A Wickel Writes Review
Overview
Deliver Us The Moon is a single-player, adventure-puzzle game developed by the Netherlands video game developer KeokeN Interactive. Designed by Merlin Woudstra, this well-polished game stands out against the multitude of titles I have played through.
I pulled the following description (if you don't want to read it, there's a trailer below) from www.deliverusthemoon.com: "Deliver Us The Moon is a Sci-Fi thriller set in an apocalyptic near-future where Earth's natural resources are depleted. In an effort to solve the energy crisis, global powers created the World Space Agency and secured a promising new source of energy on the moon.
The World Space Agency colonized and operated from the moon until one fateful night all communications with Earth ceased and the energy source was lost. Now, years later, you assume the role of Earth's last astronaut on a do-or-die mission to investigate what happened and save humanity.
During this adventure, your only companion is a small robot named ASE. Together you will traverse the moon, explore abandoned facilities, gather clues and ultimately uncover the secrets and hidden agendas of those long gone!
Will you save mankind or be forgotten in the dark abyss of Space?"
My Experience
I will do my absolute best to avoid spoilers during this review.
Let me start by saying that I LOVE games set in space or on alien planets. There's just something about "the final frontier" that piques my interest. A few of my space favorites include Subnautica, Journey to the Savage Planet, and Risk of Rain 2. These, of course, are all different genres, but they all share the space/alien themes. Now, I am adding Deliver us The Moon to my list of favorites.
When I first found this game, its title and visual beauty enticed me to pick it up. I'm so glad I did. From the beginning of the campaign, the story held my attention, something that's hard to do. I seldom finish games (I'm trying to do better) because of my "gamer ADHD," and when a game pulls me in enough to beat it, I won't soon forget it. Though short (I think it took me roughly 8 hours to complete), the story was profound, impactful, and engaging.
I give the story 10/10.
Gameplay
Deliver Us The Moon is played from the third-person perspective. There are no weapons and zero to little combat. I'm hesitant to say no combat because there are a couple of parts where you can take damage from hostile ASEs, but I never fought back and don't know if it's possible.
This game focuses mainly on piecing together the story from discoverable items and solving puzzles to navigate the moon bases. I also enjoyed how the story was delivered with a mix between audio, visual, and text. It created a dynamic environment that didn't feel like a chore to slog through.
*For the record, I despise games that dump everything into pages on top of pages of text. If I wanted only to read a story, I'd pick up a book, not play a video game.*
I should mention that this game has no "open world" play. It is pretty linear and keeps you on task. You will be disappointed if you're expecting tons of extra side missions or exploration opportunities. I don't mind the lack of that freedom for this game, and it wouldn't have worked well anyway, so...
Another thing that drew me in when deciding to play Deliver Us The Moon was how many reviews mentioned that it was highly polished. I agree 100%. During my playthrough, I didn't notice any glitches. Sometimes the interaction prompt (you know, when it tells you to press a button to pick something up) didn't always work from a certain angle, but every time I moved the camera or the character, it came up. That was a minor annoyance, and it could have been totally my fault.
Gameplay I'll give 9.5/10
Conclusion
With how well Deliver Us The Moon is put together, I recommend it to anyone looking for an exciting story given to them at a reasonably relaxed pace. If you are looking for a game with 30+ hours of story, an open world, and grueling combat (or any combat at all, really), you won't find it here.
I felt the experience was well worth my time, and I recommend it to everyone. Overall rating is:
9.75/10.