First Impression: Across The Moment (PC) ~ Let’s Go On A Journey!

Official Steam Page

Today, I want to take you on a journey. The journey that the game “Across The Moment” tell you. Currently, the first episode is out. There will be 4 episodes in total. The three other episodes will come as an update in the future. To write this review, I got a review code from the developer. The developer also gave me full control in what I could write in my article. So, this is completely my opinion. In any case, enough introduction. Time to get reviewing this moment. Well, “Across The Moment”. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

Note: While I have almost finished the first episode, I’m not going to make this a review since not all episodes are out.

Artstyle tells it all

When you look at the promotional screenshots of this game, one thing is quite clear. This game doesn’t look like your run of the mill adventure game. And it is, this game is trying to tell a grim story about somebody falling into a depression and doing something. I won’t talk about it since it would spoil the game a bit in my opinion. But believe me, this game talks about some heavy subject matter. It also has some social commentary that really made me think about how our lives currently work.

The story gets more power from the voice acting. While the voice acting didn’t click with me at first, after the story started to get more and more clear, I started to understand and appreciate the voice acting and the direction it got.  The only thing I shall say is, imagine it’s somebody telling his life story about he fell into a depression and how defeated he felt. It really comes through in the pacing and voice acting.

Apart from the dialogue, the story is also told by the journal. Whenever something happens, it gets written down in the journal. From story bits to observations of the world you are in. I really like how this game is written. It clearly shows a passion for the story that the creator wants to tell with his game.

Everything is documented from the game, so when you take a break from the game for a while or when you need a refresher on what happened in a certain place or world, you can look it up in the journal. It’s an extremely handy tool.

Thanks to the dark artstyle with bright colors, the story gets even more meaning. The only issue I have with the art style is that sometimes the game is a bit too dark and you barely see where a wall is.

Visually, the game succeeds in setting the required atmosphere. I really liked the world building and the story is told through symbolism. The animations are great too. The use of color really helps to guide the player to where to go next. If I may change one thing in terms of visuals is that more items you can pick up like the screwdriver or the belt are in a different color, even a different shade of grey. Since it’s not always clear if there is an important item you missed or not.

Let’s Go On A Journey

The first episode takes about 1 and half hours to complete if you really know what you are doing. If the other chapters are this long, I think you have a 12-hour game on your hands. But, let’s keep our focus on the current released episode.

This game is a 3D adventure game. It’s more of a walking simulator with a lot of puzzles and exploration. So, basically, it isn’t a walking simulator at all. In this game, you have to solve puzzles to be able to open doors and progress to the next area. Here is where some issues are with the game. My biggest complaint is the inventory. In my honest opinion, the inventory system is decent, apart from one thing. The system that is used to combine items is just annoying to use. Perhaps it’s a limitation of the Unreal 4 Engine being used, but it’s annoying to use. You must click on the ying-yang symbol, drag one item in the left box and the other item in the right box and click on the misaligned “yes” to try and combine them. You don’t even get any feedback if you can’t combine the items. It makes controlling the game annoying.

Which is a shame, since the controls for this game work fine for the most part. I wish that the controls were rebindable. Since, just like various other indie titles, they don’t know that “AZERTY” exists and now I must put my fingers weird again.

Just for you QWERTY-users, a reference. To move forward, I must use the Z key. And to move backward, the Q-key. The S & D-keys do their job fine. Anyways, let’s get back to reviewing this game.

There are two other things I want to point out about the controls. One is there is something odd you can do while you open your inventory. You can still duck, stand up and jump. Also, when you hold any of the movement keys, you hear the walking sound effect.

The second thing I want to talk about in terms on the controls is the jump. Besides having a great jump arc, the jumping is stiff in my opinion. I noticed that when you jump first and then press the move forward key, you don’t reach as far as you jump after you have moved forward a bit.

The jumping mechanic needs some polishing up. I found it frustrating and unreliable to use, especially in the platforming segments of the game. There was one segment in the game that took way too long to make. It would be great too if there were some checkpoints between the jumping segments. There is nothing more frustrating than being almost at the end of a jumping segment and falling all the way down for just one minor mistake.

Symbols

In terms of the music, the soundtrack is good. The style of the soundtrack isn’t 100% my thing, but I love how it adds to the atmosphere of the game. The sound design is decent. While I wish there were a bit more sound effects for when you jump or when you land, I think the sound design is like I said: decent.

