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I’m a huge fan of mythology in general, but games that focus on it tend to be a drag to play through. The first such game I can remember trying was Never Alone, which was such a profound glitchfest that it eventually devolved into an uphill battle against random deaths. Then there was Ayo: A Rain Tale, which was better, but still plagued with uncomfortable physics and questionable deaths, not to mention some of the most headache-inducing lightning effects I’ve seen. That brings us to The Mooseman, which eschews token platforming (and all of its many pitfalls) in favor of light puzzles and tight pacing. That means that it’s pretty short as far as games go, lasting about 1-2 hours, but that time is spent inundating you in unfamiliar mythology delivered through environmental storytelling and myths that unlock at every new save point.
Focusing on its strengths makes a huge difference, as it turns out, and there are a handful of miscellaneous elements that only serve to elevate it further despite one or two minor issues that take a little getting used to. Overall, The Mooseman is a great experience that’s artsy without coming across as pretentious, unfamiliar without becoming overcomplicated and confusing the player, and easy to pick up without sacrificing a number of optional challenges for those looking to obsess over hidden collectibles. It even does lightning well.The Mooseman’s mythology is intriguingAll right, let’s start out with some official information taken from The Mooseman’s: “The Mooseman is an atmospheric 2D adventure game set in the mysterious lands of Perm chud’ tribes.” You have to go to the presskit to get to the most interesting parts, though: “Perm Animal Style is a foundation of the game, and it kept its role up till the release in 2017. Artefacts of this style depict strange mythological creatures (one of which bears name Mooseman) and ancient gods of creators of these artefacts - finno-ugric tribes of Ural. During the development we realised that the narrative of the game could not be based on myths of Perm animal style because of simple reason that these myths do not exist anymore.
This is the reason of work that was made to reconstruct the animal style myth based on culture of komi-permians, komi-zyrians, mansi and saamic people. We’ve read a bunch of scientific research on this matter and talked with local museums and scientists and arrived where the game stands now - a solar myth depicting the journey of the Mooseman - half-god, half-human.” Basically, The Mooseman falls back on some (presumably) similar cultures in order to approximate the lost myths of the tribes the game is centered around, which makes its development sound every bit as interesting as the resulting myths end up being. Switching between worlds is a familiar mechanic, but it’s used well here.You play as the Mooseman, one of seven children born from the pairing of a human and a god. Because of this heritage, you’re able to see both the ordinary world and the weirder spirit world, alternating between the two in order to move obstacles around and solve puzzles. Again, there’s no token platforming here—you can’t even jump. As a result, a large chunk of the game consists of walking from left to right (or right to left at the beginning of stages to grab the collectible that’s almost always hidden there), with checkpoints being set up along the way with the dual purpose of respawning you and unlocking the next myth.
You’re constantly unlocking these myths, and there are colorful collectibles that unlock information about the real-world artifacts that The Mooseman drew inspiration from. All of this lends a brisk pacing to the story.There are also voiceovers detailing the story in broad strokes between certain area transitions, ensuring that you can follow along even if you don’t check the menu to read the myths as they become unlocked. Of course, that’s assuming that the text accompanying the voiceovers remains in English; at one point the text changed to Russian out of nowhere and I had to go into the language menu (for the first time—this was very much a bug rather and not an accidental language switch) to fix it. The gameplay is simplistic, but comfortableThe Mooseman’s dual worlds mechanic is one that’s bound to be familiar to anyone who’s played indie games of the past 10 years, as it’s seen a whole lot of use in that time, including in the vaguely similar Ayo.
Basically, switching worlds changes stage elements, and those changes can be leveraged to bypass obstacles. Developers’ go-to move is to have platforms that appear and disappear based on which world you’re in, and that’s definitely used here to a certain degree, but there are also more interesting and unique changes. For example, rocks and logs can change into animals that move toward or away from you, and that can be used to maneuver them over pits or place them as ramps to higher areas.
