To The Moon: Seriously, Who Is Cutting Onions?

Are video games art?  Most non-gamers say no and most gamers say yes.  Art, as defined by Merriam-Webster because it was at the top of the google page when I searched for the definition is as follows: "Art - the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects"  So disregarding that dribble of dodging the question, yes, video games are art.

They combine every art form previously established by man kind.  3D models are essentially sculpted, textures are essentially painted, the storylines of some games put novels and screenplays to shame, music is created to enhance the mood, composition is established like a photograph and cinematics actually are movies, pretty much by definition.  But somehow allowing the viewer to interact with said art causes a debate, they'll come around sooner or later.

So since this week Mirror's Edge has decided it doesn't want to play nicely with the graphics card and freeze randomly, so I pushed it off to the side to do a playthough of To the Moon, an indie game I picked up during the last Steam sale because it was cheap.  I have very high standards when it comes to purchasing games.

To The Moon is essentially a throwback to old SNES 2D rpgs.  Everything is done with sprites, story is told through dialogue boxes.  But it does have some updates to the old formula, such as the mouse controls which I really wish was an option in emulators, I found it very pleasing to use.  In addition the game actually looks very nice, even for a 2D sprite based game.

Lots of detail

To The Moon is also in the running for best soundtrack of all time.  It's only real competition is Bastion and that's a tall order to topple.  Headphones/Soundtrack DL highly recommended.

Pro Tip: If you hit alt+enter it will put the game in a window rather than full screen, you'll thank me later.

To be fair, there's not a lot of "game" to To The Moon, it's not really an RPG, it's much more a point and click adventure game which I was slightly disappointing about especially since it got my hopes up.

Why must you taunt me so?

But my anger soon subsided as the story unfolded.  The story of the game revolves around a company that taps into people's memories, makes some tweaks and then you get to live out your dreams before you die.  The company seemed to me like it was Abstergo with better intentions.  The game revolves around a client named "John" and two of the companies employees Neil and Eva.  And John's wish is to go to the moon, a little obvious but I can't really think of a better title.  The story follows the "Memento" style of memory that is, you jump backwards, then watch things unfold forwards so you can jump back further to go more forward.  It essentially tells the story in pseudo reverse order which actually works very well.

The game plays fine, there are some puzzles in the game, some of which were semi difficult if you haven't brushed up on your matrix theory recently.  But that was mostly me obsessing over doing every single one of them in the "Ideal" number of moves, if you don't care, they're probably not that difficult.



But the thing that really makes To The Moon great is the writing.  The story is great and feels real and alive.  The game made me connect and empathize with a 2D sprite, fairly tough feat.  The two main characters have good chemistry and they manage the tone very well.  I laughed at points and was very sad at others.  In 4 hours, the game told a better story than some Oscar nods.  I can't really say too much about the story without completely ruining it, but the story will make you feel things and has good twists and turns.  Just as a word of advice, if you do end up picking this game up, which I highly recommend, don't rush through it.  There's more to the game world than what they lay out in front of you and it's worth exploring and a lot of subtle things that will slowly start to make sense if you think about them.

Subtle references everywhere

The game also teases a sequel at a point in the game which I really hope there is, if it's half as good as this one I'll still be excited.  So when it comes out, you'll know where to find me.

Where to meet if you get lost.