To The Moon

I normally don't leave many reviews for anything I purchase online, but this purchase was worthy. The controls are clunky at times, but using keyboard arrows helps in some situations. And if you love a well written story that will keep you guessing and giving little "I knew it" hints and "Wait, what was I supposed to notice earlier?" Then this game is for you. I spend more on a good book that takes about the same amount of time to adventure through. Thank you GoG and Freebirdgames.

Although this game can be completed in a short period of time and doesn't have much replay value, it had one of the greatest storylines. In a sense, it isn't exactly a game: Things are very linear, there aren't too many challenges, and the majority is reading through the story and getting involved with it. To me, though, that doesn't take away from it: At its heart is a touching tale that might seem cliche in some parts, but still creates a unique story. Some elements seemed a bit misplaced, such as the inventory and interactive scene towards the end. All in all, though, To the Moon is an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed!

An amazing story paired with a mesmerizing soundtrack is sometimes all a game needs to be enjoyable, both of these things To The Moon hits out of the park. If you are one who does not care much for story telling in games then I would say there is not much for you here, but I would also suggest to give this a try as it may surprise you. Not much in the way of gameplay except some puzzle solving here and there. The music is excellent and paired with the plot is an emotional force that rips at the heartstrings of even the most soulless of people.

I can see a kernel of an interesting story here - it kept me along to the ending, but by then I felt that I had been strung along with what was mostly uninteractive filler that you are constantly tapping your spacebar to speed up. Although the premise is strong, monotonous dialogue and petulant characters make this one a snooze. What constitutes a game in here is laughably poor, to the point where it's almost mockery: whack a mole (!), tile flipping, and find the bitmap that doesn't look right. It all comes together like a Nolan film in the end, if you're willing to ignore all the nonsense that came before.

This is one of those Adventures made in RPG Maker, and for as much as I love Yume Nikki, I was excited to give this a try. I found the mouse controls to be very strange, and a bit clunky; they don't really work with the RPG Maker engine. This is a non-issue, however, since the keyboard controls work just fine. The visuals are about what you'd expect, and the music is okay. It goes without saying that the focus here is on the story, and what an experience! It gets off to a bad start with a character I found unlikeable and another who doesn't give enough of herself for you to really get to know her. It's not terribly interesting, and collecting the memories doesn't always make a lot of sense; it's not always clear what is an important memory and what is nothing. I was ready to write this one off before long. But then, the story just gripped me, and it never let go. I'm not an emotional person, and as such, I'm not usually into very emotional stories. There are the notable exceptions of mother-daughter stories or those of a young woman coming of age, but this is neither. It's s story with a sad ending that gets magically transformed into a happy one, which I typically find insulting. Despite this, the game had me as close to tears as I am emotionally capable by the end, and for a decent stretch, too. By the end, I did grow to like Eva, but Neil is just too insecure and dorky; maybe he'd grow on me, given enough time, but the game is on the shorter side. I'd definitely recommend this one, and say for sure to see it through.