It’s not very involved, deep, or difficult to wrap your head around, but it’s decent fun regardless, and an admittedly unique take on a tired game mechanic. That’s not the beginning and end of the game mechanics, though, as there’s also a short section where your ability to switch worlds is supplanted by the a that you use to protect yourself from wolves, as well as puzzles that task you with recreating a short melody or forming a picture. Later parts of the game also give you the ability to create a shield to guard against attacks, and there’s even a where you’re dodging stormclouds. The Mooseman definitely isn’t all walking. Exiting menus switches worlds, which can cause bridges to disappear beneath you.As mentioned before, there are a few issues that you have to contend with. The first and most prevalent issue is that there’s no way of quickly backing out of menus, so you have to move the cursor down to manually close them whenever you read a new myth or earn some real-world information from a collectible. This is a little thing, but it starts to add up as you continually stumble on new myths and collectibles.
More, this is exacerbated by the fact that pressing the A button (I’m playing the new Xbox One port, by the way) to exit the menu counts as an A button press in normal gameplay, which means you’ll switch between worlds or fire an arrow every time. If there’s a platform under you that only exists in one of the two worlds, you can expect to plunge helplessly and restart from a checkpoint. These checkpoints are numerous, thankfully, but it’s still annoying having to be careful about when you enter the menu.There’s also a brief sequence where you’re that I’m not a fan of. During this sequence, you have to switch between worlds to rotate platforms so that they’ll block you from its sight, but its vision is represented by light, and this light goes through obstacles, making it hard to tell if the platforms are actually blocking you. The shield thing that you use also goes out the second it gets hit, forcing you to hit B to bring it back out. That can be a problem when there are multiple enemies in an area and you’re unlucky enough to aggro multiple ones, as one will end up hitting you and the other will finish you off before you can bring your shield back out.
Flying enemies are quick, too, so the one or two optional sections like this can be frustrating. The Mooseman’s visuals and choral music are excellentAs mentioned by the game’s website, the visual style is based on the Perm animal style. Since castings were generally exaggerated, there’s a certain sense of deliberate crudeness to some of the creatures, but that’s just one of many visual elements at play here. There’s also some really unique background and foreground art, as well as a noise filter and all kinds of weather effects. The world is largely drenched in black, white, and various shades of blue, but there are also occasions where that gives way to pinks and oranges. One or two scenes have a static background that makes it difficult to tell when you’re making forward progress, but that’s rare and almost always followed up by something really visually impressive that makes it all worth it. Finally, there’s the music, which is surprisingly excellent and varied.
The standout by far, however, is The Mooseman’s choral stuff, which steals the show whenever it starts playing. If I had a single criticism, it’d be that the track that plays in the final bow and arrow section is a little too loud, but otherwise the soundtrack as a whole is fantastic.
The way it mixes atmosphere with melody allows it to be mysterious and intriguing without becoming boring.Story: 2/3 Gameplay: 2/3 Visuals: 2/2 Music: 2/2 ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - 8/10The Mooseman Screenshots.An Xbox One key for The Mooseman was provided for the purpose of this review.
It is fair to say that indie games on Xbox are now more popular than ever, with the easy access due to ID@ Xbox (Independent Developers at Xbox).The ability to self-publish games has opened up the market to game styles Triple-A companies wouldn’t make. Especially a game of this style which is basically just art porn but in the best of ways.This game draws inspiration from Perm Animal Style which existed in the 12th century in Russia. But because of the lack of knowledge of these myths, it is also drawn from the animal style’s based on the culture’s of komi-Permians, komi-Zyrians, Mansi and Saamic people.The story of the game is just fascinating even if at sometimes a little hard to understand.
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A long-long time ago the world was created out of an egg-shell by a god named Yen. In the murky depths of the endless ocean, the Lower World was born.The Middle World was made for the men to dwell, and the Upper World was where the ancient gods would reside. A multitude of spirits dwells among the layers of creation, guarding their secrets in the dark.Embark on a journey through all the worlds of ancient myth, find artifacts of Chud’ tribes and solve all the mysteries of finno-ugric tales.You are the Mooseman and you have the ability to see all that is hidden to the mortal eye.
You are about to visit the three aforementioned layers of this universe. The most lackluster part of the game are the puzzles, it feels like they were added last minute to appeal to more people.