To the Moon - Total Recall-meets-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

dejanzie wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Also, Rieves posted this picture on the game website. Way cool.

IMAGE(http://freebirdgames.com/system/wp-content/uploads/LaunchTtMSteam.png)

Please tell me they count down from 10!

Nice job. Now I wish something for the game that I know isn't going to be in it.

A friend of mine gifted this to me and I just finished it. Wow, what a wonderful piece of interactive fiction. I really enjoyed it and it affected me a lot more than I thought it would. I don't know how I missed it originally, but I'm really glad it came my way.

After reading some of the older comments regarding the ending:

Spoiler:

I was totally okay with the "perfect life" ending. I don't know if the fact that I played it through in one sitting made a difference, but from the get-go it seemed to me that it was the entire job of the doctors to fulfill the client's wish in order to make the memory of their life better. The more perfect the better as far as their job goes. And while just removing River so Johnny could go to the moon would have satisfied the terms of their contract, Eva took the big risk in the hopes that it would pay off big time as far as River meeting him on the moon goes, and it worked. It's a "what if" of extreme proportions, but it totally worked with me.

In fact, I think I would have been disappointed if it hadn't turned out that way (but I also like happy endings, especially after an experience with a lot of sadness in it).

Was it realistic? No, but to me that was the whole point of a company that makes unfulfilled wishes come true. The people though, were very realistic. And that's what pulled me in so much.

I'm also a big fan of Crimeny's tinfoil hat theory. I don't know that I fully buy into it, but I definitely think there's something more going on here than just an addiction to painkillers.

PS: Rabbit's gonna cry like a baby when he plays this game.

It's good to see that a few more people on here are playing it now that it is up on Steam.

I received my Steam code today via email.

I just hope that it makes it that much more likely for us to get sequels.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

It's good to see that a few more people on here are playing it now that it is up on Steam.

I received my Steam code today via email.

Ibidem.

Gremlin wrote:

I just hope that it makes it that much more likely for us to get sequels.

To Mars! To Infinity and Beyond!

Honestly, I don't think this game needs a sequel. How do you envision one?

What are you talking about?! The game ends on a cliffhanger!

Hyetal wrote:

What are you talking about?! The game ends on a cliffhanger!

I can't even remember that. I'm a little worried now.

It's tiny, but probably very significant.

Spoiler: http://youtu.be/74GoVzAkr1E?t=42m20s

And the whole "Episode 1" thing. Obviously, it'd be a continuation of

Spoiler:

the doctors' story, not John's

.

Hyetal wrote:

It's tiny, but probably very significant.

Spoiler: http://youtu.be/74GoVzAkr1E?t=42m20s

THAT is my tinfoil hat moment! Embrace the crazy theory! EMBRACE IT!!

Hyetal wrote:

No need, apparently, the game is now on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/20...

...and that's what I was waiting on!

When the Holiday Steam Sale comes around again, I'm pretty sure I'm going to gift this to everyone like a Mofo.

AUs_TBirD wrote:
Hyetal wrote:

No need, apparently, the game is now on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/20...

...and that's what I was waiting on!

Why? I like steam but in this case it's available on GOG as DRM free so no locking into one machine at home. If I get it which is pretty likely i'll buy from GOG.

Thanks for the gift, Hyetal! My wife and I are actually both pretty interested in trying it out, so she is thankful too.

My pleasure!

Finally got around to playing this the other night and it was pretty amazing. I feel like this game pulls off with lower production values and blunter narrative instruments what Dear Esther was trying to do in a more abstract way. I will agree that there were a lot of contrivances along the way, but I think because the game embraced its presentation style that the emotional story worked despite it all.

Spoiler:

I disagree that the ending was a "happy Hollywood" ending. Reality didn't change, River still died two years ago and John never understood how she felt on a conscious level. The "life" he experienced thanks to the machine was more of a metaphor for his presumably unconscious epiphany about his desire to go to the moon and how that related to his relationship with his wife. The only possible alternatives are that he dies without understanding anything, which is depressing and pointless, or that Eva and Neil somehow communicate directly with him and tell him what they discovered, which is too direct and boring an ending. In fact I almost suspected an even more poetic ending where he literally finds River on the moon.

