Perhaps relies too heavily on environmental storytelling tropes, but succeeds in excelling in almost every other department. Will get DLC soon to address premature ending. Really surprised me.
Going to need a bigger buggy to deliver this moon.
Deliver Us The Moon, a product of Kickstarter, is probably the most epitomic example of game environmental storytelling I've ever seen. Good and bad.
It's a bonanza - we have 'why were you recording?' audiotapes, dramatic hologram depictions of key events (these are contextualised, though), 'press a button to have technology explained to you' exhibits, log entries that detail story beyond what you see, door codes and massive, line-ignoring A4 comments scrawled everywhere. None are bad per se, except perhaps for my pet hate device - the comment on the back of a drawn likeness of a character, asking ' visionary or dictator?'
By which I mean to say, the storytelling commits my cardinal sin of breaching any effort at being verisimilitudinous by constantly taking the not-too-subtle route. Instead of leaving you to work out anything of its world through the environment, it's very keen to explain every nook and cranny with its log book, audio diaries and notes to sometimes absurd degrees.
Make a Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator film, you cowards.
So it's not Gone Home in my book, but though the environmental storytelling can be grating in that respect, it is consistently of high quality. As I proceeded, particularly on the moon, my initial misgivings became less and less significant due to its overwhelming atmosphere and good pace.
Everything is on point here. It's superbly well acted and you care about the various personal stories it tells. The presentation can be nothing short of amazing. The realisation of the space elevator to the moon is incredible and the various sights and sounds inside the stations made it a very compelling alternative to your 'more fi than sci' spaces in your Dead Spaces, Preys and Bioshocks. The music spectacularly captures the grandeur of space and the lunar surface. I particularly love the credit tracks. Aside from the gorgeous vistas, a lot of detail is given to the animations and cutscenes. What I was initially worried would be a more budget effort felt anything but. There is evidently a lot of expertise and love poured into the game.
One thing that contributed to the budget suspicion initially was its use of third-person. It's something I eventually warmed to when it was reintroduced later on, but I must say that I always found first-person so much more effective. Third-person can expose a clunkiness in animation and movement you'd otherwise not be exposed to and can deprive you of immersion at key points. The game switches for you semi-arbitrarily, but admittedly with a purpose you can more or less reason out throughout. First-person particularly enhances zero gravity and certain other setpieces, and I'd argue could have done so with other sections too. Seeing the idle animations on the moon surface almost makes third-person worth it. Perspective switching is certainly a unique trick the game pulls.
Some sections are exhaust-ing.
Leaning so heavily on linear exploration, you can imagine it's an experience more on the quiet side, but it has more than its fair share of setpieces that excite. They usually rely a bit too heavily on conveniently resupplying a few-seconds-from-death oxygen meter for dramatic purposes, but they're fittingly tense. There's a QTE section that really has no place here, but thankfully it's a single usage deal. I assume, like a lot of things with the game, that it was especially done to reflect a time-sensitive situation, but I wish they'd tried to achieve the effect another way. The game does love to try its hand at everything!
In terms of its mechanical hand, it's always moving. It has very light puzzle elements, but they're fairly logical and frictionless with little intention of impeding progress for long. I loved using the power tool laser, the Portal-like companion sphere and the moon explorer. None of it feels contrived. They feel like natural tools to have at your disposal and are all massively fun to use. It really helps break up the otherwise predominant object-hunting and reading of the exploration.
It's worth mentioning that I had some technical issues in the form of frame drops at particular points - namely, the lunar surface and various third-person sections. I was worried it might be a persistent problem, but it didn't dominate my experience. Perhaps if I'd shifted various settings down from max I wouldn't have encountered issues at all. I'm too stubborn.
A myth I do declare! Climate change will actually make the Earth appear BLUER.
I thought the length very reasonable with a suitable twist to bring some finality to proceedings, but it comes to no surprise to me that some think it stops just as it's getting started. It all makes more sense if you visit the original Kickstarter page and see that it was initially going to be episodic. Free DLC that concludes the story is apparently well into development, so you needn't be as worried about reports of its short length or premature ending as you might be. A big question of how long the expansion will be hangs over this, of course, but I can only report currently how much I like its initial offering. As high quality and of reasonable length as it already stands, anything more is simply a bonus!
Overall, it's a game that perhaps relies too heavily on environmental storytelling tropes, but succeeds in excelling in almost every other department. I'm already eagerly awaiting the DLC conclusion to the story here. If it's significant in its length and comparable in quality, we could be looking at a substantial package that goes way beyond the great experience Deliver Us The Moon already offers. As it stands, it's an expectation-destroying title that expertly executes linear exploration and its depiction of a near future. It really surprised me.
