After I first began enjoying Luna Abyss, I actually wasn’t certain about it. Admittedly, I generally is a little bit of a snob relating to shiny graphics and gameplay really feel, and from my first second with the sport, I might inform that Luna Abyss was firmly AA.
Nonetheless, throughout my 10+ hours with the sport, I used to be steadily received over by a shooter that impresses not simply with its bullet hell gameplay, however its harrowing sci-fi world.
Set on the mysterious Pink Moon above Earth, you’re Fawkes, a prisoner on Luna with a hefty sentence forward of them. Nonetheless, after being chosen as a Scout, you’re given the chance to scale back your sentence by exploring the labyrinth under the Pink Moon’s floor, generally known as The Abyss.
Exploring the Abyss was the primary level at which developer Kwalee Labs impressed me. Luna Abyss is much from the best-looking sport on PS5, however the best way it performs with scale and lightweight will rapidly draw you into its sombre sci-fi world.
Huge chasms fade away into darkness, huge pipes weave their means round like roots, and also you fall from unbelievable heights. I used to be stopped in my tracks a number of occasions by haunting vistas, creepy discarded our bodies, and harsh lighting.
For those who stand up shut and private with all of it, certain, it’s a bit muddy, however I used to be genuinely impressed by the vibes Kwalee Labs was in a position to seize. It’s spooky and teeters getting ready to cosmic horror, with disproportionately giant areas.
Then there’s the gameplay, which does begin out fairly sluggish. With a squeeze of L2, weapons auto purpose, and with little or no in the best way of evasive manoeuvres, fight feels stale to begin.
However then the sport introduces a shotgun, which may break blue shields; then there’s a speedy sprint and a double soar; a rifle particularly used to interrupt purple shields; and so forth. On high of that, each time you face an enemy in some sort of boss-like stage, that enemy is then simply thrown into common fight encounters.
There are numerous upgrades to well being and weapons hidden throughout its ranges that faucet into the sensation of escalating energy. My main Scout Rifle was a beast by the tip of the playthrough, whereas my Protect Breaker shotgun remained at its base stage all through the entire marketing campaign.
The small nooks and crannies containing these upgrades are straightforward to overlook, so it had me scouring the degrees extra vigilantly come the tip of my time with the sport.
As I labored my means into the mid-game, Luna Abyss was enjoying solely completely different from these opening minutes. And as I fought the ultimate boss, it was solely completely different once more.
There’s not an enormous collection of weapons or a large RPG-like talent tree, however Kwalee well introduces the brand new weapons, expertise, and enemies that it does have to provide Luna Abyss a incredible, streamlined sense of development. The entire expertise, at the least from a gameplay perspective, feels very targeted and deliberate due to it.
What began as a considerably boring shooter expertise ended up being as “lock-in” as DOOM. I used to be grappling round, switching weapons on the fly, whereas dodging glowing projectiles like in Returnal.
Would I say that it feels fairly as good as video games like DOOM: The Darkish Ages? No. However the truth that it’s even a query to be requested proves to me that Kwalee has performed a wonderful job right here. It is punching above its weight.
In fact, you aren’t simply capturing continually all through its marketing campaign. Luna Abyss is speckled with enjoyable little platforming sections, which once more increase as you progress. Within the latter hours, it begins to mess around with every little thing you’ve discovered, and whereas I by no means felt that it was too difficult, I had enjoyable leaping, dashing, grappling, possessing, and activating platforms. It truly jogged my memory of a few of the platforming present in Future 2.
The principle level at which I grew to become a bit disenfranchised with the sport is its story. Luna Abyss does truly do an honest job of padding out a mysterious, centuries-spanning lore. And the esoteric vibe that it’s going for helps enhance that unknowable factor of The Abyss as a setting.
You’ll come throughout numerous characters in your travels, and right here you get to mess around with completely different dialogue decisions – though it must be famous that it makes no distinction to the end result of the narrative, from what I might inform.
There are respectable sufficient vocal performances to be discovered, however the occult nature of the world round you means I by no means actually latched onto anybody character, least of all Fawkes or the ominous Aylin that directs your quests. And the conclusion to the narrative I might see coming from one million miles away.
There are additionally some little bizarre bits to Luna Abyss. Like Fawkes’ jail cell, which you return to on the finish of every chapter. Right here you possibly can fall asleep and skim via textual content logs within the library – although these are accessible at any time via your menu anyway.
It got here throughout like these cell segments have been presupposed to have one other facet to them, however have been lower someplace within the improvement course of. Every time you say to Aylin that you just wish to return into The Abyss, she’ll ask should you’re certain, however there’s actually nothing else to do right here should you’re all learn up within the textual content logs. It could be nitpicky, however these segments at all times felt tremendous clunky to me.
I spent my time with Luna Abyss on each the bottom PS5 and PS5 Professional, with no discernible distinction between the 2. Primary vibrations depart the DualSense controller under-utilised, however regular efficiency throughout each consoles lets that hectic gameplay sing.
Once more, on no account is it the best-looking sport, and there are moments the place it virtually seems last-gen, however each once in a while, it’ll catch your breath with its ominous sense of scale.
