MOONROT

Wow - incredible experience. It’s brief but packs so much atmosphere and is very, very effective.

A short but sweet horror game with interesting mechanics.

Really good hour-long game (or a bit more, if you're prone to getting *really* lost). I'm a sucker for dread-type horror, and the fixed perspective mixed with frequent obstructions to your player camera allows it to more heavily incentivize using the onboard snapshot camera—which also blocks a corner of your screen every time it's out. The photos themselves are wonderfully low-quality, even when still, so good luck figuring out if you're seeing things or if you're *actually* seeing things. I'm not sure *how* lost you can get, since every time I either looped back around or stumbled my way forward... But yeah, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and I enjoyed it.

Iron Lung but you play as WALL-E.

Poor HOPE. Though navigating Keres-2b with gumption, their tools are insufficient to navigate this moon with confidence. They could be rendered inoperable in a looming shadow, or destroyed just around the teetering edge of a corner. My heart jumps watching their battery's charge run down. I hope to detect any small increase in temperature that might indicate the relief of sunlight on our angled solar panels. On a mission that will end in futility for HOPE, no matter the outcome, what does it mean to search for the anomaly? I find myself bound by protective instincts to steer HOPE forward, fighting back keening frustration as we lose traction and careen by craters of uncertain depth. We are going to finish this mission together, but I don't have faith in what we will find. Something is out there. Godspeed.

MOONROT pushes a certain space-horror vibe that is present in analog horror works like Gemini Home Entertainment. There are not a lot of games like this. Voyager-19 is another one. If you love desolate space horror, this is a small, creative short game to try.

A very short experience that, personally, makes up for its length through sheer oppressive mood. I'd stand by this being worth the purchase and playthrough. Honestly, I think MOONROT's greatest strength is just how *right* all of the sensory input is, oddly enough. The isometric angle and way that the darkness just absorbs what little light you can generate really helps to close in on HOPE and make your travels both claustrophobic and empty in that fun space-y way. The sound muffling on everything makes the few noises that happen pop and sell the environment even harder. HOPE's controls are both floaty and heavy at the same time, thanks to the odd gravity, and while that can cause frustration - especially in one later stretch near a chasm - I find it another good touch that's played with from the slight malfunctions you start to get as HOPE sustains impact damage. It's still not a perfect execution; if you follow the site coordinates 1-1, it's very possible to outright miss some of the sunlight patches that you'll find much easier on a second drive-by to regain progress after your header into a pit sends you so far back. Dying this way is still done well, aesthetically, but near the above mentioned chasm can just be irritating if the terrain or even a malfunction jostles you off. MOONROT lives by the tension of a sustained run, so letting that fizzle out by splatting yourself flat can really mess with the experience.