I'm going to preface this review with a little fact which will become important later on. In my adult life, I've cried at three films (Hero, Grave of the Fireflies and Letters From Iwo Jima) and have nearly cried at one game (The Walking Dead). When I say cried, I mean shed a tear or two, as is usually meant by the term. Remember this.
To The Moon is the story of a pair of technicians who work for a company which grants wishes. Essentially they strap someone to a machine, and alter their memories in order to help them to achieve this goal inside their memories only. As the title suggests, this particular job involves sending an old man to the moon, for an unspecified reason.
What subsequently follows is a story in which our two protagonists jump backwards through the old man's memories, until they can find a suitable place to implant the idea of becoming an astronaut. Now, actual gameplay is perhaps a little scarce, restricted to tile flipping puzzles between memories, and one very ill-judged platforming sequence. This is a valid criticism, as at the end of the day all you're really doing is driving the story forward, but when you consider the level of interaction in a lot of mainstream games at the moment is already pretty darn low, perhaps it can be forgiven.
All of this is almost irrelevant anyway, as the story that the game tells is one of the most beautiful pieces I've encountered, and deals with many complex issues that other games would never dare touch. Wonderfully it never explicitly tells you the subject in question, but it gives clues along the way and leaves you to figure it out for yourself. This is a common theme throughout the game, as (aside from the two protagonists) the characters involved already know the situation and as such don't spell out every key plot point to each other the whole time.
The writing is superb the whole way through, creating believable characters and some genuinely touching moments. It's also frequently very funny, through a mixture of sharp writing and playing with the stereotypes often associated with the style of graphics and game play used. That the writer is able to have these moments of true sadness combined with such great jokes and banter between the two main characters is impressive. The level of emotion they have managed to squeeze out of the pixel art is also impressive, and a great deal of subtext can be gleaned by simply looking at the way a character is behaving, even if all of the dialogue is text and not spoken.
The music, also, is fantastic and perfectly evokes the tone of the game at any particular time. The main song is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces I've heard, and its constant presence throughout the game is paramount to the entire experience.
And, to link this back to the first paragraph, I cried. Well, I didn't cry exactly, I pretty much wept. Full on tears streaming down my face, to the point that I actually had to stop playing for a bit just to compose myself. This happened twice, and threatened to happen again pretty soon after I'd finished the game as I thought about what I'd just played through. The combination of art, writing and music was so perfectly crafted, as was the story, that I couldn't help myself.
So. An overwhelming recommendation for this beautiful piece of art that the developers have created. If you only play one game for its story this year, make it this one, and try to play through it all in one go if you can (it takes about 3-4 hours). It's definitely worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment