Several styles of horror are featured here without leaning too heavily on the tropes of any particular one. Mars is an inhospitable place, made more so by the twisted horrors lurking in its shadows, and there’s no shortage of disturbing imagery, both man-made as well as of darker, unfathomable origin. Of course, when Moons of Madness eventually veers away from the relatively cozy living quarters aboard the facility, ejecting you out into the air-starved Martian desert and ancient alien structures completely unknown to mankind, the atmosphere changes dramatically. It’s equally fascinating to follow a crewmate’s descent into madness via successive journal entries as it is carefully examining his work area. The viewport in Shane’s cabin features some personal notes stenciled across it, and messages written on dry-erase boards provide further insight into everyday life aboard the research station.

Those who rush through every room and tunnel will lose out on some nice world-building touches like readable emails, letters and diaries from the crew that litter the Invictus, though the scenes themselves do their share of storytelling as well. Despite allowing full control over the protagonist, however, the action is structured in a very linear fashion, using things like passcard-sealed doors to funnel you along a predetermined path of progression.Īpart from a few panic-inducing moments, Moons of Madness is all about immersing you into its space thrills, slowly tightening the screws by building suspense as you explore.

When Shane dons a helmet in order to safely step onto the surface of Mars at numerous points throughout the story, tilting the camera down slightly shifts the view within the helmet to show the readout of his vitals and remaining oxygen in the tank. Lovecraft.Ĭontrolled via traditional keyboard/mouse setup, the game is played from a free-roaming first-person perspective, so you’re put right into Shane's shoes – literally. Whether it's uncovering the disquieting truth behind the experiments with plantlife aboard the Mars station, being chased through ventilation ducts by some horribly mutated nightmare creature, or stumbling across foreboding ruins of uncertain origin within the wastelands of the red planet, the game sends you down a spiral of ever-increasing cosmic horror heavily inspired by, and in some cases directly referencing, the works of H.P. Moons of Madness is a bit of a slow burn at first, with these early moments establishing the setting and its crew through a number of mundane tasks you must complete, though these soon give way to more and more disturbing events as it becomes clear that things on Mars are decidedly not as safe and dull as they first appear. It seems he is not as alone as he thought, and today will be anything but ordinary. It’s not long before the sounds of shuffling footsteps from around the nearest corner or the next room over, always just out of sight, alert Shane to an unknown presence nearby. You'll wake up to find that the majority of the facility's small team of inhabitants are busy off-site in order to prepare for an event that breaks the everyday monotony: the arrival of a resupply ship. The game proper begins after a brief introductory chapter in which players partake in one of Shane's increasingly frequent nightmares, wandering the deserted corridors of the Invictus while experiencing strange visions and noises. Shane Newehart is the Chief Engineer on the Invictus research station, currently located on Mars to search for signs of extraterrestrial life. And yet, despite being an easy recommendation for likeminded players now that the full game is here, it turns out its focus isn’t on creating scares so much as building tension and fleshing out a well-crafted science fiction atmosphere of dread and mystique, with some commendable production values from the first-time developer. Being a fan of all-things-Lovecraft, it’s no wonder the prospect of getting a good fright from Rock Pocket Games’ eldritch-themed cosmic horror adventure had me smiling from ear to ear when I showed up for my demo appointment at E3 soon after. “Cthulhu in space!” was my immediate thought of Moons of Madness after seeing its trailer earlier this year.

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