Review: To the Moon

Well, friends, it's time to dust off this journal again.  My major creative projects of the last few months are pretty much finished and as per tradition I'm now plagued with a terrible head cold.  Since I was quarantined and feeling sorry for my poor body, I decided to splurge and buy a new game from Steam to while away the sickly hours.  I ended up settling on "To The Moon", an indie game from Free Bird Games that if nothing else looked intriguing enough for $10.

I'll just say it now:  you have to play this game.

Okay, okay, I should be a little more specific, because not EVERYONE will enjoy this game.  At least they won't if they expect complex gameplay.  It's fairly linear, there are only a couple of puzzles and not even hard ones at that, and there's really only one game mechanic that comes into play.  There's no fighting or dying, no complex maps you have to figure out.  At most, this is an interactive story. But man, what a story.

I want this house...that's all.

In the game, you play as two scientists who have a somewhat peculiar job: they visit the sick and dying to give them a chance to relive their lives in order to fulfill one wish.  The only catch is that all of this happens inside the patients' head, and because the process involved is so intense, it's the last thing the person will experience before dying.  In order to do this, the scientists must travel through the patients' memories, piecing and linking them together in order to plant the wish into their earliest memories to let them relive their lives.

The patient in question this time around is Johnny, who at the beginning of the game is simply an unconscious old man who had previously hired the agency to fulfill his wish of landing on the moon.  As the scientists travel backwards through his memories and learn about his life, they begin to have doubts and question the job they have been tasked to do.

And that's it.  That's all I can give away about the plot.  To give away any more would be to ruin the experience.  Rest assured though that this story is what makes most of this game and what keeps you clicking that mouse.  I finished it in about four hours, and I was glued to the screen the entire time.  This is a great example of just what games can do to tell a story effectively.  You are right there with the scientists, aloof and pragmatic to begin with, then swept up in Johnny's story.

In many ways, it reminds me of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".  What do we sacrifice by altering our memories?  Do we just try to forget the bad ones?  Again, I won't say much about the plot, but needless to say I was left with a very bittersweet feeling by the end of the game, wrapped up in the emotion of the moment, but also sad at the reality of it.

Rain always equals sad.

I should talk about what doesn't necessarily work with the game first, at least from the stand-point of what people won't enjoy this.  This game does not have a lot of action.  It actually teases you on fairly early in the game with a turn-based RPG style fight, but that's quickly revealed to be a joke (and a funny one at that).  The basic  gameplay is very simple:  pick up objects that will hold emotional memories, find trigger objects, travel back to an earlier memory, repeat the process.  The ultimate goal is to reach back to Johnny's childhood to convince him to want to be an astronaut, but it's a long journey.  I had no problem with this process, but I know of a few of my friends who wouldn't have the patience for this very linear and limited gameplay.  Mind you, compared to some other "interactive" stories I've played, this one is practically a sandbox.  You get to explore a lot more and it's far more enjoyable that way.

Okay, that's done with, let's talk about what DOES work.  First: the characters.  It would be very easy to just make Johnny the main focus, but every character that appears in the game is fleshed out and interesting.  In fact, the two characters I expected to be the least interested in, the scientists, ended up being two of my favourite characters.  Rather than make them cardboard cut-outs who only serve to move plot forward, they were extremely well written with witty personalities and were actually a great balance to the more serious storyline that they explore.  In fact, by being likeable and easy to relate to they actually enhanced the player's experience of the main story.

Which brings me to the humour and dialogue.  Good gravy, does this game get it right.  There were times when I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue.  Most of this comes from the two scientists, who are simply going about their jobs and not involved at first in some of the more dramatic story telling.  But everyone, right down to the most minor of characters, have incredibly natural sounding dialogue.  Not once did anything sound forced (I say "sound", even though the dialogue is in text form :D).

There are also a TON of geek references throughout.  They don't bother to explain most of them, either, which I found to be a nice touch.  The game takes place in the future as well, so many of the older memories have references in them that I remember experiencing in highschool such as computer labs or even the children's book series "Animorphs".  These little touches really helped add to the world of the game.

Another nice little touch of detail was the treatment of Johnny's memories.  People and things that are the most important to him are very clearly outlined, while other things like cars or acquaintances appear slightly blurrier or are even just a ghostly blob of static.

At the heart of all the humour, geek references, and crazy characters is the story of one man's life.  It's this story which really is the core of the game and keeps you clicking for more.  It's heartwarming at some points and heart wrenching at others, and goes places you don't always expect it to.  Like any life, it's not all happy memories, but nor are the sad ones simple.  They are incredibly complicated and tied to happier memories.

In the end, this is simply a beautiful game and if you want your heartstrings pulled at I would highly suggest you play it.  Even if you're not a fan of the interactive story, this might be one for you to try.  It's funny, it's gorgeous, it has a wonderful soundtrack and it might even make you tear up at some points if you're feeling particularly vulnerable.  I mean...I totally don't care about love...not at all...at any rate, buy this on steam, or the main website...just buy it.