S&S Indie Review: To The Moon

Title: To The Moon
Format: PC
Release Date: Sept 10, 2012
Publisher: Freebird Games
Developer: Freebird Games
Price: $9.99
ESRB Rating: E

 To The Moon caught me by surprise, I didn't expect much out of it going in, but I was soon eating my words.  It turned out to be an emotionally driven game with a beautiful and touching story, that would make even the strongest person feel something.

Presentation and Story:
The story of To The Moon is filled with mystery and romance, you play as Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts.  You're sent to Johnny's house, a dying man, too help him fulfill his last wish.  He wants to go to the moon, but he himself doesn't know why he wants too.  Over the course of progressing through his memories, you'll come to find out the special reasons why.  I love how intricately woven the story is, unraveling more and more layers as you go along. Going through each stage of his life, and seeing what he goes through all for love, is just astonishing.  This is one of the most beautiful stories I've played, not only this year, but in my time of playing games.  The overall narrative of the game feels extremely authentic, and I've never experienced anything like it. The writing has a lot of comedy, even among all the romance scenes, the developers never get too dark.    The game is presented through cool 16-bit style scenes and environments.  It reminds me of Final Fantasy VI, in terms of graphics.  There isn't any voice acting in the game, but it didn't change any feelings I had towards the the game.  The music more than makes up for it, the spectacular piano featured score will cause goose-bumps to appear in no time.  

Core Gameplay:
The gameplay is pretty simple in the game.  You point and click your way through Johnny's despairing life.  In each memory, you have to find memory links that help you delve deeper into each memory of John.  There are a few other gameplay elements that get introduced throughout your playthrough.  A number of picture-puzzles will try and slow you down, but they aren't that challenging to say the least.  There is a cool indicator next to the puzzles which shows you how many turns you actually need to finish it, its a minor addition that offers up a little sense of achievement when you get solve the puzzles in the least amount of moves.  The gameplay really resembles other storytelling focused games like Heavy Rain, the game is like a fully interactive movie.  There are a few blunders with the game though, with a light shooting sequence.  This brief sequence doesn't hurt the game at all, because you'll come to find that the game focuses most of its time on telling you a great story.

Final Thoughts:
To The Moon tells one of the best romance stories I've ever witnessed, not only in games, but in general.  The game isn't very long, but 3 and a half hours of this game is all I needed. The ending of the game really pulled a lot of emotion out of me, I never really knew a game could do this too me, but it did.  Anyone who wants a fantastic experience should definitely play through this one.  

S&S Rating: 9.75/10

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