenchable desire to see what happens next however, meaning you’ll never be stuck for long. More unfor- tunate is the baffling decision to, just once, rub a plot twist in the player’s face – which threatens to cripple the moment of discovery. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. We want to tell you why we were initially un- sure of the ending, but later realised it was an excellent decision; how the significance of a recurring object hit us like a lightning bolt the day after we saw the end credits, and overwhelmed us with sadness; how the final screen hints at a whole new subtext. But we won’t. Why? To The Moon is beauti- ful. We won’t deny you this experience, and you shouldn’t deny yourself it either.
written by Critical Gamer’s Luke Kemp
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