2020 has been a wild year across the board for industries everywhere but if there has been any industry that seems to have taken the pandemic in stride, it’s the video game industry. One of the more interesting offerings to come out of the gaming industry this year is a PC game by the name of “Against the Moon”
Against the Moon advertises itself as a Turn Based Strategy game but it actually plays more similarly to a fusion of real time strategy and trading card games. This unique style combination is where Against the Moon shines brightest. The game does adhere to the normal staples of turn based strategy by having you take your moves turn by turn and back and forth with your opponent but instead of allowing players to make a move with all of their units, the game features resource management similar to what one would find in most popular trading card games. This allows for a good amount of flexibility in how players choose to accomplish their mission goals. Each turn players have a certain amount of a resource called “Luma” to use to either place units on the board or use abilities. There are also special units called “Ultori” that have skills that can be activated with a separate resource simply called “Energy”. In many cases, the units also come with a skill that activates when placed, or at the start of each turn and in some cases, both. The game also features a certain level of “deck building”. Each of the player’s units and abilities can be upgraded, as well as each of the Ultori. Upgrading will not only increase the stats of units but also alter the skills each of the units have. If players opt to upgrade an ability, it will simply increase the strength of the chosen ability. Players can obtain upgrades by progressing through the various maps of the story and choosing different branching paths with varying rewards for each map. This unfortunately is where Against the Moon begins to experience its woes.
While the gameplay of Against the Moon finds a unique and fun niche in its gameplay, it unfortunately doesn’t transfer these successes into its storytelling. The game conveys most of its story through in-match dialogue and Narrated text overlaying various backdrops on screen to provide a sort of cutscene-esque moment without having an actual animated scene. This in and of itself is fine when done correctly but the issue that comes across is Against the Moon‘s story is just…well…honestly not very engaging. The premise given is that the sentient moon is out to destroy humanity and your squad of Ultori must find a way to stop it’s forces. Now, an initial premise of a story isn’t necessarily a reason to criticize a game since there’s always ways to use that initial premise to engage players into the overall plot that develops more complexities as the game goes on. Unfortunately Against the Moon just doesn’t do a good job of that. The storytelling comes across blandly and the characters seem one dimensional. That’s not to say there aren’t any breadcrumbs of development alluded to but they aren’t presented in a particularly appealing fashion. The story itself does have potential but the lack of initial engagement causes Against the Moon to potentially lose players who otherwise might find the tale intriguing.
All in all, Against the Moon isn’t a bad game per-say. If players can work their way past the initial unengaging story and get into the depths of the deck-building/Real Time Strategy gameplay, then they will find a unique sleeper pick when it comes to games with a fresh take on those genres. The depth of gameplay more than makes up for the lackluster story telling and will provide players with a fun experience that, while demanding strategy, doesn’t necessitate a single avenue for victory on every map and that, is exactly where Against the Moon will find itself winning over its player-base.
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