{"id":759,"date":"2016-10-03T11:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T09:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/?p=759"},"modified":"2016-10-03T11:16:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T09:16:36","slug":"to-the-moon-review-memories-of-the-way-we-were","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/to-the-moon-review-memories-of-the-way-we-were\/","title":{"rendered":"To The Moon Review: Memories Of The Way We Were"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, we talked a little about Brothers<\/a> and games very like it.\u00a0 These titles are often experiences more than they are games.\u00a0 You get into them and you direct a protagonist, but you don\u2019t do much actual video gaming:\u00a0 there\u2019s no one to kill, there\u2019s no score to beat and \u2013 most tellingly, often, no way to really fail.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just you, the story and whatever medium the story passes through as it unfolds.\u00a0 Sometimes, this is a walking simulator, [you are in a 3d environment where you can roam around and encounter the story] sometimes, it\u2019s a text-driven experience where the narrative unfolds as a collection of still pictures and verbose writing, but sometimes \u2013 as is the case with To The Moon \u2013 the entire affair is top-down and looks remarkably like an old-school 16 bit RPG.<\/p>\n

At first, that sounds like a supremely odd thing to do, but it works here.\u00a0 It works because a lot of the story is conveyed by dialogue and RPG\u2019s can sometimes by very<\/em> dialogue heavy.<\/p>\n

The fact that dialogue carries To The Moon is quite important, because much of the game is framed around what people tell each other \u2013 the information that you have in your head versus the things that you tell other people.<\/p>\n

In the case of To the Moon, we learn, early on, that Johnny \u2013 our patient in this particular game \u2013 wants to go to the moon.\u00a0 It is his final wish.\u00a0 The one thing he wanted all his life and never got.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Johnny doesn\u2019t know why this is his final wish.\u00a0 He just wants it with all his might.<\/p>\n

\"Whenever<\/a>
Stepping back through Johnny’s life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>So, you \u2013 as a pair of future doctors with the ability to alter memories \u2013 step backward through Johnny\u2019s life, uncovering his secrets.\u00a0 For example:\u00a0 Johnny had a wife who passed away and she had her own particular foibles.<\/p>\n

This issue of communication starts up with her.\u00a0 She will do very particular things and question Johnny about those things.\u00a0 Johnny, of course, sees what is literally there, but River \u2013 his wife \u2013 is trying to evoke memories from long ago and far away which Johnny simply doesn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

These encounters \u2013 both with other people and when Johnny is alone, absolutely drive the story.<\/p>\n

And this, unfortunately, might be To the Moon\u2019s downfall with many an interested party.\u00a0 To the Moon is \u2013 first and foremost \u2013 a story about life and loss and how we experience our everyday lives.\u00a0 As a story it is a wonderful, dense revelation.\u00a0 Everything in To the Moon absolutely matters, from the placement of a line of dialogue to items that crop up time and again as the story unfolds.\u00a0 [Hans Christian Anderson\u2019s story \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes\u201d crops up very early and then \u2013 in a writing feat that is quite staggering for first time writer Ken Gao \u2013 it keeps showing up to drive the point home that we often perceive things very differently.]<\/p>\n

\"Throughout<\/a>
An “origami” puzzle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This very story-driven approach means that it is very light on actual gaming.\u00a0 There are \u2013 very occasionally \u2013 choices to make, but these tend to get swept along by the story.\u00a0 There are origami paper folding segments that drive home the themes of the story by showing \u2013 close-up \u2013 items that Johnny was attached to.\u00a0 There\u2019s even a \u201cboss battle\u201d of sorts that showcases what the engine can do, but most of this stuff is secondary to the plot.<\/p>\n

These rare attempts to add a gaming element to the story feel awkward and a little tacked on.\u00a0 The \u201cboss battle\u201d [a \u201cfight\u201d in a hallway over control of the simulation we inhabit] goes overlong and doesn\u2019t really yield anything constructive, except to show that yes, indeed, the simulation can break down, giving us glimpses of Johnny\u2019s internal horror.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, To the Moon completely succeeds.\u00a0 The sixteen bit style feels forced and awkward at first \u2013 you wonder if this wouldn\u2019t have been better as, perhaps, an all-text game, but then the style grows on you.\u00a0 Likewise, the music that propels the game is all spot on.\u00a0 Johnny played piano, and this particular instrument is used to great effect throughout the run-time of the game.<\/p>\n

\"To<\/a>
Oh, those horses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a game I love.\u00a0 Each time I come back to it, I discover something else to savour.\u00a0 Whether it is the simple friendship between Johnny and Nicholas or the endless banter between Eva and Neil, each play through is a pleasant revelation.<\/p>\n

I can almost wholeheartedly recommend this particular game to anyone who is willing to set aside four or so hours to experience all it has to offer.\u00a0 Though, this recommendation comes with a VERY giant caveat.<\/p>\n

To the Moon\u2019s story is utterly driven by emotion \u2013 a lot of the narrative is tied up in the fact that Johnny is going to die and that the limited time Eva and Neil have left to help him is critical.\u00a0 There\u2019s no timer here, but the things that you will experience through Johnny\u2019s lifetime all build on one another to create a very intense series of revelations that will hammer you quite hard if you\u2019re in the right frame of mind.<\/p>\n

Should you choose to play, you should probably make sure that you have a box of tissues handy.\u00a0 Tears will be shed.<\/p>\n

\n

I did a let\u2019s play of To the Moon.\u00a0 You can watch it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, we talked a little about Brothers and games very like it.\u00a0 These titles are often experiences more than they are games.\u00a0 You get into them and you direct a protagonist, but you don\u2019t do much actual video gaming:\u00a0 there\u2019s no one to kill, there\u2019s no score to beat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[18,128,19,108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}