Moon Hunters Review

<p class&equals;"western">I&&num;8217&semi;m the type with a narrative-itch&comma; always wanting to scratch it furiously as though it&&num;8217&semi;s swelling from a stinging nettle&period; My favourite game is narrative-focused&comma; I often buy games that have a strong story in them &lpar;even if their mechanics is lacking&rpar; and the more memorable games each year are more often than not due to their writing&period; So when <em>Moon Hunters<&sol;em> hit Kickstarter&comma; I backed it straight away&comma; allured by the promise to forge my own myth&period; Sadly&comma; sometimes&comma; the mental picture of Kickstarter doesn&&num;8217&semi;t match the reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"gvHoM1S1CEo" title&equals;"First Impressions Review - Moon Hunters"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;gvHoM1S1CEo"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;gvHoM1S1CEo&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"First Impressions Review - Moon Hunters"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;moonhuntersgame&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><strong>Moon Hunters<&sol;strong><&sol;a> is a top-down action game with a narrative focus and some RPG elements&comma; created by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;kitfoxgames&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Kitfox Games<&sol;a> after a successful Kickstarter&period; You play as one of five worshippers of the moon &lpar;or a sun cultist if you&&num;8217&semi;re of that disposition&rpar; who faces a crisis of faith as after one religious feast the moon does not rise&period; You must then venture out and find out what became of it&semi; while also forging your own legend to join the stars with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">This legend is carved through your actions alone&period; Sometimes a scenario will present itself like two people boasting their beauty&comma; a hermit approaching you or finding a bubbling stew in an abandoned camp&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll pick between two one-word choices and then you&&num;8217&semi;ll get ability increases &lpar;that affect combat activities&rpar; or a trait that unlocks future action options &lpar;e&period;g&period; stumbling into a cave with no concern for safety&comma; care or logic requires bravery&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111110" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111110" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-111110" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;04194637&sol;MoonHunters11&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111110" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Sometimes the scenarios you stumble upon will stick with you on future adventures&period; After defeating a creature guarding the gates &&num;8211&semi; to what I can only presume to be the underworld &lpar;there was a lot of screaming&comma; I think&quest;&rpar; &&num;8211&semi; I gained the ability to talk to the dead for that campaign and future ones&period; As well as this&comma; you can unlock the Sun Cultist and Songweaver &lpar;additional costumes and astrological symbols&rpar;&period; In addition&comma; your legacy will be remembered as your character will have their own tale of achievements among the stars&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">My only grumble at the game&&num;8217&semi;s focus&comma; and it is a relatively minor one&comma; is it rarely feels impactful&period; For all the choices you do&comma; the game seems to forget to give you a reason to show empathy for its population&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll let people die in the desert without water&comma; crumpling up their last note to their family&comma; and never quite have that dramatic moment of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;oh god&comma; what have I done&quest;”&period; Even the dramatic ending leaves a feeling of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;well&comma; that happened&period;” Despite this these concerns can be hand-waved away as being tales about the heroes and not the people around them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Fortunately these heroes distinguish themselves in the gameplay&period; It is a top-down action game where each hero gets three abilities that may be upgraded at traders in exchange for glowing blue rocks &lpar;which hopefully aren&&num;8217&semi;t radioactive&rpar;&period; This simplistic design allows for players who are more interested in the myth-weaving the game promises to just dive into that aspect&period; The short nature of the game &lpar;about 1 – 1 &half; hours long&rpar; contributes to this&comma; allowing you to replay over and over to tell different tales&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111112" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111112" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-111112" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;04195045&sol;Moon-Hunters-21&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111112" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Those looking for a game that&&num;8217&semi;ll push you to the edge will sadly remain disappointed&period; The game is pretty easy and has no difficulty sliders&period; In addition&comma; the AI is less than satisfactory as sometimes enemies will run aimlessly into a rock&comma; allowing them to be plinked from behind&period; However&comma; sometimes the enemies will have the advantage&comma; as every so often hit-detection with attacks wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t work quite right and it&&num;8217&semi;ll miss without reason&period; Overall&comma; it feels generally unsatisfying to defeat foes due to these awkward touches with nothing noticeably positive from it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I wish I could say this is where the awkward programming ends&period; Sadly the game is not well optimized because it takes a bizarre amount of time to load up &lpar;about 10 minutes for my computer&rpar;&period; In addition to this&comma; the game frequently crashes&semi; often the autosaving feature saves me from rage-quitting the game and deleting it from my library&period; While there is online multiplayer&comma; disappointingly this comes in the form of setting up your own server rather than integrating with Steam &lpar;although this is likely in favour of DRM-free copies&rpar;&period; Fortunately local co-op is an option&comma; but it generally makes for a frustrating time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although my frustrations are eased by an aesthetic that is just beautiful to look upon&comma; each of the cutscenes and character portraits are done in a beautiful watercolour style that offers characterisation of the population that the narrative doesn&&num;8217&semi;t quite offer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111113" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111113" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-111113" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;04195127&sol;Moon-Hunters-31&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111113" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Moon Hunters&comma; Kitfox Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I wanted to like this game more than I did&comma; but it is wounded too much&semi; Alas&comma; it isn&&num;8217&semi;t brought down by a single Achilles Heel but a large collection of smaller troublesome injuries&period; The crashing&comma; the poor optimisation&comma; the AI&sol;collision difficulties are all problems that bright the game down badly&comma; but the coup de grace is the inability of the narrative to bring me into its world&period; Despite interaction and affecting the population&comma; I never felt invested with what was going on or that I&&num;8217&semi;m even connected to it&period; I may as well of been looking at <em>Moon Hunters<&sol;em> from the other-side of a one-way mirror&comma; putting my hand to the glass of which it would never see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">All these are potentially small things&comma; but together they made the hunt for the moon tiresome&period; If you are prowling for a chance to carve a tale&comma; perhaps <em>The Yawhg<&sol;em> would be a better game to track down&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;