REVIEW – Accompany Quill, a little mouse, in a whole odyssey of legend. However, accompany her for real, as a reader of her story and participating in her adventure. How, what is not clear to you? Well, discover in Moss’s review what one of the best virtual reality games is capable of offering.

Often whenever we have faced the analysis of a game of Virtual Reality like Moss, we have made clear the bases that make a game of these characteristics great. Do not look for the big technical boasts or abuse of being able to put things very close to your face. Simply, you have to make the right decisions. Understand that a traditional game is not being made and that the same formulas or genres will not adapt so well to the virtual environment.

Stylish Mouse

Moss understands how few good designs in this field, taking the best roads in all sections. Both the choice of graphic style, the approach to play and the positioning of the camera are undoubtedly some of the best options you can choose when you want someone to immerse in a VR experience, without forcing too much unnecessary dizziness caused by cameras in motion. So well does this system of fixed cameras work that we would love to return to those first bars of the survival horror or the JRPG in virtual reality under this premise.

Thus, Moss is presented as a story, in which we are the reader, and we will be able to participate in the adventure by helping a small and heroic little mouse named Quill. In this miniature world, mice have lost their ancestral place in the hands of an ancient evil and have been exiled after the fall of the last hero and his crystal of power. Quill will pick up this crystal that will connect us as a reader and allow us to help her in her search through this kingdom full of dangers.

The reader’s point of view

The greatness of Moss is, above all, his perspective. Virtual reality is a format in which the fixed cameras feel like fish in the water since they help the player not feel any dizziness due to the lack of movement. Moss makes very intelligent use of this way of framing the action, also creating that the point of view of the camera is ourselves, as a reader, who is present on the stage and we can interact with some of the objects that we find to solve puzzles.

Because yes, Moss contains a good dose of adventure and action, but it is first of all a puzzle game very well posed, in which the difficulty is gradually increasing until we have to state well what is the next step to take. It never demands too much, since it does not contain any very twisted puzzles, but it does make us use this mixture between controlling Quill and acting as the reader, with the possibility of moving objects or manipulating enemies, to create a clear path to the exit.

If we want a little more challenge, we have at our disposal a series of collectibles in the form of scrolls arranged by the scenario to be found. It may sound typical, but the truth is that they are very well thought out, since these scrolls are increasingly hidden, to the point that we will have to “peek” literally or get up from our site to take better perspective and locate them. Once this is done, in some cases the puzzle twists a little more if we want to access them.

The interesting thing about Moss is that he tries not to repeat too much of any of its phases, both regarding the challenges he proposes and in the graphics aspect. In the first steps of the adventure, we will learn to move with Quill as well as combine some actions with our ability as a reader, while more advanced, we will face enemies with different behaviors with which we will not only have to fight but also use and manipulate to make way In the final stages, we must make good use of all the lessons learned in order to solve the situation well.

We talk about Moss always like a game that makes the right decisions, and this is true even in the graphics question. There is a limit to what you can do with a virtual reality device because it is possible that if your game is very realistic to lose detail or have to make certain sacrifices. Moss is committed to a clean section, but very effective and, above all, colorful that takes us through forests, swamps, sand paths, underground caves and stone castles.

However, the most impressive thing is always our perspective as a player. At all times we have the feeling of being much bigger than the stage, as if we were watching a small theater of puppets, with a great detail that allows us to appreciate the whole scene and hide some elements so that we move from our seat and vary a little perspective.

A fairy tale and a mice

The story of Moss is simple, but it is presented charmingly. As if it were a fairy tale, we as a reader will find ourselves in an immense cathedral reading this magical book, from which we will pass the pages as we complete each of the chapters. It is fabulous the style chosen for the narration as if it were an audiobook that you can buy nowadays, in which the narrator himself is telling the whole story and recreating with different tones the voices of all his characters. As we go through the pages, the illustrations will tell us more and more of Quill’s pilgrimage to the final climax.

Moreover, here, in this climax, is where the problems come. Moss is a short game, which a seasoned player can finish in three or four hours. However, more than short, it feels unfinished, like a game by chapters, reaching the final test and ending Book I, as the game calls it, waiting for a possible and future Book II. While the game is enjoyed calmly, this end seems hasty, as if the developers had not had time for more and would have had to cut at the risk of running out of the budget.

Moss is perfectly one of the best virtual reality games we have had the pleasure of playing, and certainly, a must-have if you have PSVR. His approach is perfect, allowing a comfortable experience with the glasses on, a smooth control with some beautiful animations and a challenge in the form of original and striking puzzles.

It’s only but is that when its mechanics begin to take off is just at the moment when the title is over, leaving the player wanting more and waiting for a Book II that has not been talked yet and do not know if it will work in free chapter form or complete second part. This breaking in dry draws him away from excellence, but nobody who has a PlayStation VR should be left without trying it, it is further proof that virtual reality games, when they seek to adapt to the platform for which they are designed, shine with its own light.

-BadSector-

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment, Polyarc

Developer: Polyarc

Genre: Action-adventure

Release date: February 27, 2018