Deliver Us The Moon - PlayStation 4 Review

 

Deliver Us The Moon has been on my to playlist for a while, after just completing Metroid Samus Returns on the 3DS I really wanted to stick my teeth into a console game. What attracted me to the game is the intense name and that it reminded me of Observation (available on the Epic Games Store) which was a fantastic game. With my spacesuit on I was ready to play Deliver Us The Moon.

Sometimes for lunch, I can't quite decide what to eat. At those times I might go for something noodle based. I recently tried Naked Noodles, they were not as bad Pot Noodles and tasted pretty good, but the whole time I felt something was missing? Where is the meat? Now they are called Naked Noodles so I knew what I was letting myself in for, that being I thought they would be better. Playing Deliver Us The Moon I found myself asking is there something missing?

Story 

The story is set in the not too distant future, the Earth has depleted almost all sources of energy and the planet is quickly turning into a wasteland. But there is hope, The Moon. It contains Helium-3 that could provide enough energy for the Earth for decades to come. Quickly a base is set up on the moon along with an ingenious way to transport it to Earth. For a time it was great and then they lost communication with the moon and stopped getting Helium-3. The Earth looks doomed once more until a small group manage to get enough resources together and send one person to the moon to try and fix everything, that person is you.

Overall the concept is really interesting, and while there were moments that were interesting it always felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more is wasn't really until near the end of the day that I started connecting with the story. It is not a bad story, it isn't great.

Visuals

The game is powered by the Unreal Engine and the visuals are pretty solid. The setting is bleak and is hard to make the moon itself look that exciting. That being said I did really enjoy my time roaming around it. The manmade buildings on the moon feel futuristic, not crazy Ironman technology but certainly up there. One of my favourite areas visuals was the reactor, it felt impressive and a little scary.

Overall the visuals are pretty solid, nothing standout but nothing to complain about either.

Music

The music used in the game is by far one of the strongest elements. It feels like a cross between classic and electronic music turning into a powerful symphony. The composer is Sander van Zanten, this is his first video game score to date and is a great debut. I went onto his website and read something that resonates with me and is why I love video game music:

"Music serves a twofold purpose within games; it reinforces a games world-building and it set the mood. Done correctly, this results in a more engaging and enthralling game experience: music makes the fictional worlds of video games come to life."

Overall the soundtrack is phenomenal and is well over three hours in length, strangely while I am sure it was not intentional (or maybe it was) the sound create an ASMR effect and even fell asleep to it the other night.

Gameplay

The gameplay is a mix of exploration and puzzle-solving. The game, for the most part, feels like a rail shooter giving little opportunity to explore. The puzzle element can be fun and most can be completed in a few minutes. As the game progress, you pick up a little robot friend who I grew quite fond of and not just because he could reach areas that I could not.

There are no enemies as such apart from some evil Roombas, there are no weapons and outside of your robot pal and a laser, there are no other tools. The laser is used to open seals and cut cables and the robot can essentially help open doors that are inaccessible to you.

There are little mini-games where you need to align towers which is quite fun and tough especially near the end game. One of the biggest parts of the game is finding evidence of what happened on the moon and other miscellaneous bits and pieces.

Overall there is nothing particularly bad about the gameplay it is just a little lacking. It can't really truly be called an exploration game and does not have enough puzzles to be called a puzzle game either. If the developers had put more time into one element or the other it would have been a more enjoyable and engaging experience.

               

Final Thoughts 

So, after eight hours how did I feel?  Underwhelmed. The story was okay but a little lacking, the visuals were solid but far from exciting. The music was the highlight of the game and if the other elements had been as strong it would have been a fantastic game. The gameplay was okay but very limited. If I was describing the game as colour it would be grey. This one just managed to slide in with a 3 out of 5

Carrion - PC Review

 

Early last year developer Phobia Game Studios and publisher Devolver Digital revealed a game called Carrion. Essentially you are alien/experiment that breaks containment in a lab that has to kill and attack the scientists and soldiers inside. The gritty and pixelated visuals had me hooked along with the gameplay itself. While I wasn't familiar with Phobia Game Studios, Devolver Digital has a keen eye for games so was more than willing to try it.

Many, many years ago I used to work for Super Valu as a teenager (dark days). Before work each day I would run home and throw on a frozen curry first. They looked pretty good and I like curries, at first, it seems okay but then it becomes tasteless and an unappealing and end up being just pure substance. In reality, it was just a sad excuse for a curry and fooled myself into thinking it was even in the same league as a real one. Playing Carrion I found myself asking was this a real tasty curry or was I just eating a frozen one trying to fool myself?

Story

The opening scene is focused on a containment unit marked with a biohazard symbol. Inside is an experiment or perhaps a being from another world. Its mission (and also yours) is to destroy anything that stands in your way, become stronger and try to find a way out.

Overall the story does not provide much detail but that is okay, the only downside for me was the ending which felt a little underwhelming.

Visuals

The visuals are intense and gritty, not only the look of the creature with its many tentacles but the dark underground you navigate. While there are different areas within the facility you are imprisoned some of the areas can feel the same, the greatest strength of the visuals is also its greatest weakness. It can get extremely tiresome on your eyes and made me reminisce of when I got the GameBoy first and if the light was low in the room at all it could be a real struggle.

Overall the visuals are good but the only way to play the game is in short bursts, trying to play it a single sitting would just be a little too much (I played it over two sittings). 

Music

The music to me can be best described as a horror scape, spine chilling sounds, creeping danger and music you may hear in a horror to create a tense atmosphere and let you know the bad guy is coming. But what happens when you are the bad guy?  Instead of it being scary it becomes exhilarating, and for me could be compared to the feeling I get from listening to the music used in the latest instalment in the Doom series. The music is created by American composer Cris Velasco, who has worked on and created the music for; Darksiders, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed Unity Dead Kings, Bloodbourne and Borderlands to name but a few.

The soundtrack runs just shy of being an hour, and features a number of great tracks including; 'The Hunger', 'What's Yours Is Mine', 'AMD (Armoured Tech Drone), 'Metamorphosis IV' and 'Attack Of The Peacekeepers'. Overall a great soundtrack with really good sound effects.

Gameplay

The game is a side-scrolling horror game with some Metroidvania style gameplay. The game starts you escaping from a containment unit before killing and absorbing a few scientists. As you consume so shall you grow and the more hideous and horrifying you become. 

There are a number of abilities that can be unlocked in the game by finding other containments units scattered throughout the facility. The creature undergoes a number of metamorphoses, each time unlocks new abilities. Interestingly it is sometimes necessary to reduce your mass to get through certain areas which is quite interesting and unique to the best of my knowledge.

The save points are pretty frequent so you never need to worry too much if you die and later on you will, a lot. The enemies start with handguns and get's a lot tougher. The biggest downside for me was the lack of a map, so try to remember which areas you need to revisit and where exactly they are located can be tough. Including this feature would have made Metroidvania elements more fun.

Overall the gameplay is good, the only downside is the lack of a map.

Final Thoughts

Soooooo, after eight hours of playing how did I feel? Mixed. The story has an interesting concept but fizzles out, the visuals are great but become really tough on the eyes after a relatively short time. The music is really good, the gameplay is pretty strong and was certainly interesting getting to play as the bad guy. Overall, this one get a 3 out of 5