First Thirty: Moon

Submitted by Stephen Munn on March 5, 2009 – 8:44 pm8 Comments

Moon box front If you played Dementium: The Ward, you know that it’s hard to play Moon without some pretty high expectations. Dementium was a game that did things with the Nintendo DS that I didn’t expect, not just in terms of presentation but in genuine scariness. Things the Nintendo DS wanted and needed. Things Nintendo DS players deserve.

So far, Moon’s not as scary as Dementium. I’m not sure why danger on the moon doesn’t seem as scary to me as mutilated zombie things lunging at me in a darkened mental hospital… wait, did I just say that?

Moon is somehow an even tighter, cleaner package than Dementium. The guys at Renegade Kid have refined their already impressive engine, now called Renegade 2.0. There’s a lot more detail with no noticeable loss in framerate, the controls are incredibly tight, and you get to control a robot tank and see through its eyes.

I am not even kidding you. You get this thing called an RAD and you use it like a weapon. The camera drops inside it. You roll around like a little tank, rumble pack grinding along the whole way. It is awesome, even if it doesn’t make sense to feel the wheels rolling along when you’re just looking through a camera. You use it to crawl through small spaces and reach switches and things, kind of like Samus’ morph ball form in the Metroid games.

I’m surprised it took me this long to mention Metroid. For me, sci-fi first person games always make me think of Metroid, and I don’t think it’s a troubling comparison. I had a lot of trouble getting into Metroid Prime Hunters for Nintendo DS, despite how good looking the game is. I didn’t enjoy it because I found the story stupid and the enemies very unimaginative. I’m looking forward to the kind of compelling mind suck I found in Dementium, now in a sci-fi setting with Moon. So far, it’s great. It opens like an epic sci-fi film and kills all your friends, then hands you a gun and brushes you into the fray. The precise controls mean if you’ve played Dementium or Hunters, you’ll be right at home. There’s lots of story and voice to keep you in the game, much of it in Metal Gear-style dialogs that pop up, faces and all.

The only complaint I have so far is how gritty some of the sound effects are through headphones, but I’ll have to see how that turns out as I progress through the game. I’ll have more when I get there.

Tags: Mastiff, moon, renegade kid

Wiiboy101uk

come on repeat textures anouing music etc, yes it has tight controls and strong tech but repetitive repeat graphics and sound and a very limited over all experience and no online multi player its over rated its no metroid hunters and i think this relex the SNUB that is the nintendo fan wii expect better CHINA TOWN WILL SELL BIG
StephenJMunn

While your comment barely qualifies as English, it sounds to me like you're regurgitating minor complaints from a handful of reviews rather than speaking from experience. Did you buy the game? Have you played it? Have you even heard of it before, or are you just taking the pullquotes from the bottom three reviews on Metacritic and throwing them out in one meandering, poorly-proofread run-on sentence?
miche

I played it and didn't enjoy it at all. You killed the same enemies over and over in the same level over and over. The story well, incredibly bland and generic. Some people seem to love it but this is a case of a game selling poorly because it's really just a poor game.
william745

i to enjoyed Dementium: The Ward for it's scare factor. i didnt know this was buy the same group of guys i might have to give it a try after i kill my backlog a bit more.
StephenJMunn

I'm a couple of hours into the game now and I'm enjoying it quite a bit more. I've found the audio sounds better without headphones, and I've really gotten the hang of the way the game leads you through missions. Keep an eye out for the full review.
StephenJMunn

The game has had some good reviews so far. I'm not far enough in to speak to “the same level” arguments, so far there's been quite a bit of variety. I think sales and game quality aren't linked more than casually… people buy Madden and Need for Speed every year, don't they? At the same time, games that get almost universal acclaim like Okami take years to make numbers.

One day I'll get a solid grasp on what factors make a game sell (price point, release date, economic factors, competing releases, ad campaigns) and I'll make a million selling my book.
StephenJMunn

I'm a couple of hours into the game now and I'm enjoying it quite a bit more. I've found the audio sounds better without headphones, and I've really gotten the hang of the way the game leads you through missions. Keep an eye out for the full review.
StephenJMunn

The game has had some good reviews so far. I'm not far enough in to speak to “the same level” arguments, so far there's been quite a bit of variety. I think sales and game quality aren't linked more than casually… people buy Madden and Need for Speed every year, don't they? At the same time, games that get almost universal acclaim like Okami take years to make numbers.

One day I'll get a solid grasp on what factors make a game sell (price point, release date, economic factors, competing releases, ad campaigns) and I'll make a million selling my book.