Moon Mystery Review

For some unfathomable reason, one of my favourite memes is a short tweet (X-ing?) about an astronaut making an early return to base, only to nab up a pistol and walk back to his rocket with a nonchalant “Moon’s haunted” when asked what's going on. I’m unashamed to admit that this was one of the main factors in my decision to look into Cosmoscouts' debut title, Moon Mystery, though the general idea of a lunar adventure helped seal the deal.

We play as Sam, a geologist (I think) working on the Moon. He’s been out of contact with Earth for a while and his colleague is nowhere to be seen, leaving Sam with Toby the AI as his only companion. After a bit of meandering, our mineral-loving hero sets off to a nearby base to see if he can re-establish connections to his home planet and figure out when he’s getting that holiday the management promised. However, things go awry when Sam runs into a seemingly rogue robotic intelligence, who promptly attacks our hero. With gun in hand, an epic journey through space, and possibly time, ensues!

If you were expecting a subtle and slowly-building intrigue from Moon Mystery, you’ll probably be disappointed, as this is very much an action FPS before anything else. You’ll often find yourself dashing around small arenas while firing varying weapons at your electronic enemies, while also performing some pretty sweet powerslides while you’re at it. The gunplay itself is fine and the weapons have a surprising level of customisation and depth, though I’m unsure how much they actually affect your ability to point and shoot.

The enemies themselves are a bit monotonous, with the most common enemy being a bipedal robot of some colour or variation, though most of them blend together. Every now and again you may run into an elite enemy with some more oomph in their attacks or even a proper boss, but these are rare. The enemy AI (pun intended) is also not the brightest, so running around cover and ducking behind corners was often pretty effective. Make no mistake, however, that these enemies are weak. Oh no, if they do actually hit you or you get stuck in a bad place, you will be highly-educated space cheddar in no time.

In terms of locations and stages, Moon Mystery does offer a very impressive array of locales to visit and fight through, ranging from the titular Moon to alien facilities and the depths of space. I was a bit sad that we spent relatively little time on the actual Moon, though. The game also has a habit of adding odd vehicle sections every now and again. You may find yourself driving a car, flying a spaceship, or even delving into the watery depths à la Subnautica, only to never experience said mode of transport again. I don’t really mind this, as this is made by a small dev team, but they do seem a bit wasted and unpolished.

The interplay between Sam and Toby is also not the best. While the voice acting is fine, if a bit rough, the voice lines had a weird habit of playing a bit early. For example,Sam will exclaim about some device or event about fifteen seconds before I even see what's going on. Dialogues also often cut each other out if I progressed too far too quickly, cutting off the previous sentence to start a new one.

In addition to awesome powerslides and guns, our hero also has some skills of his own to unlock. As you defeat enemies and progress, you earn both credits (which can also be found in the levels) and experience. With the credits, you can buy and customise your weapons at weapon stations — some of which are annoyingly far apart — and experience can be used to unlock new skills. Now, I say skills, but they do vary a bit. For example, one skill is the ability to dodge out of the way of incoming fire, whereas another is slowing down time for a limited span. I played on the Hard difficulty and didn’t really unlock or use many skills but they were a fun idea if nothing else.

When not fighting for his life against the robotic hordes, Sam can usually be found trying to melt an iced-over door or pointing beams of light at receptors in the game’s puzzle sections. These pop up every now and again, often feeling a bit separate from the normal run-and-gun fun. The puzzles are pretty easy and don’t take too long, so they are harmless enough, however, I do argue they feel a bit… out of place.

Graphically the game is pretty stellar. While the levels themselves can be a bit linear and monotonous, some of the backdrops are breathtaking. The enemies can be a mixed bag, as stated earlier, but the look itself is not bad. The guns are very detailed and while you’ll not find laser rifles in the armoury, the armaments we have are good enough for the job. You are limited to a set of three at a time, though.

In terms of performance, I had little issues and the game ran smoothly, even when there were a few more enemies on screen than normal. However, I did have an issue with the game suddenly crashing during gameplay, though I’m unsure what caused it. In both cases (at the time of writing) I was able to continue pretty much where I started, but it’s not the best experience regardless.

Moon Mystery seems somewhat confused about what it wants to offer. It has elements of a detailed shooter, a puzzle title, an adventure, and even a bit of horror, but struggles to make them into a cohesive whole. Like a theme park, we meander through shootouts, underwater treasure hunts, laser puzzles, and back to fighting without there being much rhyme or reason to our actions. Now, I do realise this is an indie title, and I am impressed by the many systems the devs have implemented. I just feel the game could have done with a bit more focus on one of these elements. I’m also disappointed that spoilers: the moon wasn’t even haunted.