The difficulty in this game really depends if you can see the solution or not. Sometimes, the solution isn’t that clear and you are overlooking one thing. Really experiment with your environment and your inventory if you are stuck. Try the “everything on anything and combine everything with everything” tactic if you are stuck.

This game is also available in Chinese and Russian. It’s still a mystery to me why this option isn’t in the options menu but in the main menu. I think it would be more helpful if you move this option in the options menu, to be honest.

I do have to say, this game is only 3€ on Steam. I think that you get more value for your money when you buy this game. If you are interested in this game, I think you should buy this game.

There are also Steam Achievements and trading cards for people who are interested in that. There are 4 card drops for 6 cards to create a badge. Good luck.

That’s everything I wanted to say about this game. I can’t wait to see the second episode of this game since I really want to know where the story goes next. Thank you so much to the developer for giving me a key to try out this game. I really enjoyed my time with this game. I hope you also enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Advertisement

Creative Christmas #3 – Help Santa!

So, today is another day and another question to answer in the mega blogging collab of LaterLevels. I’m still unsure if I should theme these articles since the goal is being creative. But, if I start a theme now, it’s a shame that the first two articles in this series didn’t have a theme. Actually, I think that shouldn’t be such a big problem. Yet, I think that editing my previous articles in this collab to fit a theme would be a bad idea to do… Hrm, while I think about it, here is my answer to today’s question.

You receive a call from Santa, as the elves desperately need a hand in the workshop getting all the toys ready. Which video game character would you recruit to help out?

So, who could help Santa in getting all toys ready? It should be a character that can work fast for sure. Sonic, maybe? Nah, I don’t think that will be a good idea since he most likely will break a lot of the tools since he is too fast.

I could put in “Sinterklaas“, a tradition here in Belgium & the Netherlands that’s extremely similar to Saint Nick. You know, you can call them almost brothers. But, since he isn’t really a video game character in the first place and more of a tradition, I don’t think it would count.

Maybe Asterix & Obelix? They got powerful druids who can make special elixirs that make them super fast and super strong. But then again, they are more comic book characters who got some pretty amazing games and they will have the same problem that Sonic has, they would be way too fast and the tools might not be able to follow.

Oh, maybe Putt-Putt? He had a Christmas book, called “The Night For Christmas“. That might work if we would live in car town that is. And sadly enough, we aren’t. Man, this is getting tricky.

Each time when I think of a character, something doesn’t click with me. Something deep inside me tells me that they aren’t the perfect character to help Saint Nick out to save Christmas.

You know, I was also thinking about some ridiculous ideas that might just work. Somebody like Paperboy could help with his experience in delivering newspapers in the craziest neighborhoods, but then again, that might not help a lot in creating toys.

At this moment, I dove in my game collection and looked through it. There had to be one game with a character in it that could help Saint Nick to create all these presents? I quickly threw Elf Bowling 1&2 on the DS to the side. I still shiver at the idea of putting those characters in my article to answer this question. I mean, that might be the reason why Saint Nick needs help since the elves are on strike and he doesn’t want to use them as bowling pins since that idea became a terrible game…

For real, this question stumped me for a while. I kept looking through my collection. I didn’t want to give a cheap answer and tell that Saint Nick can help too since he appears in various games, or say that a whole cast of characters from some game could help since they are with a lot of people…

Various characters passed my eyes as a possibility. Steve from Minecraft and the Sims are just two possibilities. But, then again, those aren’t too memorable characters since you create their story and you decide it all for yourself.

Maybe Guybrush Threepwood? Then again, rather not. I think he will just create something that looks like a toy and steal it afterward since he is a pirate, har har! Nah, I need somebody else.

This was becoming a real tricky puzzle for me to crack. I really had to have somebody who is kind hearted, a hard worker and a gentleman or a gentlewoman.

I wasn’t able to solve this one, but I’m sure that Professor Layton will know some tricks. Wait a minute. I think I can suggest him.

Yeah, he would really be able to help Saint Nick and with his knowledge of solving puzzles, he might be able to quickly think of a solution to help Saint Nick in his quest to finish all toys in time. This will work out just fine. If Layton is on the case, I know that this issue will be resolved no matter what.

So, that’s my answer. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until they have a great rest of your day and take care!

More answers here: https://laterlevels.com/2017/12/21/creative-christmas-santas-workshop/