Moonrise Fall

Game with stunning visuals really held back by pace. When you first start the game you walk, then you walk, you walk some more and boom! You've finished the game. Moonrise fall has beautiful pixel art, it has great sound design, atmosphere is stunning. For those things alone it is hard for me to give negative review but here I am. The main issue of the game is pacing, the character movement speed is sluggish, there are fast travels but you still need to walk to the next room and that takes foooooorever. Story. Well is exists. It is very cryptic, game won't explain much, you need to figure it out on your own. Well, you have a lot of time to think about it while walking! But with so little puzzle pieces my mind was wandering somewhere else, thinking... What can I eat for dinner? Was that girl in school flirting with me??? Maybe you will get hooked up by the story, I did not. I understood the message behind the story, but it should've been flashed out a bit more to captivate the player. Yes the opening cutscene is nice, but after starting the game there are more questions than answers. There is some nice environmental story telling, but it wasn't enough for me, maybe it would if the game would not be such a walking simulator. Puzzles are simple and sometimes nice, but get old very quick. In one location you need to finish like 10 screens of the same fricking puzzle, it doesn't even get harder, just longer. If you understood the mechanic after the first screen you will finish all 10 without any issues. I would not complain about this as much if it weren't for the fact that those puzzles are also turtle speed. You do the puzzle solution, then wait for what feels like forever for the solution to apply, you can't do anything else than wait. Where is the challenge in that? Or is the challenge not getting bored during the whole process, well I failed it for sure. Collectibles in this game are not fun to look for, most of them are not hidden at all, some are hidden pretty well and the map won't help you finding them, if you missed one you either use a guide, or go through all locations again hopefully finding them. Did I mention you walk with a snail speed? Photographing creatures is nice and refreshing, to take a photo you need to fulfill some special need, then the creature shows up, those can vary and are really fun. Though once again the snail factor is thrown here, to take a photo you need to finish slow boring minigame. Just let me take the photo please, it's not a challenge, it's a chore. If you like very and I mean veeeery slow, exploration games with cryptic story, you might like it. Otherwise don't bother, the game will bore you really quick. Of course if you got it for free give it a try!