Moons of Madness
A mysterious signal has been recorded coming from the red planet. The message confounded Orochi scientists. Their analysts broke it down and determined it was of intelligent origin. Orochi management immediately concluded that the discovery was too sensitive for public knowledge and moved to keep it hidden. In secret, the corporation began construction of Trailblazer Alpha, a state-of-the-art Mars research outpost designed to identify the true nature of the message. You are Shane Newehart, an engineer stationed at Trailblazer Alpha and your security clearance means you are completely unaware of the existence of the mysterious signal. Your job is simply to keep the lights on until the transport ship Cyrano arrives bringing with it a new team to take over your duties. Soon you discover strange and unusual setbacks. Crucial systems are malfunctioning, the greenhouse is filled with a strange mist and the rest of your team has yet to return from their EVA mission. Things are starting to fall apart. You begin seeing and hearing things that aren’t there. Visions, hallucinations – or is that even what it is? Is this real… or are you slowly descending into madness?
Game Discussion
Steam User 19
Moons of Madness is many things when we're talking about it's genre. Space exploration, walking simulator, fantasy-adventure. But this is not a horror game. Not even close. A decent story with two respective endings. A five hour mini-series if you are determined to finish it at one go.
This game is also great when it comes to puzzles and guiding you around. You're not lost when game gives you control inside closed spaces, which is a great thing considering the genre.
Gameplay feels clunky with a lot of performance issues. But short playtime covers it up. If the main storyline was a 1-2 hour longer than it already is, it would make me throw up halfway. But nevertheless, this is a thumbs up for me. If you love Lovecraftian elements like me, this can satisfy your hunger for a period of time.
Steam User 15
Good horror/walking game. Very good lovecraft space game. If that makes any sense. Well worth a play if you like lovecraft or horror games. Oh. And you'll need to electrocute yourself in the basement if you want a perfect game. Trust me it's annoying to start over for 1 achievement. There also 2 endings. One where you do something. and the other where you do nothing but once the game ends you can replay your choice. You'll need to do that for a perfect game as well.
Steam User 9
A Cosmic Nightmare Unleashed - "Moons of Madness" Review
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
"Moons of Madness" is a first-person cosmic horror game developed by Rock Pocket Games and published by Funcom. It successfully marries Lovecraftian horror with the isolation of space exploration, offering players a tense and atmospheric experience that explores the thin line between sanity and madness.
Storyline 7.5/10
The game follows the journey of Shane Newehart, an engineer stationed on Mars in the not-so-distant future. As mysterious events begin to unfold at the research facility, Shane is faced with unexplainable occurrences and supernatural phenomena that challenge his grip on reality. The storyline is a strong suit of the game, with a well-crafted narrative that slowly unravels the mysteries of Mars while delving into Shane's troubled past.
Gameplay 6/10
"Moons of Madness" blends exploration, puzzle-solving, and light horror elements. While the puzzles are engaging and fit well within the narrative, the gameplay occasionally suffers from a lack of variety and can feel repetitive. The game's reliance on walking simulators at times may not appeal to players seeking more intense action sequences.
Graphics and Atmosphere 8/10
The game excels in creating a hauntingly beautiful and eerie atmosphere. The Martian setting is rendered in meticulous detail, and the Lovecraftian influences are vividly portrayed through disturbing visuals and surreal landscapes. The lighting and sound design further enhance the sense of dread and isolation, making it a visually stunning experience.
Horror Elements 8/10
"Moons of Madness" excels in delivering psychological horror rather than relying on jump scares. It builds tension through its narrative, visuals, and eerie ambiance, creating a constant feeling of unease. The sense of impending dread and the fear of the unknown are central to the game's success in the horror genre.
Conclusion 7.5/10
"Moons of Madness" is a gripping cosmic horror experience that blends Lovecraftian themes with the isolation and mystery of space exploration. Its engaging narrative, eerie atmosphere, and psychological horror elements make it a standout title in the genre. While the gameplay may feel somewhat repetitive, it's the journey into the depths of madness and the unraveling mysteries of Mars that truly shine in this game. If you're a fan of atmospheric horror and don't mind a slower-paced experience, "Moons of Madness" is an excellent choice for a chilling and cosmic journey into the unknown.
Steam User 7
Moons of madness is a sci-fi horror game where you and your team are attempting to build a habitat on mars for experiments and the future survival of the human race.
One of the experiments mutates and starts taking over the habitat. Your team and you are attempting to stop mutation but another problem arises and some kind of monster is also now roaming the habitat. Things start to get worse the more you learn that your mission isn’t exactly what mission control had in mind.
The gameplay is very basic and is more of a walking simulator type with a couple of key items to pick up to progress the story. There are no collectibles or weapons of any kind, other than progression items and a few notes you find. There are a few enemies that are easily avoidable but will chase if triggered.
The sound, voice acting, and effects are very good and do their job at keeping you in the story. The graphics look nice and the atmosphere of all of areas was well done.
Some annoyances I had were quick time events on a particular section of the game. I don’t like these and you had to aim at certain areas to get the quick time to trigger.
The sand worms also were annoying until you figured out that there was climbing areas.
Overall the game was okay. The story was decent but the gameplay was rather boring and I just wanted to speed run the last half of the game get it over with.
Played on steam deck. Game was verified but it ran poorly in quite a few areas where the frame rate would drop from 60 to 15 from unknown reasons and have both the cpu and gpu pegged at near 100%
Grab it on sale
6.5/10
Steam User 6
The short review:
Walking simulator. Looks nice but doesn't run all that well. Great voice-acting. Reasonable dialogue. So-so story. Only really scary if you're the kind of person that is afraid of their own shadow, or other frightening things such as: cute puppies or cotton candy.
