I'm just playing emotional adventures, lately. Not that I didn't have bought and played other more action games, but recently I'm in the mood for something slow and relaxing. Something that is more a movie than a game. And To the Moon is no exception. It's pixel art adventure with music that will catch your heart.

Graphics

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Graphics will be appreciated mainly by lovers of old pixel art games. Maps are often repeated, as well as objects and characters, mainly due to the theme of the game. But that doesn't change the fact that the characters are quite sophisticated and despite tiny details, every change of facial expression is noticeable.

Soundtrack

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The soundtrack is a very important part of this game because small pixel characters with limited animation and written dialogs couldn't make you empathize with the theme of the game and its atmosphere on their own. Well, the story is awesome, but to make the experience better, you need some epic music. After all, listen to it yourself:

It's simple, the tones are repeating in the loop, but there is still something magical about it, what do you say?

Plot

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The dying man orders two doctors who specialize in fulfilling the last wishes. His, as the name of the game suggests, is getting to the moon. But he's in the coma, and the doctors will have a hard time to fulfill it.

Will they succeed?

THIS PART CAN AND WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, so if you don't want this post to spoil you the game, close your eyes and scroll to Gameplay.

1st Act

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In the first act, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts came to the home of old Johnny, who ordered them to fulfill his last wish. At the time of their arrival, however, Johnny is in a coma, and nobody can't say something about his life. The doctors need some info about his past because they need it to change his memories and implant new ones. But his whole life is one big mystery so they must find it out themselves.

So they are traveling to his memories to find out as much as possible about Johny. However, they need to hurry because he is dying.

2nd Act

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In the 2nd act, the doctors have got enough information about Johnny and will implant him a new memory of being on the moon. However, they found out that the change didn't work, and all the memories remained exactly the same.

But some of his early childhood memories, which was suppressed by some medication, is still unknown so they must act as quickly as possible, to revive it, because it could be connected with the wish of getting on the moon.

3rd Act

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Eventually, they will succeed and find out what is the cause of his desire to get to the moon (Once they promised with his love that if they had lost each other, they would meet together on the moon.). So Dr. Eva Rosalene decides to act and remove the girl from John's memories to make him fly to the moon. Dr. Neil Watts doesn't like it and wants to stop Eva, but he is not successful.

In the end, Johnny and the girl meet at NASA and fly off in the same rocket to the moon .... and just before the landing, Johnny's heart stops beating.

Yep, that's the moment. A few tears fell.

Gameplay

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The gameplay is more than simple. Most of the time you will just click a mouse. Whether you want to run the map, interact with objects or skip dialogs. Dialogues, as it is in pixel games, are in the form of text, and you must activate the speech bubbles manually.

But I recommend reading them honestly because such a Dr. Neil Watts throws one funny catch-phrase after another. His colleague has a tough time with him.

You can use WASD in two cases - riding a horse and disabling enemies. Personally, I would welcome WASD as a motion control in the whole game, because that eternal mouse clicking is quite annoying. Often happened that the mouse click didn't do what it had. E.g. when clicking on a place, nothing happened or the item next to it was activated.

Sometimes you will meet some mini-games. In the first act, at first, you need to find five things on the map to open access to another memory.

But to continue with it, you'll need to complete a memento image. It is partly uncovered, and partly not. Your goal is to uncover all parts of it with the help of the colored buttons. The button turns all the squares in the row/column/diagonal.

Once the image is complete, you can activate the memento and get to the next memory.

And I can't forget the Menu! Use the Esc key to get to the menu where you can read a lot of truly brief information about characters, objects, and notes. At the same time, you can see the patient's pulse monitor at the top to know his condition.

Summary

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About four hours of emotional adventure in a pixel coat... it is To the Moon. But don't be discouraged by its graphics. The story is well-thought-out, and in combination with heart-catching music, it is definitely worth playing.

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May the seed be with you! :D