There must be some area between “Walking Simulators” and the rest of the gaming universe. Whatever that might be, that’s where Deliver Us The Moon resides. The game wants to tell you a story more than anything else, but it slips in just enough puzzles and mild action to make sure you don’t fall asleep in the process. However, some of these areas of ‘engagement’ aren’t quite up to par mechanically.

Abbreviated Review: https://youtu.be/doTOyhdiItE

The story of Deliver Us The Moon is the real drawing point. The overall premise is a tiny bit shaky, but the delivery once everything gets in motion is great. The quality of the writing and the voice actors are exceptional for a moderately priced game. While these elements are important given the nature of the gameplay, it’s great they managed to deliver on those aspects.

It felt like the idea of a moon base powering Earth via a Helium 3 fusion reactor (a real concept in generating energy) going dark without any warning was great on its own. The strange part was adding in the whole “Earth is dying” concept behind it. It plays more into the story later on, but I kept thinking to myself, “what is electricity going to afford a planet dying to global warming?” It was glossed over a bit in the narrative, but it never detracted from the flow of an otherwise enjoyable story.

The bulk of the gameplay splits into two areas: 1) solving puzzles involving power, unlocking doors, and starting things up, and 2) watching cutscenes or listening to audio events. The former is pretty typical of just about any puzzle platformer. The latter however distinctly reminds me of The Division. There’s a system in the game where you watch events generated from the past with these human-shaped polygonal figures with minimal detail. They pantomime the events shifting a frame every few seconds and speaking their dialogue. It works pretty well, but at times can be a tiny bit disorienting.

The puzzles aren’t too bad, but they tend to become very familiar as the game wears on. At times they can be a little misleading and it ends up being frustrating more often than challenging when that happens. However, most of the time I found myself thinking through and solving them without too much holding me up. The strange thing is that, with the “expansion” they added after the initial release, there was a distinct change in how the puzzles and gameplay overall felt.

At some point, before I got the game, Deliver Us The Moon apparently ended abruptly about two-thirds of the way through the current run time. You may even have seen reviews talking about the “abrupt ending.” I could tell at that particular point that something strange had happened with the design of a cutscene about two-thirds of the way through. Also, the gameplay that followed that felt very different from what preceded it.

Previously, puzzles were somewhat laid back and, aside from a few awkwardly placed quick-time events, had you think before acting. They also featured areas that were mostly linear in the way you solved the puzzles. You solve one, move on to the other, progressing through this moon base the whole way. The newer content has you in much more open areas and doing some backtracking almost immediately. It wasn’t… bad… but it was jarring in the changeup. Then on top of that, they added several platforming sections that and a god-awful stealth portion that felt wildly out of place.

Deliver Us The Moon is certainly worth checking out if you can tolerate somewhat slow games. The story alone is worth that. It’s also visually as good as I could expect from a budget game and has a de-cent soundtrack to boot. I’m not sure if I would put it on a ‘must-play’ list for anyone, though. Especially not at the $25 base price. I think for a game you could knock out in four hours, maybe six if you read everything and explore, it’s worth picking up at the right price. Science fiction fans like me will probably get more out of it than most as well. Just don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be action-packed. It’s more… action slacked.

If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: Endyo Gaming and online at BagoGames

There must be some area between “Walking Simulators” and the rest of the gaming universe. Whatever that might be, that’s where Deliver Us The Moon resides. The game wants to tell you a story more than anything else, but it slips in just enough puzzles and mild action to make sure you don’t fall asleep in the process. However, some of these areas of ‘engagement’ aren’t quite up to par mechanically. Abbreviated Review: https://youtu.be/doTOyhdiItE [h1]Magnificent Moon Mystery[/h1] The story of Deliver Us The Moon is the real drawing point. The overall premise is a tiny bit shaky, but the delivery once everything gets in motion is great. The quality of the writing and the voice actors are exceptional for a moderately priced game. While these elements are important given the nature of the gameplay, it’s great they managed to deliver on those aspects. It felt like the idea of a moon base powering Earth via a Helium 3 fusion reactor (a real concept in generating energy) going dark without any warning was great on its own. The strange part was adding in the whole “Earth is dying” concept behind it. It plays more into the story later on, but I kept thinking to myself, “what is electricity going to afford a planet dying to global warming?” It was glossed over a bit in the narrative, but it never detracted from the flow of an otherwise enjoyable story. [h1]Puzzles and Live Theater[/h1] The bulk of the gameplay splits into two areas: 1) solving puzzles involving power, unlocking doors, and starting things up, and 2) watching cutscenes or listening to audio events. The former is pretty typical of just about any puzzle platformer. The latter however distinctly reminds me of The Division. There’s a system in the game where you watch events generated from the past with these human-shaped polygonal figures with minimal detail. They pantomime the events shifting a frame every few seconds and speaking their dialogue. It works pretty well, but at times can be a tiny bit disorienting. The puzzles aren’t too bad, but they tend to become very familiar as the game wears on. At times they can be a little misleading and it ends up being frustrating more often than challenging when that happens. However, most of the time I found myself thinking through and solving them without too much holding me up. The strange thing is that, with the “expansion” they added after the initial release, there was a distinct change in how the puzzles and gameplay overall felt. [h1]A Tale of Two Endings[/h1] At some point, before I got the game, Deliver Us The Moon apparently ended abruptly about two-thirds of the way through the current run time. You may even have seen reviews talking about the “abrupt ending.” I could tell at that particular point that something strange had happened with the design of a cutscene about two-thirds of the way through. Also, the gameplay that followed that felt very different from what preceded it. Previously, puzzles were somewhat laid back and, aside from a few awkwardly placed quick-time events, had you think before acting. They also featured areas that were mostly linear in the way you solved the puzzles. You solve one, move on to the other, progressing through this moon base the whole way. The newer content has you in much more open areas and doing some backtracking almost immediately. It wasn’t… bad… but it was jarring in the changeup. Then on top of that, they added several platforming sections that and a god-awful stealth portion that felt wildly out of place. [h1]Order Us the Moon?[/h1] Deliver Us The Moon is certainly worth checking out if you can tolerate somewhat slow games. The story alone is worth that. It’s also visually as good as I could expect from a budget game and has a de-cent soundtrack to boot. I’m not sure if I would put it on a ‘must-play’ list for anyone, though. Especially not at the $25 base price. I think for a game you could knock out in four hours, maybe six if you read everything and explore, it’s worth picking up at the right price. Science fiction fans like me will probably get more out of it than most as well. Just don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be action-packed. It’s more… action slacked. [quote] If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: [url= http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28346672-Endyo-Gaming/]Endyo Gaming[/url] and online at BagoGames[/quote]