This Moons of Darsalon review is played and reviewed on Xbox. The game is also available for PC, Playstation (4/5) and Nintendo Switch.
Quite a few years back, rescue missions were all the craze. Developers went out of their way to present us with games where the main focus was saving NPCs. Developer Dr Kucho Games brings back those days with Moons of Darsalon. Who hasn’t played games like Lemmings and moreover the games featuring Oddworld with its famous inhabitant Abe. From Abe’s Odyssee to Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty, Abe has been rescuing Mudokons since forever. Now we are not controlling Abe but some space traveler who is sent into space to save the Darsanauts from a small but very dangerous planet.
Save all Mudokon slaves…..whoops all Darsanauts I mean
Just like Abe you save these individuals by giving them direct commands on what they have to do. Follow me, go right, go left and wait are your main weapons. Why can’t they save themselves? Well, let’s be brutally honest. They are so incredibly stupid, they can’t save themselves from a wet paper bag. So it’s all up to you to guide these simpletons through the levels infested with all sorts of dangers.
Fortunately these commands aren’t your only weapons. During gameplay you also get access to a flashlight, a terraformer-beam, a gun and even a jetpack. In the first few levels you only have the flashlight and your wits. You will need the flashlight to light the way for the Darsanauts, because they seem afraid of the dark and won’t venture into it by themselves. No matter how hard you try to command them to do so. Only after you have lit up the route they have to follow, they comply with your wishes.
This seems ok, but to me felt a bit wrong. How so?, you say. Well, the Darsanauts during the rest of the gameplay, are so incredibly stupid they walk straight into all types of danger. But as you command them to go a safe route, they simply refuse because it’s dark. Go figure. Besides stupid, they are also terribly clumsy. They tend to jump off ledges (not unto a safe spot, but preferably into an impossible place where they are stuck forever), get stuck under crates and walk straight into a shooting enemy . After a while this got on my nerves and I had to take a break from the game.
Objectives
Each level has a number of objectives. Forst of all you have to save a certain number of Darsanauts. The devs did cut us some slack in that department, because we don’t have to save them all. And that’s a good thing, because during the levels you will either lose Darsanauts due to their stupidity, or you simply won’t find them all. The thing is if you want to save them you have to get pretty near to them and give them the proper command. Otherwise they won’t do anything. This aren’t the only objectives. You also have a number of semi-optional objectives. You get extra credit for finishing the level within a certain amount of time. Also not dying is one of the optional objectives. The more objectives you pass, the better the reward. Pass all objectives and be awarded the full amount of stars. Do worse and be given less stars.
Gameplay
Ok, here’s where things get a bit messy. Gameplay should be the most important part of any game. In Moons of Darsalon the gameplay tends to become frustrating for players. Way too often commands are not heard by Darsanauts, or they blatantly refuse to listen to you. Even when you have told the Darsanauts to not move, they just keep running and jumping around. Which is just annoying when you are trying really hard to get the group in the right place. Separating groups is another difficult, not to say impossible task. Because the Darsanauts keep moving around, you can’t focus on the group which you wish to relay your command to.
Also the weapons are not all they are cracked up to be. The gun is about as precise as an elephant in a china-shop. At times that imprecision comes in quite handy. For instance when fighting off several enemies you hit more of them than you are aiming for. It becomes a pain when you have to fight off the same enemies, but in a very delicate and tender corridor that’s already close to collapsing.
The jetpack was my biggest nightmare. You simply can’t control it well enough. With every thrust, you get propelled into ceilings and walls, often resulting in your death. Which brings me to my main issue with the game. All of the above create a situation where you hardly progress through the levels. You have to repeat the same level over and over again. Often with the same poor result.
Luckily it’s not all doom and gloom. The game shines in the humour department. Both the remarks the Darsanauts direct straight at you and the general remarks, ooze with humour. The Darsanauts also have a dark sense of humour. Don’t be surprised when they laugh their heads off when you have just dropped to a gruesome death. On other occasions (especially when you are stuck on a level and don’t know the way out), they will subtly questions your sense of direction.
Floppy characters, blocky backgrounds
As far as visuals are concerned, Moons of Darsalon is a mix between nice 16-bit backgrounds and an attempt at creating a fluent moving character. This last part results in characters that quite regularly are floppy. Which in itself results in some funny scenes. Especially when the Darsanauts find themselves trapped underneath a crate and slowly meet their maker, or when they fall from a cliff and meet their maker a bit more speedily.
There is one outstanding point graphically. The lighting of the levels is excellent. The dark spots are really dark and the flashlight effects are just spot on. The rest of the level has plenty of brightness so you actually know what you’re looking at.
Moons of Darsalon is at heart a return to nice gameplay mechanics with escort missions. However the gameplay is just not up to par. More often than not you will fail levels due to the stupid Darsanauts and the finicky commands. A good thing is that the game has a good sense of humour.
The Good
- Very nice retro visuals and really good lighting.
- A good sense of humour
The Bad
- Hit and miss gameplay
- The sheer stupidity of the Darsanauts.
- Command gameplay should work, but it just doesn’t
