Game Review: To The Moon

Note: Game reviews will contain spoilers.

Stories Without Pages

To the Moon is another piece that I would file under being an interactive story as opposed to a game (to recap, my definition of a game is something with rules that has win and loss conditions).  It is a very linear experience where you only really participate by searching the areas for objects of interest that allow you to progress to the next story point.  It also doesn’t appear to have any sort of branching story or a way to get different endings.  This does give it a strong and consistent narrative experience, but I feel that it does limit itself a bit by doing so.  I’d like to see interactive media of this type use the power of the medium a little bit more in order to expand the art, but overall I was satisfied with how the story was presented.

The Mind is Malleable

The basic premise of To the Moon is that technology has discovered a way to view and alter the memories of people.  Instead of using this for some nefarious purpose, the application of this technology that we see is to alter the memories of people to give them more happiness about their lives.  Apparently this memory alteration is permanent, and so to be kind to the patients, it is typically done while they are on their deathbed and are unconscious.  This particular story follows a man who wants to go to the moon and the two specialists who arrive to fulfill his wish.  You get to see them attempt to go about this by gradually stepping back through his memories and looking for his reasoning for going to the moon in the first place.

It unfolds at a fairly predictable pace, with a few twists thrown in that make the story compelling.  Perhaps it is the Chrono Trigger inspired graphics that hearken back to some fond memories of mine that kept me glued, but I could easily see others wishing rather to read a book instead.  It is obvious this was done with minimal production values, as the movement is very grid based and confining, plus the “find objects of significance before moving to the next area” gameplay element feels a bit contrived, but the look is consistent and the music lends itself well to the emotion that it is trying to convey.  The banter between the two specialists is amusing, but there wasn’t really anything that I found to be particularly noteworthy with the writing (not that many games really do).

An Inbetween Experience

I’m still not entirely sure where To the Moon occupies in my head.  It was an emotional story that was presented in an interactive entertainment environment, but there was nothing that really made us of the medium.  It could easily have worked in a TV/movie just as easily, but the creators decided to use an interactive method instead.  However, I enjoyed the story and effort was definitely put into the areas that mattered most to enforce that.  I found it to not be particularly accessible (I played it with a gamepad), but it was serviceable.  It feels like they added some “game”-type elements to it in order to have it there to gate the players progression, so any exploration that you get feels like it is forced as you hunt down what you need to advance the plot.  There is also a simple puzzle component that you need to do between each segment, but after a few I figured out the trick and it wasn’t very challenging or interesting after that.  So overall I would have to say that it was a good story that you felt like you were a bit more of a part of due to the slightly interactive nature, but beyond that it left me feeling like I wanted more from it.

Game Review: Journey

Note: Game reviews will contain spoilers.

It’s not a Game, It’s an Experience

First off, I would like to state that Journey isn’t a game so much as it is an experience.  I think this is an important distinction when it comes to entertainment media.  To me a game has a collection of rules that must be obeyed and a definite win and loss condition.  I have only played through Journey once (though I plan to again), and as far as I can tell, there isn’t a way to lose.   There are enemies in the game that when they hit you it causes you to lose some of your scarf (more on that later) but I didn’t really notice any way to actually die or fail (and searching the internet backs me up on this).

Short and Sweet

Journey is an odd but beautiful game.  You are a wanderer clad in a red cloak with a black mask, no apparent arms, and legs that end at a point.  You start off walking up a dune in a desert and upon reaching the top you notice a large mountain in the background with a bright light emanating from it.  This is your destination and the only hint the game gives you about what to do to proceed.  You can slide down steep hills (and there are several segments of the game solely devoted to sliding) and soon you find red pieces of fabric floating around as if they have a life of their own.  You learn that you can “talk” to these pieces of fabric and they will propel you upward.  There are also glowing pieces of fabric that you can collect that will give you a scarf and allow you to jump as long as you have the energy to do so (represented by a pattern on your scarf).  As you collect more of these your scarf will grow, representing your ability to be in the air more often.

The world of Journey is very beautiful.  The environments start out as sand swept dunes that are littered with ruins of an old civilization.  There are stone monuments that remind me of gravestones littered throughout.  In addition to the smaller pieces of red scarves, you eventually find larger ones that help guide you and occasionally give you a ride.  You also come across some stone monuments that come to life and float around, their one eye sending out a spotlight that illuminates any loose scarves before they are devoured.  It is these stone monsters that represent the only enemy type in the game.  Even without their ability to actually kill you, their presence evokes some fear and caution, as the music changes its tone and you feel small and helpless as they scour the area looking for you.  Eventually you move into snow, where your ability to jump is gradually drained by the cold, and finally the sky as you soar to your final destination.

Along the way, you can come across other people experiencing Journey.  You can only communicate in the most primitive of ways, using the same method of talking (which is just a single tone emitted with a button press) as you do with the other inhabitants (if you can call them that).  You can also recharge each others energies by standing close, as it appears the rule is that being close to any of the red pieces of cloth in the game will grant you this power.  It is a nice touch that you can do so with a fellow player, giving you incentive to stay near each other in order to help out.  I have to say that I enjoyed this form of simple multiplayer, with no chance of “griefing” as any person you encounter can only help and never hinder.

It’s not the Destination, It’s the Journey

Along the way you complete each section by activating several pillars next to a stone tablet.  These conveniently have spots at their base representing the pieces of scarf you can collect in the level, and illuminate for each one picked up.  After the pillars are activated, you kneel down in a sense of prayer and get a vision from a much larger figure dressed as you are but in white.  These visions represent the only thing that counts as an overarching story for the world and they seem to detail the past that lead to your summoning and eventually what you will have to face in the future, as if ordained by a prophecy that you are carrying out.  You also find additional pieces in the forms of wall carvings throughout.  I am not entirely sure what all transpired (there is no actual text at all, which I’m sure made localization a breeze), but it seems to suggest that a civilization harnessed some sort of power from the skies that eventually led to their downfall.  Obviously somewhat cryptic, but I think it gives it a bit of extra mystery to the strange, wonderful world you are traveling through.

Each segment has a particular game play style, though there isn’t anything drastically different between them.  The main thing you do reach the end by navigating through the environment, but there are segments that concentrate more on sliding or flying, and you have to avoid the flying stone monster in some areas which gives it some stealth type gameplay as well.  Ultimately, it keeps it different enough that you never really get tired and it is always a new experience.  And once you finally reach the end after your 2-3 hour journey, you get transported back to the beginning to experience it all over again (culminating with a list of the people you met along your way).  Due to its short length, I would highly recommend experiencing it in a single sitting.

I have to say that I greatly enjoyed my time playing Journey and will likely pick it up again at some point (which is rare for me to do).  If nothing else but to gaze at the environments some more or spend a little more time exploring them.  Definitely a good place for relaxation and contemplation and I think something that helps expand the realm a little bit of what constitutes electronic entertainment.