Moss Book 2 Review – A Satisfying Sequel That Sticks With What Works

A whopping 4 years after its opening chapter, Moss: Guide II is lastly right here to proceed the story of Quill, a tiny adventurer destined for an epic journey. Whereas the sport doesn’t suppose too far exterior the field in comparison with the unique Moss, developer Polyarc has refined the perfect elements of the sport to ship a satisfying direct continuation of Quill’s story.

Quill Guide II Particulars:

Out there On: PSVR, Quest 2
Launch Date: March thirty first, 2022 (PSVR), July twenty first, 2022 (Quest 2)
Value: $40
Developer: Polyarc Video games
Reviewed On: PSVR (PS5), Quest 2

Replace (July twenty first, 2022): Moss: Guide II is now out there on Quest 2. The majority of this overview nonetheless precisely portrays our expertise with the sport on each platforms (together with the rating), however on the backside of this text you’ll discover our ideas which might be particular to a overview of Moss: Guide II on Quest 2.

Gameplay

Moss: Guide II builds on the identical underlying gameplay components that made the primary an ideal recreation. The participant controls Quill, an lovely and succesful little adventurer, by platforming, mild fight, and puzzling. The participant performs seated utilizing the PS4 DualShock 4 controller (PS5’s DualSense isn’t supported), and controls Quill with the thumbsticks and buttons, but in addition has some direct affect over the world because of a floating orb that represents the place of the participant’s controller. Utilizing the orb you’ll be able to attain into the world to maneuver particular puzzle objects, heal Quill, mind-control enemies, and extra.

The story picks up instantly the place the unique Moss left off, so for those who haven’t performed it but, you’ll definitely wish to begin there.

Moss: Guide II is cut up up into small segments through which Quill often crosses from left to proper over the course of some minutes. Polyarc has upped the visible ante, even towards the already spectacular scenes of the primary recreation. Every section is a superbly detailed diorama with masterful consideration to lighting and composition.

In reality, the scenes are so wealthy with element that I really want the sport offered extra purpose for gamers to go searching the atmosphere—for those who keep purely targeted on getting Quill from A-to-B, you’d be lacking out on a major a part of the sport’s appeal. There are some hidden collectibles however they had been usually too apparent to actually encourage the participant to breathe in every scene as a murals. Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) had a easy mechanic the place every stage had a nearly-invisible creature hidden inside it, which was efficient at encouraging me to revisit ranges and look in locations I may not have thought to look on my first cross.

Moss: Guide II continues to be mild on enemy selection (which was already a critique from the unique), however fortunately it manages to boost fight simply sufficient because of the introduction of two new weapons (along with the unique sword) and a particular energy to associate with all three of the weapons. To activate the particular energy, the participant holds down the assault button to make Quill maintain her weapon up, then the participant should attain out and contact it with their controller to prime the ability earlier than Quill can use it.

Neatly, every weapon’s particular energy works as each an additional fight mechanic and a puzzle mechanic. As an example, gamers will get a ranged weapon which, when primed, may be thrown further far and can stick into partitions. Upon utilizing the assault button once more, the weapon will fly in a straight line again to Quill. Not solely can you employ this to hit a number of enemies in a row (each on the ahead thrown and the return), however it’s also important to lots of the recreation’s puzzles the place the participant is tasked with utilizing the return to hit switches that may in any other case be unimaginable to succeed in.

Due to the brand new particular powers of the weapons, and a few new environmental interactions, the puzzles in Moss: Guide II take a step up in depth over the unique recreation. Like the primary, I discovered puzzles hit that candy spot the place they often felt difficult and rewarding to unravel whereas steering largely away from frustration. There have been a couple of head scratchers that just about had me considering the sport might need bugged, however reliably I’d discover the reply after retracing my steps and attempting to have a look at the puzzle from new angles.

This was the case particularly later within the recreation the place a number of segments involving magical altering gravity will make you flex your spatial reasoning in new methods.

