There are many titles in the history of video games that depicted the travel of humans to other planets. It's always enjoyable to play as a hero slaughtering ugly aliens on an imaginary planet or an astronaut exploring Mars for minerals. However, stepping on the brightest object in the sky and walking on its hilly surface is a totally different experience that not so many video games have presented so far. The dutch developers from KeokeN Interactive started a mission a few years ago to make this experience possible. Deliver Us The Moon was first published as an early access game on Steam, and very soon found its fans. Eventually, the final version of the game was released for PC and consoles in April.

The game is happening in the near future where the natural resources on the earth are depleted. A new organization called the World Space Agency (WSA) is established to transfer energy and resources from the moon. Soon, the moon surface is colonized, and several settlements are built to harvest resources and transfer it to the earth through a revolutionary network named Microwave Power Transmission (MPT). One day, the MPT goes offline suddenly, and the earth is left without energy. Consequently, the WSA is shut down permanently, and humankind's future is doomed. Several years later, a small group of people starts a mission to restore the MPT and save the earth. They send an astronaut to the moon to find the source of the problem and fix it.

I like the story and more importantly the way that the game tells this story. When the protagonist steps on the moon, she has a clear mission of restoring MPT, but there are also a bunch of questions that she should find answers to them. Why did the MPT go offline and the blackout happen? What was going on before and after the blackout in the moon station? What did happen to the astronauts who were trying to restore MPT, and why did their mission fail? The answers to these questions are only found in recorded voices and reconstructed virtual reality from the past. As the protagonist goes from one place to another place and gets closer to her final goal, she also finds more voices and information from the past. They are playing the role of puzzle's pieces putting them together reveals the dark history of the moon station.

The unique style of storytelling in Deliver Us The Moon successfully makes a powerful connection between the present and the past. As we make progress in the game and overcome different challenges step by step in the present time, we also uncover shocking events which have happened several years ago in the places where we are stepping in now.

Deliver Us The Moon does not offer any action or even stealth elements as parts of its gameplay. Nevertheless, it is still quite successful in presenting an enjoyable experience. I believe most of this success is due to three important features: interesting puzzles, unique environment design, and diversity in gameplay. The puzzles that I encountered during the game can be divided into two main categories. The first category contains puzzles which are in fact obstacles one the way of reaching a new location. For instance, a closed-door that has to be opened by a sequence of certain actions is one of these puzzles. The other category of puzzles includes minigames. I enjoyed both categories of puzzles in the game as they mostly enjoy fair difficulty and novelty.

One of the bold advantages of Deliver Us The Moon is its unique environment design. The special designs of the launch site on the earth, the empty moon stations, and the moon surface create a strong atmosphere that easily affects the gamer. When I was playing the game, I was eagerly waiting for the time to finally step on the moon surface, and experience the moment that other video games have rarely created for us.

It is obvious that developers did not want their games to be a simple walking simulator. Thus, they designed a diverse gameplay in which new elements are constantly introduced. When the protagonist arrives at the moon station, we have to control her in the first-person view while there is no gravity. Later in the game, It changes to the third-person view. Driving on the moon surface and even some moments of platforming are among the tricks to make the gameplay richer. I believe the developer's effort has paid off and the gameplay has enough depth to encourage gamers to continue playing.

However, Deliver US The Moon is not flawless. It suffers from some technical issues that affected my experience. One of the most obvious problems is the frame rate drop in some moments of the game. Particularly, in the places where there is electricity, the drop in the frame rate is huge. Moreover, the quality of the textures and shadows are sometimes not quite satisfying. For example, when you step outside of the station and start driving on the moon surface, The quality of the surface textures and the shadows on it are not eye-catching.

Despite the diversity in the gameplay, There are some repetitive and dull missions in the second half of the game. In particular, the missions that involve driving on the moon surface and reactivating the microwave transmitters become repetitive after a while as all the transmission buildings are the same, and there is no difference in the process of reactivating the transmitters.

Verdict:

Deliver Us The Moon not only gives us a chance to step on the moon, but it also makes it a memorable experience thanks to its rich gameplay, interesting puzzles, and unique design.