Welcome to Green
Moon, a new full-length adventure game from Absolutist. Grab that
six-pack of rehydratable space food, and let’s go!
By a stroke of good
fortune (for you, at least), you have inherited a curious, rundown old
property from your late Uncle Louis. Upon exploring the basement for the
first time you discover a magical book, which casts you out into a series
of adventures and travels across time, space and 1001 miscellaneous
scattered objects. Visit medieval England, a western town, ancient Greece,
the Egyptian pyramids, prehistoric times, and the moon itself. Can you
complete the quest of the Children of the Moon, to create sustainable life
here when so many others before you have failed?
SHINE ON,
GREEN MOON
There is the subtle
but distinctive flavour of a Casual game about Green Moon, both
graphically and from use of the interface. Although there are all the
trappings of a conventional adventure ― the inventory, the explorable
environment, the puzzles which link directly to the storyline ― you cannot
escape the feeling that Green Moon is attempting to bridge the
divide between Casual Gamer and Adventurer, and appeal to both groups in
the process. Which is no bad thing. There is an instructive tutorial at
the game’s outset, and onscreen hints and tips will occasionally pop up
throughout the game to guide you. The length is that of a standard
adventure game.
Gameplay is in first
person, with no panning. Directional arrows are placed at all sides of the
screen and light up in green to show you the accessible routes. There are
a handful of characters with whom you interact during the game, but no
spoken dialogue. Text appears onscreen, and the characters’ mouths move,
with no sound. For the most part you are left to your own devices to
explore, rummage and collect the items which will help you to accomplish
the current assigned task. Green Moon is structured in that you are
given a number of tasks to solve and spells to cast, but the first must be
completed before you can progress on to the second, and so on. Within that
task, play is fairly nonlinear; you may visit different locations and
time-travel as you choose ― there are no restrictions.
The music suits the
location and mood, and is never intrusive. Graphics are perfectly
acceptable if not mind-blowing, although environments are static. Ambient
sounds are realistic and pleasant.
PLAYING ON THE
SURFACE OF THE MOON
One thousand and one
miscellaneous scattered objects? Surely not! Well, it seems like it, truly
it does. I began playing Green Moon by merrily picking up anything
that wasn’t nailed down, pausing only to muse: “Goodness, there’s a lot of
stuff lying around here!”, then to stop dead in my tracks a minute or two
later to squawk: “Arrghh, there’s too much! I’m out of inventory space!
What’s going ON?!” (Perhaps not quite so histrionically, but you get my
general drift.) The moral of Green Moon’s story, therefore is:
there are many, many objects strewn across everywhere, but only a certain
number of them are pertinent to the task that you are currently working
on. Choose your objects carefully, for you have a restricted inventory. It
might be a good idea to make repeated trips to locations, grab handfuls of
items and head back to home where you can stash your stuff for when it’s
needed. Otherwise, an encyclopaedic memory would be a mighty fine asset.
There are inventory
and logic puzzles aplenty, all enjoyable, all challenging. Mini-games
scattered throughout will either delight or frustrate you, depending on
your preference. Most notably, there are two shooter-type games (one via
catapult, the other via good old-fashioned pistol), and one cooking
challenge which comprises three elaborate dishes and restricted
ingredients. There is one slider puzzle. Some puzzles have time
restrictions. There are no mazes or sound puzzles.
DARK SIDE OF
THE MOON
Oh boy, it seems
that the developers had a lot of fun devising all the different ways to
present you with the Game Over/death screen in Green Moon. Get
bitten by a snake and fail to react in time? Fail a particular puzzle? Do
something else inexplicably silly? Game over, buddy. For the sake of your
sanity, save frequently, before attempting any puzzle, and as you
enter any new location. Better to be safe than sorry ― which is a good
mantra to adhere to for any adventure game.
There are 10
overwritable save slots, and a limited number of inventory slots which may
result in a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing as you collect and drop
off items, depending on your preferred method of gameplay.
MOON BUGGIES
Download and
installation was problem-free. During play, one screen freeze required a
reboot. Otherwise the game ran smoothly.
Green Moon
is an original and overall satisfying game aimed specifically at the
thoughtful, logical puzzle-solver.
Grade: B
Green Moon
can be downloaded via the
developer's website here.
GameBoomers Review
Guidelines
January, 2010
design copyright©
2010
GameBoomers
Group
