When you do come face to face with something scary, those rare parts are good and crank up the tension, even though I think they released too much of the mystery too quickly. There are mostly jump scares or being chased by something with nasty tentacles, but there’s not a lot of otherworldly variety in the flora and fauna. There are very bad things happening here with supernatural, Lovecraftian elements. The mind-bending parts of the game do make a big splash and once started, it’s almost non-stop. If you do happen to die, you’re only a checkpoint load away from fixing your mistake.

It’s not an action game, so quick movement isn’t necessary to avoid death. There is a sprint button, and it’s something I used a lot. I found the directional indicator to be a little inaccurate at times and missing at others. The biogage also allows you to scan the environment to find interactive items in the world while also telling you where to go next. There is also a minor inventory screen for items you pick up, but inventory management is not a mechanic. The biogage acts as a snapshot of your current health, but it’s also an effective task manager in case you forget your next objective. Other times, they stick around or worse and you can see the stress represented as red or black tentacles along the outside of the screen and an increased heart rate shown on your biogage. You will see human phantasms out a window that disappear quickly and other dark shapes that melt away when he draws near. It was a realistic touch I don’t think I needed.Īlthough Shane is alone for most of the game, he doesn’t always feel that way. The puzzles are simple and fine, but the game can sometimes major on the minor with the sequences to enter a habitat or vehicle taking multiple button presses. There are mysteries wrapped up in why problems keep occurring, but you’ll need to reroute and connect circuits, find missing power sources, and align devices for signal strength. Shane’s work is split between powering devices and solving puzzles to complete his tasks. It would be nice to have a little more interaction as I move shane from place to place for another job. The beginning is a little slow and tedious as it builds the world, and the sprint to the ending feels a little rushed. These messages give insights into a character or some details about why things went wrong. The story is told mostly through environmental clues or emails on computer terminals. The story in Moons of Madness is really a narrative game on rails with creepy visuals and scares. After a good intro sequence, we are introduced to Shane Newehouse, an engineer on the small team as he starts a new day. The foundation shows a lot of promise with a hint of what’s to come.

They are studying Mars, hoping to find life, and seeing if they can grow some of their own. Moons of Madness focuses on the crew of the Invictus. Moons of Madness uses these themes to create its deliberate, sci-fi narrative about an unfortunate science crew working on the red planet who encounter something beyond their understanding. Space, insanity, and the fear of the unknown are fertile ground for any imaginative story.

Moons of madness ps4