So I recently just went through To The Moon for a second time, all in a span of a short amount of time. For those who haven't "played it", I would call it a 3 hour interactive movie. It's $10 on Steam or GOG, which I feel is worth the price for the experience. I definitely recommend it for the story and atmosphere that it gives. There will be major spoilers from here on out, and I urge you to experience it, and not get spoiled. Anyways...
The first time I went through To The Moon, my biggest complaint was that there wasn't any gameplay. That you walked around and clicked stuff till you could do the short puzzle to get to the next part. After going through it again in a much shorter time period, I found it to be necessary. Having to walk around and then take time to do a puzzle helped with the atmosphere. You get to a part that was sad, and you keep that feeling during the puzzle, wondering what the next memory is, since going backwards, you know that certain event has yet to occur. It's not meant to be a game, but more of an interactive experience, and it does that really well.
To The Moon invokes a number of different emotions from the person experiencing it, and has a number of different atmospheres. Before even diving into the memories, you get a creepy feeling from seeing all the different paper rabbits in the room and the lighthouse. You get sad moments such as Johnny sitting next to his wife's grave mourning, and later finding out he had suppressed memories of his Brother Joey, who died from getting run over from his Mothers car. The mood changes from each memory, from a happy scene of Johnny and River riding horses, to a more serious scene next to find out why that was going on.
The really great things are the themes presented. The relationship of River and Johnny is really fascinating the whole time. What seems to be a happy marriage shows various troubles at times, and that there was difficulties before. Even more is that the original reason for Johnny asking River out was for very selfish reasons, as Johnny wants to date someone Unique to stand out from the crowd. While selfish at first, at that point we know that it turns out to become something beautiful.
The biggest thing is the end. River was the reason for how things turned out, and the two doctors figure out that if they are to give Johnny's dying wish, they must remove her from his life. This presents a creepy tone, as Neil doesn't want to do it, and is trying to get to Eva to stop her from it. We get a scene where two people who are just black fuzz pull her away, which for me was really uncomfortable because of the implication of bullying. Even with Eva saving Joey, Neil doesn't like what happened.
The last short bit shows the change of memories, with everything working out, as both Johnny and River go to the moon, and still get married, with things being better than before. The scene where they grab each others hands while in the shuttle with Johnny's life slowly fading sent chills down my spine. In the end, everything works out, with Eva and Neil going to their next assignment, but we find out that Neil has a disease.
Currently they are going to release a game November 7th called A Bird Story, which will be about the person who will be the patient for the second story with Eva and Neil.
To The Moon was great, and there is so much more I could discuss about. I look forward to the next story, and hope it's even better than To The Moon.
One thing I would like to see is the exploration of the good and bad from changing memories. We know that despite the memories changing, the person still experienced what they did, so you get two stories about the same person. While Eva was right in this story, it would be interesting to have the next story turn the opposite way. Show that sometimes trying to make the persons dreams come true in their memories can come with a price. Maybe their dream came true, but overall, the more important things for them didn't turn out, and maybe the person suffered for it.
So Escapist, what are your thoughts?
The first time I went through To The Moon, my biggest complaint was that there wasn't any gameplay. That you walked around and clicked stuff till you could do the short puzzle to get to the next part. After going through it again in a much shorter time period, I found it to be necessary. Having to walk around and then take time to do a puzzle helped with the atmosphere. You get to a part that was sad, and you keep that feeling during the puzzle, wondering what the next memory is, since going backwards, you know that certain event has yet to occur. It's not meant to be a game, but more of an interactive experience, and it does that really well.
To The Moon invokes a number of different emotions from the person experiencing it, and has a number of different atmospheres. Before even diving into the memories, you get a creepy feeling from seeing all the different paper rabbits in the room and the lighthouse. You get sad moments such as Johnny sitting next to his wife's grave mourning, and later finding out he had suppressed memories of his Brother Joey, who died from getting run over from his Mothers car. The mood changes from each memory, from a happy scene of Johnny and River riding horses, to a more serious scene next to find out why that was going on.
The really great things are the themes presented. The relationship of River and Johnny is really fascinating the whole time. What seems to be a happy marriage shows various troubles at times, and that there was difficulties before. Even more is that the original reason for Johnny asking River out was for very selfish reasons, as Johnny wants to date someone Unique to stand out from the crowd. While selfish at first, at that point we know that it turns out to become something beautiful.
The biggest thing is the end. River was the reason for how things turned out, and the two doctors figure out that if they are to give Johnny's dying wish, they must remove her from his life. This presents a creepy tone, as Neil doesn't want to do it, and is trying to get to Eva to stop her from it. We get a scene where two people who are just black fuzz pull her away, which for me was really uncomfortable because of the implication of bullying. Even with Eva saving Joey, Neil doesn't like what happened.
The last short bit shows the change of memories, with everything working out, as both Johnny and River go to the moon, and still get married, with things being better than before. The scene where they grab each others hands while in the shuttle with Johnny's life slowly fading sent chills down my spine. In the end, everything works out, with Eva and Neil going to their next assignment, but we find out that Neil has a disease.
Currently they are going to release a game November 7th called A Bird Story, which will be about the person who will be the patient for the second story with Eva and Neil.
To The Moon was great, and there is so much more I could discuss about. I look forward to the next story, and hope it's even better than To The Moon.
One thing I would like to see is the exploration of the good and bad from changing memories. We know that despite the memories changing, the person still experienced what they did, so you get two stories about the same person. While Eva was right in this story, it would be interesting to have the next story turn the opposite way. Show that sometimes trying to make the persons dreams come true in their memories can come with a price. Maybe their dream came true, but overall, the more important things for them didn't turn out, and maybe the person suffered for it.
So Escapist, what are your thoughts?
