To the Moon

The Good
The story is well thought out and the occasional humor is welcome.

The Bad
I wish it was a bit longer.

The Bottom Line
This is one of my favorite games. It honestly brought tears to my eyes when I reached the end.

The Good
A guy I know has this listed on his blog, so I downloaded the demo. Which had me quickly hooked. It's kind of hokey to start off with, but draws you in fairly quickly and by the time the demo ends you are left wanting more. So I paid the full price and got a very nice email from the author.

But it only gets better after that. As I was playing it I found tears leaking from my eyes (courtesy of some really well-crafted music) and later on I had to keep some tissues handy and by the end I had given up on tissues and was just wiping my eyes on my sleeve. I don't think I am very easily moved but the music put me in a very vulnerable place without my even being aware of it.

There are two characters, with a fairly interesting dynamic (there is apparently a sequel in the works, which I will surely buy) and you can play as either, so some replay value there, also a very well-crafted story so lots of interest in watching to see how all the story elements are put in place and gradually revealed. So plenty of replay value, I think.

The Bad
This is an interactive story, pure and simple. If you are not a fan of these, you may want to give this title a miss. It's a very good story with a huge amount of heart, but the game play itself is completely linear and consists of hidden objects and a few very simple mini-games.

While I found the graphics entirely charming, others may not feel the same. This title will run on even the poorest hardware, even on-board graphics cards.

However, users with a better sound card and speakers will get the best of this, as the awesome sound track may just melt your heart. But if you are not a huge fan of tear-jerking music you may not appreciate the simple and emotional melodies.

Also there is no spoken dialogue, which may well be a detraction for some.

And, anyone who did not enjoy Inception, Memento, or even that episode of Seinfeld where everything goes backwards may not appreciate the well-crafted story. In short, this is a great story but it may not be for everyone.

Finally, it is very short at about 4 hours I think. Not a huge deal in my opinion, but if you were looking for something epic this is definitely not in that category.

The Bottom Line
This is another great example of how less can often be more, there is no flash to this, simply an example of how a pure story-driven experience with some very well-crafted music can be put together by a small team. In fact, I cannot think of anyone apart from an Indie who would even try to bring something like this to market. It is obviously a labour of love that took years to bring about.

So even though this is minimalism at its best, I do not think anyone will feel in any way cheated after playing this. It delivers a rich and moving experience, and I felt the better for having played it. But the demo is free and offers a good sample of what the game is and is about, so there is no real cost to try it. If you liked Braid, the graphics are very much the same (but not the game play!).

So I think anyone who enjoys finely crafted games with a great story may like this.

There is minimal adult content but due to the nature of the story probably not a good choice for younger players, despite what the quality of the graphics implies.