To The Moon Review

The panorama of independent developers has accustomed us to witness the arrival of real goodies over time: on all you need to think of two examples such as Limbo and Bastion, able to offer very interesting ideas, both from the point of view of the gameplay that from the stylistic one, taking advantage of the freedom granted by this slice of the market to those who are not obliged to deal with demanding publishers and exasperate (n) sales numbers.

In recent months, among the many titles in development in the indie scene, arousing much interest was (thanks to a well-known trailer launch) To The Moon pc , created by the study called Freebird Games led by Kan Gao and presented as a mixture between role-playing and adventure, driven by retro-style graphics.

To The Moon arrived on the square just these days, and is sold on the site of the same developers for € 11.28. Money well spent? Remembering that on the above site there is also the possibility to try the game for an hour, and then leaving the final decision to you, let’s find out together.

 To the moon soundtrack

 To The Moon story

Let’s face it: the stories told in videogames, however good they may be, always remain “from video games”. Especially in recent years, more and more developers have preferred to favor other aspects of greater impact for the mass of the public, making sure that (except for some exceptions) even the best videogame plot could be embarrassed by that told by a film or a book also of medium level.

Through the eyes of the two characters we control, we know what is the real protagonist of the game: Johnny, a senior widower who has now reached his last moments of life and is eager to go  to the moon game.

Thanks to the machinery in their equipment, Neil and Eva begin a journey back to the inside of Johnny’s memories, starting from the last chronologically available up to his youth, where he proceeds with the grafting of his last wish. In what we can define a mixture between the various Inception,

Memento and If You Leave Me Ti Cancello, the story of the elderly will prove to be full of twists, inevitably involving the two doctors (and especially the player) also from the emotional point of view .

 To The Moon Gameplay

ROLE PLAYING GAME?

Although the graphics of   to the moon steam can evoke that of a Final Fantasy of the golden age of Super Nintendo, leaving hope for a real role-playing game, the reality is quite another: the effort of Freebird in fact does not share anything else with what may be the classical canons of this kind, which means no experience points, no advancement in level and no choice to make,

if not purely marginal and not decisive for the purposes of history. Wanting to place this game in a category, we could then insert it among the graphic adventures, but even in this case the comparison with a Monkey Island would risk not doing justice   to the moon steam: although it is occasionally present a puzzle, the classic puzzles of the adventure here there is no trace.

We have an inventory, but it is limited. We have some elements to unlock to go on, but it all comes down to turn to Johnny’s memories in search of links (not even so hidden) between the memories related to the various stages of his life. There are puzzles and minigames like the one where we can even “shoot” zombies, but they are completely marginal in the economy of the game.

On balance, To The Moon it can be defined as an interactive story, guided mainly by the element we have described in the upper paragraph: its history, able to keep the player literally glued to the chair.

The plot of this game is in fact written and told in a way that borders on perfection, letting you guess very little of what will happen with unexpected twists but especially touching the heart of those in front of the screen.

Neil and Eva are the perfect representation of the strange couple: cynical and always ready to joke him, determined to do their job her, in a relationship made of continuous hit and response that also contribute to lighten the most dramatic moments from which it is composed story.