Mediocre game-play that only just qualifies as interactivity, but can be excused because it's a walking simulator and everyone knows they never have good game-play. A walking simulator is as a walking simulator does. Well, that's bull-sh*t, as they clearly tried here, they just didn't do a very good job of it.
Whilst it does show some signs that they could have done more with it...uh..well, they didn't, so.....
It's okay for what it is, but you know, take it with a pinch of salt as to how much of a horror experience those gushing reviews reckon it offers. This is about atmosphere and narrative, with a few poor jump-scares that don't make up for it being fairly woeful when it comes to anything else. I bought it in a cheap bundle, and it isn't awful, but at full-price I don't think I'd be anywhere near as "positive" about it.
The long review:
Not really much to add here....
Story-wise this is a mash up three elements that never come together all that satisfactorily. If you think the works of HP Lovecraft isn't a tired narrative well to be drinking from, and that transplanting it into space and science-fiction doesn't make it even more crappy, then this might not bother you.
Add in some corporate intrigue that goes nowhere, elements from The Thing that also go nowhere, and a downer ending that's a damp squib, and you have an experience that's somewhat underwhelming.
To me Lovecraft is a boring starting point to build a tale from as it's been done to death, and this bungs in the necronomicon and cthulu to a sci-fi tale set on mars. Moons of Madness doesn't do anything new or interesting with these stale building blocks other than the setting. Which feels pretty stupid and anti-climactic by the time the end credits roll.
It's a linear quest that negates any ambiguity to the point of it, as you are funnelled along to a conclusion without any means to alter it. Having reached the destination of the ending, it wasn't much of a pay-off for the several hours it took to get there. Here's a free tip: go make a cup of coffee when you finish this, as it takes about 10 un-skippable minutes to get through the credits, with no final end-scene to add any merit to the sh*t ending.
The game-play is so basic as to only just qualify for that description. One super scarrrrrrry chase-sequence highlights how bad it is. Because my controller was having an issue I was using mouse and keyboard (which I dislike doing) at the time and couldn't physically reach the run button. A monster started chasing me and I outran it by....uh....not running, because I couldn't, you know, actually do that.
But it didn't matter, because the creature had arthritis or something, and barely even made an effort despite me WALKING AWAY FROM IT. Yes! That is soooo what I want from a horror game. Such a sustained air of tension and pant-sh**ing terror......
Oh, hey! It has puzzles, but they're not particularly rewarding or clever, and they're never integrated into the action. Meaning you have this weird pacing of "monster chasing you"...."monster disappears"....."nothing happens"......"do a puzzle"....."nothing happens"......."jump-scare"......"nothing happens"....."puzzle"......rinse and repeat.
Every aspect is clearly sectioned off from the others, and as this becomes apparent you get a sense of where they will, or won't, be able to fit in action sequences. Even when they do fit in some action it's simplistic stuff in a world where the likes of Alien Isolation and Amnesia The Bunker have shown how horror can be when you have AI that isn't thick as pig-sh*t.
Or that stealth section towards the end where if caught the enemy knocks you to the floor, and then you have a micro-second to try and run away before it grabs you again and kills you. Why did they do this? It's almost impossible to escape, so why they didn't just have it kill you the first time I don't know. To paraphrase Chumbawumba "I get knocked down, I get back up again. Then I immediately get knocked down again, and I die"
Really lame padding, as are most of these "exciting" sections. Same goes for the frights, which often aren't even in your field of vision, and upon hearing the musical cues you end up having to look for the reason why you should be scared. By which point in time you've missed it. There was at least three times where they messed this up, as, unlike most titles trying to spook you, they never force you to look somewhere and experience it.
So, yeah, pretty average in my book and mostly missing the mark as a horror title. But here's the thing: I said before that it showed some signs of promise that it ultimately didn't deliver, and there's one aspect they could have done much more with.
Your character has a computer on their arm, and at various points you use this to access some systems such as security cameras. The implementation here is quite simplistic, when it could have been used for proper stealth by providing distractions, or slowing the player down as you hack doors / equipment to cage or kill pursuing enemies.
You know, like SOMA did, by having carefully crafted level design that left the player no choice but to get stuck in. The odd times that this game comes close to being slightly more expansive it always fails to deliver at a level beyond "my first horror experience for scaredy-cats".
In the end it's a well-produced narrative that started off reasonably engaging but punctured its appeal as it went on. Anyone who says this is scary should be embarrassed at themselves and then go play The Bunker, which will probably frighten them so much that they die from having sh*t our their entire insides. As the gulf is so big between this type of "game" and a real one with properly developed mechanics.
Certainly not a game to be purchased at full-price for me. Even if it is better in many ways than most in the genre, it still feels under-cooked compared to titles that either had my pulse pounding or really creeped me out. Neither of those things happened with Moons of madness. It's recommended, but only just.
Steam User 5
Well, we got legs, but clumsy consolish movement. Got nice 'manual' animations, but dumb controls and checkpoints. Got some puzzles, but the bugs too.
Nevertheless, the Game is worth your time at least cause of the visual quantity, for sure.
Gameplay:
combat mechanics 2/10
atmosphere 8/10
Gameplay as immersive horror 6/10
Story 8/10
Graphics 6/10
Sounds & music 7/10
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Biopunk cosmic Cthulhu sci-fi conspiracy? YES!
Steam User 6
One of the best games I've played of it's nature. First thing, it is really a classic point and click adventure with a smooth modern finish. If you have played Conarium or any of the other Iceberg interactive adventures and enjoyed, this is going to be a real treat. Lovecraftian Horror done right. The game ran smooth as silk for me and I thought the movement controls were great, better then most games of this nature and very immersive. The puzzles were nice, I only died once or twice. No real traps if you keep an ear out for them. Get it!