To the Moon really stretches the definition of what is and is not a video game. That might be a strange sentence for someone who does not play video games as religiously as so many do now of days but it is a question that has been floating about the gaming community for some time now. For many a game needs to present some sort of challenge, whether that challenge is a test of reflexes, intelligence, puzzle-solving, memory, or a mixture of one or more of these examples and possibly even more tests that I might have forgotten. Other people are content with saying that an interactive experience in which you interact with the game world. To the Moon falls into this second camp of 'games'.
To the Moon's only real gameplay are the occasional puzzle sections and moving the controllable characters around the map.
Speaking of these main characters the ones that you will have the pleasure of controlling are Dr. Eva and Dr. Neil. Eva and Neil are both doctors who work for a company in the near future that sells the ability to alter the memories of those on their deathbeds so that they can think they fulfilled their greatest wish.
These two will be your ever present companions as you explore deeper and deeper into the mind of their newest client, an old man named Johnny who, as the title references, wishes to go the moon before he dies (or at least to think he's gone to the moon). To accomplish this feat the doctors must find items that exist in a more recent memory that also were around in a prior one as well, using them to travel backwards through Johnny's memories so they can implant the false memories at the youngest age possible.
This story idea of telling a story effectively in reverse is something that has been done before but I don't think many of them can really compare to this game because where a film like 'Memento' tries to hide its big moment until the end to set up for a big reveal To the Moon shows you the them outright and forces you to continue despite it. You will see sad things in the first hour or two of gameplay that only truly become heart wrenching as you go from seeing the effect an event has on people, to the event, to people happily oblivious to the knowledge of the pain to come.
The characters in this game are all amazing and will grow on you as they grow as characters, which I feel happens too rarely in games. No character ends where they began emotionally and it adds weight to every new twist to the tale as characters are forced to cope with it either as participants or passive observers.
I won't go into spoilers here so I think I'll leave it as is and let you go pick it up for yourselves. It only really takes 4-6 hours to complete which is graciously shorter than your average Netflix binge and since the game isn't reliant on your skill as a gamer I feel like I can fully recommend this game to play.