Moss: Guide II began with a reasonably sluggish tempo for my style; that is exacerbated a bit by how lengthy it may possibly take Quill to navigate across the atmosphere even when it’s apparent the place you must go. However by the mid-way level, the sport begins to hit its stride as you come to amass new weapons and extra is thrown your approach in each platforming and fight. Granted, I don’t suppose I died as soon as in fight, so the sport might need benefited from adjustable issue choices—like a cooldown on how usually you’ll be able to heal Quill.

Fight towards the sport’s fundamental enemies was satisfying however by no means felt terribly difficult, nonetheless the sport places your abilities to the take a look at with a small variety of distinctive and nicely designed boss fights. A kind of fights entails an enemy that’s a lot bigger than Quill and options gorgeous animation that was a delight to see.

And animation isn’t the one place the place Moss: Guide II shines. Actually the entire recreation is fantastically polished each in visuals and sound. Quill herself is animated with such prowess that you just actually get a way of her character from the way in which she strikes. And whereas the music didn’t go away me with any significantly memorable themes, it performed its function nicely in creating the best ambiance all through.

From a narrative standpoint, Moss: Guide II has sufficient happening to hold the motion alongside, however sadly the way in which the story is advised hampers issues a bit.

Sticking to the model established within the first recreation, the story is primarily advised by sequences that take the participant out of the sport and locations them in entrance of a e book. As you flip the pages, the singular narrator reads the story factors whilst you have a look at beautiful illustrations of what’s taking place.

Nonetheless, a number of of the sport’s key characters are solely ever seen within the pages of the e book—and so they’re all acted out by the identical narrator doing totally different voices—which I felt prevented them from taking up distinctive personas that had been grounded on this planet and central to the story.

Additional, there was a key story level that wasn’t communicated clearly which robbed the sport of the poignancy its ending in any other case may have had. Granted, I appreciated that the sport opened up some new and attention-grabbing threads as regards to the connection between the world of Moss and ‘The Reader’ (the identify for the player-character), although it appears we’ll have to attend for an additional chapter nonetheless earlier than we’ll see how that may play out.

All in all, Moss: Guide II took me nearly 5 hours to beat, together with gathering some 80% of the sport’s non-obligatory collectibles (all of which was from my first playthrough). Whereas that’s positively on the quick facet, I’m comfortable to report that the sport has little or no fats, and there’s sufficient momentum in gameplay and plot that the sport feels longer than these 5 hours alone. It’s simply sufficient to really feel like a satisfying journey, whereas the unique Moss felt prefer it ended too quickly.

Immersion

Like the unique, Moss: Guide II creates wonderful ambiance with its many superbly constructed environments. It’s an actual disgrace the sport lacks a ‘picture mode’ for taking high-quality pictures of those beautiful locations (the default PSVR screenshots and captures produce extraordinarily low decision media that basically undersells what the world seems like within the headset).

Every section is its personal diorama that’s coated intimately to have a look at up shut, and for those who again up and look additional round you’ll notice that every thing is going down in a normal-scale world. Lots of the recreation’s segments are set towards an enormous backdrop, like an enormous tree, that offers stunning context to Quill’s precise journey from one section to the subsequent.

In reality, you’ll often see the relics of a human world within the backdrop—like a dilapidated human-sized constructing partly masking the mouse-size stage earlier than you, or a protracted forgotten statue of a human. This environmental storytelling is extremely intriguing, however sadly the sport by no means instantly acknowledges it, leaving any historic interaction between the human and rodent worlds a complete thriller.

By way of varied mechanics like powering up Quill’s weapons or shifting interactive items in sure segments, Moss: Guide II appears to have the participant usually reaching into the world for direct interactions extra usually than the unique recreation, which helps make it really feel a bit extra actual (save for PSVR’s often wonky monitoring).

Small particulars—like crops reacting to the contact of your orb—assist promote the phantasm additional, and I appreciated that the sport’s stock system isn’t a mere selector however as an alternative has gamers seize the merchandise they need after which hand them to Quill.

