Moss (PS VR) Review - Fun puzzles and Fine gameplay

nehashetty (58)in #gaming • 6 years ago (edited)

Once the mice were a large people and lived in beautiful houses and a castle. Until a danger came to an end and many mice were killed. Since then the mice live deep in the forest and live a quiet life. Until the young mouse Quill meets a magical phenomenon one day, 'The Reader'. Quill is the chosen mouse and she makes a covenant with The Reader and together they set out to destroy the great danger that still lurks once and for all, and that brings Quill on the path of a great adventure.

Like a real fairy tale

Moss is told from an old book and the game breathes a lot of atmosphere. The entire story is told from the third person who uses voice elevations in the dialogues to interpret the characters. Quill himself can not speak, so also between the levels the story is told to you by means of a book where you turn the pages yourself. An original and fun way of storytelling as far as we are concerned, because it greatly enhances the fairy-tale feeling. The best thing about all of this is that the magical phenomenon called The Reader, yourself, is the player.

You are the one who has magical powers and together with Quill you will experience a very nice platform adventure in virtual reality. The adventure will initially take you to the village where you tell your uncle what you have found. He has a lot of knowledge and indicates that he must go on the road to prevent it going from bad to worse. Without too much explanation, Quill will only stay behind after making the promise that she will not go out on her own door until her uncle is back. A promise that she obviously does not fulfill, because a fairy tells us that Quill and her magical ally are needed.

Your magical powers

What follows is a trip that takes you through the forest to different areas and in this you are mainly at the platforms. You jump from platform to platform to get further and if an obstacle blocks your path, you use your little sword to get rid of this. You also encounter enemies, which Quill can also use her sword for. As the adventure progresses you will find yourself in more and more difficult situations and that is where you as The Reader with your magical powers come into play. The light bar of the DualShock 4 functions in the game as an important control element, because the camera registers the light and translates it to an illuminated orb.

By moving the controller literally you can send the orb over the screen and with that you can focus on objects. Then you press R2 and then you can perform the intended action. These actions vary from raising or lowering pillars, taking over enemies and sending a certain direction, as well as moving blocks back and forth and more. All this is necessary to guide Quill through the levels, but also to solve puzzles in the relevant levels. This is mainly to guide Quill from the beginning to the end, but also to collect collectables or objects that you need at another location to create a new passage.

Fine supervision and a relaxed adventure

The way of playing in the game is very nice, because in virtual reality you can see every area that Quill goes through as a fixed design, in which you can look around freely. Almost always the levels are very clear and if Quill is in an invisible part of a level, you can look through walls so that you do not lose her. When you are through the level, the game immediately loads the next section and each time you follow her from the side, making the platforms generally very good. Should something still be difficult to see, you can just get up a bit to view the whole from a different angle.

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The game is not too difficult, making Moss a very relaxed adventure. Quill is very good at controlling and playing with the magical orb works almost always well. However, there are times when the game can be somewhat frustrating and that is when Quill just jumps wrong or goes a bit too far. The game has pretty sloping surfaces on the plateaus, so the mouse can just slide off and that can be annoying. Even more annoying is that if you have an enemy under control and send it in a certain direction, it regularly hangs behind objects without any reason - even if they are not visible.

Furthermore, the game still sometimes too enthusiastic respond if you handle with the orb a movable object that then moves much too fast and you thereby unintentionally die, because it must be done accurately. They are those little points that work on your nerves. However, we should not make it bigger than it is because if you play very carefully and comfortably, this is only rarely the case. The final result is that the game is especially fun and from the beginning to the end is a beautiful adventure. This is due to the magical atmosphere, fine gameplay, the fun character, but also the graphics. The game looks very nice in VR with many varied environments, making it really enjoy.

Suddenly…

A frequently used word in fairy tales is of course 'sudden' and although it hardly occurs in Moss, the game suddenly comes to an end. We have done exactly three hours and that is of course not really long. Especially not when you consider that the game costs as much as € 29.99, which is rather pricey. The adventure itself is worth a second time to go through to collect the collectables, but then you will be ready a lot faster. The reason it feels so sudden is because the game indicates that Quill has a much bigger adventure ahead. However, this is truncated with the message that we have reached the end of book 1. That could have been a bit more subtle and the game would have been a bit longer.

Conclusion

Moss is a very short game and the end is too abrupt, which is simply a pity. It could have been more subtle and the game would have been better. Partly because of the price tag, but also because the game is very fun to play. Apart from the few minor irritations here and there, the entire adventure is really enjoying. This thanks to the generally fine gameplay, the nice interaction between you and the mouse and of course the varied and beautiful environments that you will really enjoy in virtual reality. It is to be hoped that book 2 will soon appear, because the magical atmosphere, the gameplay and Quill will soon miss you after playing. Moss is an excellent game and although very expensive, worth it.

➕ Looks great
➕ Magical atmosphere
➕ Fun puzzles
➕ Fine gameplay

➖ Game sometimes causes you death
➖ Ends pretty abruptly
➖ Rather expensive

Thanks for reading.