The Mind of an Engineer is Tormented on Mars This is a subtle but appreciated touch to the game. A nice touch that Rock Pocket Games included with this title is as Shane gets more anxious, the actions that he’s repeated several times become more clumsy because of his fear as he’s trying to rush something that can’t be rushed or he’s not looking at what he’s doing. The oxygen mechanic is nothing new to gaming and I wish the system was a bit more fleshed out. Every action in the game feels intentional and important as missing one step in the airlock can have you gasping for air, filling your spacesuit with oxygen is essential as you traverse the Martian landscape and solar panels need to be rotated to transmit power back to the base. Another key is Shane’s ID badge which only has a level one security clearance, forcing you to locate better badges to gain access to new areas. Some even unlock puzzles that unlock more important things such as communication towers, power conduits and irrigation systems. Power cells are this game’s version of keys as they’ll unlock doors, power terminals, operate machinery, etc. The combination of survival horror and psychological horror in Moons of Madness has led to multiple nightmares during my time with it and few survival horror games have had such an impact on me in recent years. Trying to get a hold of these beings is impossible but getting a hold of the tentacle monsters will almost certainly lead to demise while being chased by them leads to cold sweats and white knuckles. Some of the apparitions appear like other astronauts but they walk strangely, almost like zombies. Chasing the source is fruitless as the shadows you follow often walk through walls or disappear entirely. Red and white lights flash as shadows rustle away from you. The combination of darkness and orchestral music is something that would be familiar to most horror movies just as games such as Outlast and Dead Space use to great effect as well. Moons of Madness doesn’t rely on jump scares, rather it implements them to add to the psychological horror of the game. It isn’t long before these nightmarish Lovecraftian dreams become Shane’s waking nightmare. Initially, these plays out like a dream sequence, eventually culminating in a birthday setting full of red balloons familiar to Stephen King’s It. There are different types of bipedal tentacle monsters that patrol the dark hallways that connect one biodome to another or they chase you into flooded ventilation shafts that also harbor tentacle lifeforms. One is scared when you look at it and retreats, but when your back is turned, it strikes. Despite a lot of the enemy monsters being tentacles, most of them feel unique. The game features no difficulty slider and most things will kill you in one hit, though the enemy AI seems to give you plenty of opportunity to escape. Lovecraft book and teleporting demons that give off exorcist movie vibes. Waking up in a Martian colony, Moons of Madness engineer and protagonist, Shane Newehart (the protagonist) is tasked with navigating the halls of an infested biodome that has tentacles that would be comfortable in an H.P.
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