The Reader can grab onto certain platforms and move them towards Quill to create a path or to elevate her while she’s standing on one to get her to where she needs to go. The PSVR is put to full use here, as physically moving your head to peer around corners or to look into every nook and cranny yields solutions to puzzles, necessary routes to move forward and can often unveil hidden collectables in the process. Quill and the Reader must work in tandem to overcome obstacles and defeat enemies. The game often feels like it isn’t directly reading these motions, which can frustrate while trying to solve its intricate puzzles.
One of the few gameplay hiccups comes with the imprecise nature of moving the controller around in a three-dimensional space. A blue sphere of light represents the Reader’s touch and can be reached into the scene to interact with objects using the shoulder buttons. The Reader is controlled simultaneously using the DualShock 4’s light bar, which acts as a 1:1 motion control input. Quill is controlled with the left stick, swings her sword with one button, jumps with another and dodges attacks by pressing both. The simple but effective storytelling in Moss is mirrored by its gameplay, which is boiled down to just a few controller inputs – this combination wonderfully playing to the strengths of virtual reality. This back and forth between gameplay and exposition gives players unique lore to parse through, though it does slow down the pacing of the game too often. She’s assisted by the Reader, a character assumed by the player who appears as a massive, helpful spirit, looking down from the player’s perspective. The tale is partially told inside an old library, where the narrator fills the Reader in on information happening between the seven playable chapters via an animated storybook of sorts. Moss stars Quill, an adorable young mouse who is desperate to save her uncle.
Though it’s a bit too short for its own good, Moss is fun, charming, beautiful and worth a go around for anyone with a PSVR unit dying to see how an action/adventure/puzzle game plays out in virtual reality. Luckily, Moss from up and coming developer Polyarc, is a solid example of how a virtual reality game can stand toe-to-toe with traditional video games on a mechanical level, but still feel like a unique VR experience at the same time. It’s been just under a year and a half since PlayStation VR was released, and though many great experiences for it have come and gone, not all feel like fully-fleshed out video games in their own right.
0 kommentar(er)