One missed immersion alternative returns from the unique nonetheless: there’s by no means actually any menace or interplay directed at The Reader (the player-character), and no person on this planet apart from Quill interacts with you in a significant approach. As I put it in our authentic Moss overview, “I used to be capable of attain into the world, however the world by no means actually reached again at me in a approach that actually mattered.” That’s a disgrace contemplating how central The Reader’s existence is to the story and recreation construction typically, and the efficient methods through which Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) (to call one apparent instance) confirmed how this could possibly be achieved.

One other slight immersion breaker is that the sport may be very specific about the place the participant can navigate. Typically there will probably be a tiny fence that you just frustratingly can’t leap over—even when it will be a shortcut to the place you wish to go—and different occasions there will probably be a tall ledge that doesn’t appear like you would attain it, however really you’ll be able to—and it’s the one strategy to get the place you must go. That makes it really feel a bit extra like Quill inhabits a ‘course’ reasonably than a grounded world, and it may possibly rob the participant of some creativity in how they get across the atmosphere or remedy puzzles.

Consolation

As a seated recreation that by no means artificially strikes the digital camera, Moss: Guide II is sort of completely comfy. The one critique to the consolation comes not from the sport, however from PSVR’s monitoring which isn’t all the time on level. When your head is just some toes from a static scene, positional jitter is fairly apparent. It by no means rose to the purpose of creating me dizzy, however for anybody who considers themselves very delicate to VR movement it’d pose an issue for lengthy periods or particularly powerful monitoring situations (bear in mind to play within the darkest atmosphere you’ll be able to and be sure you aren’t back-lit!).

The one different consolation remark I’ve concerning the recreation is that occasionally I needed to attain a little additional into the sport world than was handy, just because Quill was far-off from me. This may be annoying relying upon how laid-back your seating association is.

Moss: Guide II Evaluate Quest 2 Addendum

Moss: Guide II on Quest 2 offers somewhat and will get somewhat in comparison with the PSVR model. Whereas we’d nonetheless give it the identical 8.5 out of 10 ranking, there’s some execs and cons to speak about. From a graphical standpoint, the Quest 2 model sees considerably lowered graphical element, nevertheless it’s clear the builders took a lot care and a spotlight within the course of (reasonably than, say, merely cranking down world settings or decision).

The result’s a considerate conversion that runs nice on Quest 2 and totally retains the spirit of the sport with none obvious points. I’d enterprise to say that for those who by no means performed the PSVR model, you wouldn’t discover that the sport had been lowered from its authentic type. And it’s price noting that whereas geometric and texture high quality is lowered, the sport seems extra outlined because of Quest 2’s larger decision show.

Balancing out a discount in visible high quality, the Quest 2 model of Moss: Guide II has two notable benefits: higher monitoring and twin controllers.

As a seated recreation the place the participant is usually just some toes from a static atmosphere, Guide II couldn’t do a lot to cover PSVR’s jittery head-tracking, which could possibly be a bit uncomfortable for these delicate to movement. On Quest 2, head-tracking is considerably higher, making the sport just about completely comfy.

Within the PSVR model the participant controls Quill and interacts with the world utilizing a single gamepad which has often inaccurate monitoring that typically works towards the participant. The Quest 2 model of Guide II advantages from higher controller-tracking which implies you’ll be able to all the time rely in your hand being the place you need it to within the recreation.

And eventually, shifting from a single gamepad on the PSVR model of Guide II to twin controllers on Quest 2 is one other profit. Reaching into the sport world with each palms on a gamepad is a bit awkward in comparison with shifting each palms independently. Not solely does it make issues a bit simpler and extra pure to succeed in, however having the ability to use each palms feels extra participating and allows you to play extra successfully (as an illustration, utilizing one hand to manage an enemy on one facet of the battlefield whilst you heal Quill with the opposite).

If I may solely decide one model of Moss: Guide II to play, I’d decide the Quest 2 model by a slight margin. Although you surrender some visible element, the monitoring enhancements and skill to make use of each palms make the sport extra pure and extra comfy to play.