There were A LOT of games to sample at Gamescom 2023. I tried and experienced as many as I could. Some were good, some were amazing and some weren’t quite there yet. Thankfully, I’m here to tell you that Luna Abyss was one of the most memorable experiences of the whole show, and for all the best reasons.
You’ll no doubt have seen the announcement trailers, gameplay trailers and even the character bios of a couple of incredibly important parts to the game, but let me tell you, Luna Abyss is best experienced with a headset, solitary confinement and complete immersion. This is one hell of a game, and easily the best indie I played during my time there.
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Luna Abyss is as Unique an Experience as it is a Familiar One
Created by Benni Hill, co-founder and creative director over at Bonsai Collective, Luna Abyss promises to be as memorable as it is unique in what it is offering. Players take the controls of a poor soul sentenced to nearly 10,000 days of prison labour on a solitary, desolate moon called the ‘Red Moon’. As you can imagine, this name is more than just a name, and takes from the frankly outstanding and incredible environments you’ll be spending your time exploring. Everything is bathed in an eerie, red light which sets the mood and atmosphere for some of the most fun bullet-hell dynamics I’ve experienced in a long while.
During my hands-on with Luna Abyss, I spoke to Benni Hill about the game, its inspirations, the setting and atmosphere, and much more. One of the most important things he mentioned during my playthrough helped me pick up the mechanics far quicker than if I hadn’t of heard it.
“[Luna Abyss] places the focus on the movement instead of the aiming.”
Whereas with the likes of Doom you’ll spend as much time aiming, be it iron sights or just manually as you do moving, Luna Abyss has a different approach to this niche FPS genre. It removes any and all manual aiming. You don’t have or need an iron sight. Holding the trigger of your respective controller locks on to the nearest enemy, and then you can go to town on them, with a wide range of weapons. This may sound simple, but it’s far from it.
During your time on the Red Moon you’ll meet a variety of enemies that have a variety of weaknesses, and you’ll be expected to figure out what these are, but more importantly judge what the best weapon is for the scenario in front of you. Do you have an enemy with a shield? Well, until you use the Shield Breaker weapon to destroy that, your other weapons are useless. This was just one example of the puzzle-first-person-shooting mechanics on offer, and Benni promised there would be a lot more to come, with equally impressive guns for solutions.
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Luna Abyss is all about Guns and Running
As with any first-person shooter, the movement of the avatar is as important as the shooting mechanics, and with the unique approach to combat Luna Abyss provides, it is arguably more so than other FPS’ in the genre. You’ll be spending as much time strafing and avoiding bullets from the enemies all around you, as you do locking on and killing them. Remembering the terrain is also incredibly important. Mistime a sideways jump? Say hello to a dark abyss, or a faceful of painful bullets.
Between the copious amounts of enemies you’ll encounter NPCs to talk to. Some of the material here is pretty dark, but so are the themes of the game. Don’t be expecting a leisurely chat about the weather, that’s for sure, however, the first NPC I met during my time was nothing short of a hulking, mountain of a man, casually staring into the abyss as he talked the finer points of the environment with me. You’ll know which one.
Of course, the supporting characters are equally as fun to talk to, with Aylin, Red Moon’s prison warden being an ever-present in your time there, casually insulting you one moment, and then offering you the chance to decrease your prison sentence by completing a task the next.
Benni explained that this was intentional, with both having the character be morally grey throughout, and her intentions and motivations be unknown, you’ll spend a great deal of time wondering exactly whose side she’s on, and if she’s actually helping you at all.
My time with the game was spent exploring, drinking in the atmosphere and trying to master the aiming and movement mechanics, which are so different to something like Call of Duty or Battlefield, for example. Being told I was playing on a near complete, final build would usually draw ire from myself, but knowing not much is going to be changing from what I’ve experienced at Gamescom to what’ll be released is actually something I’m glad to hear. Too often developers tinker and lose what they have, and parts of Luna Abyss are VERY special, and too good to lose.
What do you think of Luna Abyssso far? Are you as excited as me? Let me know in the comments!
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