Deliver Us The Moon review

What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. While this isn’t the basis of Deliver Us The Moon it’s in essence what is being asked of you.

In Deliver Us The Moon you play as an unnamed astronaut tasked with reaching the man-made facilities built on the moon that deliver the moon’s resources to earth. Disaster struck five years ago where that transfer from the moon to earth was disrupted.

Earth is now on the brink of collapse and it’s your job to reestablish the link and deliver the moon’s resources to earth once again. You’re also to discover what led to the event referred to as the Blackout.

Deliver us the moon is best described as a story driven sci-fi thriller with a few puzzle aspects thrown in to keep you on your toes. While the main point is to get the facilities up and running, the story that unfolds is probably the most enthralling story I’ve played.

The Blackout portion of the story is told through picking up a variety of collectables. These come in the form of audio logs, holograms and scannable information. Luckily, you don’t need every piece of information – contained in what’s referred to as an astrotool dossier profile – to figure out the Blackout.

Collecting everything does count towards trophies/achievements, so for the completionists amongst you there’s something extra to work towards. You also have the choice of selecting a level once you’ve completed the game, so you won’t have to go through the whole game again to find anything you’ve missed.

Deliver Us The Moon isn’t that long a game and can be completed in a few hours. Good news for those of you that want to collect everything. This is dependent on how long it takes to figure out some of the puzzles, though.

The puzzles themselves aren’t taxing and have a pretty varied range and difficulty. These go from searching in crew quarters for a code to unlock a door, to the more complex variety like piecing together bits of machinery in the right order to fix a little robot friend. You’ll also get to control the wee robot for puzzles down the line and it’ll help uncover more of the Blackout story.

The controls however can hinder things like some puzzles. They make the character feel heavy and sluggish a bit like they’re just out of bed and don’t have the energy.

It then goes to the extremes of you moving what feels too fast. For example, there are moon buggy sections where you’re required to drive on the surface of the moon which is pretty fun. However, the controls make trying to line up the buggy on pressure plates a little frustrating. You’re either crawling towards them or overshooting completely. The other issue was with the loading screens and auto save with both taking a bit of time to do what they need to.

I found myself sitting, staring at a blank loading screen for at least 30 seconds and up to nearly the 50 second mark. This doesn’t sound like a long time but it can really take you out of it when all you have to look at is a “now loading” message. Similarly, this happens with the auto-save. When this kicks in it will freeze the screen for around 10 seconds. Again, this doesn’t sound like a long time, but with each new section or objective being completed the game will auto-save. It can get quite annoying and again ruin the immersion.

Speaking of immersion (which is what I’m about clearly!), the music and sound for Deliver Us The Moon is fantastic. The score is honestly amazing and some of the most laid back, and at times emotional, pieces of music you’ll hear. They fit each scene perfectly and do a really good job of pulling you right in. The same can be said with the use of sound. I played Deliver Us The Moon with a headset and I highly recommend you do the same to get the full benefit of the sound. The sounds are what you’d probably expect from being in a facility on the moon. When you get a section’s power up and running the gentle background hum will kick in, emulating the pulsing power that’s now coursing through the system.

Likewise when you eventually make your way outside. Everything takes on a dull muffled noise, the kind you’d expect when you think about how objects in space sound.

Finally, I need to talk about how Deliver Us The Moon looks. Everything looks fantastic out in space, with the attention to detail for buildings being amazing. For the portions where you’re traversing the surface of the moon, it’s easy to get lost in just looking around and taking it all in. Even though there’s not much around in space, it’s impressive what KeokeN Interactive has managed to do with the nothingness of space.

If you’re looking for something laid back with an interesting story, then Deliver Us The Moon is worth looking into. The puzzles are interesting and you’ll find yourself attempting to get through them all to uncover exactly what happened during the Blackout. Or you’ll spend most of your time taking in the vastness of space while listening to an amazing soundtrack.