The Holiday sale is over, and I suspect lots of goodjers got this game as a gift. Hopefully. I gifted it to my brother. Any new players here that would like to discuss? What a great game. I just read through the entire thread, and I loved the discussions going on.

I want to play this again, and continue discussing more!! Keep gifting the game people!!

Bought it in the sale and played it all the way through a few nights ago. I liked it a lot. It's very much video-game-as-novel. I love how it often makes you work to understand character's motivations rather than spelling it all out. Aside from a couple of clever moments that integrate gameplay into the storytelling, I think the gameplay is actively detrimental to the experience (and this from someone who loves Dreamfall, a classic of great story and clunky gameplay). It's not just the action sequences, it's that even the basic point-and-click controls feel inconsistent and unresponsive. It's a real shame because I love almost everything else about the game. (Which reminds me, next time it goes on sale I'll have to pick up the soundtrack).

Yay! I'm glad he eventually got it up on Steam, and it made the sales.

I just started this today as my lunch break activity. This might be a mistake. After the first 45 minutes, I already had some manly misty eyes of manliness going on, and had to go to a meeting.

Chaz wrote:

I just started this today as my lunch break activity. This might be a mistake. After the first 45 minutes, I already had some manly misty eyes of manliness going on, and had to go to a meeting.

Yeah, set aside a 3-4 hour chunk where you can be alone and finish it in one sitting.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Chaz wrote:

I just started this today as my lunch break activity. This might be a mistake. After the first 45 minutes, I already had some manly misty eyes of manliness going on, and had to go to a meeting.

Yeah, set aside a 3-4 hour chunk where you can be alone and finish it in one sitting.

Agreed. As you most notably saw already, this is gonna be difficult to set aside and play in different installments. It´s gotta be all in one sitting man, and you won´t regret it. Trust us!! Glad to see more people playing this!

Yeah, getting that kind of time in one sitting just ain't gonna happen these days. It's lunch time gaming or nothing.

Gonna get it for my kid to play this weekend.

Just finished this, wow. After months of hearing about this I thought my expectations would be too high. They weren't, it was amazing.

*edit*

Reading back through the thread, it's disappointing that reives never came back for the follow up post.

Also, Minarchist may be history's greatest monster.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Just finished this, wow. After months of hearing about this I thought my expectations would be too high. They weren't, it was amazing.

*edit*

Reading back through the thread, it's disappointing that reives never came back for the follow up post.

Also, Minarchist may be history's greatest monster.

He has a valid argument. I think most of us get over the smaller flaws really quickly, though, especially if you play it in the context that it was mostly one person making the game in his free time. I can't recall what Reives was going to follow up on. I hope he has started up on a follow up episode. I haven't checked the Freebird Games forum in awhile. I'm just glad the game finally made it to Steam.

Hah! Awesome. That's getting a yoink.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Just finished this, wow. After months of hearing about this I thought my expectations would be too high. They weren't, it was amazing.

*edit*

Reading back through the thread, it's disappointing that reives never came back for the follow up post.

Also, Minarchist may be history's greatest monster.

He has a valid argument. I think most of us get over the smaller flaws really quickly, though, especially if you play it in the context that it was mostly one person making the game in his free time.

Even leaving aside the fact it was one guy, I think it hit most of the points pretty well.

Spoiler:

Eva and Neil's job is to make a person's memories as perfect as possible. If it's too Hollywood or Stepford, that would be considered a job well done.

John wanted to go to the moon because he wanted to find River again, even though he didn't know that. So sending him to the moon without her would have been a failure. Even though the River he met at NASA was based on his memories of her before finding out about the condition, so would be idealised.

For me the climax of the game was at the carnival, basically everything after that was a coda. And I'm glad it ended upbeat, otherwise I would have been a wreck.

And man, even now thinking about poor River trying to reach out to John with the rabbits makes me crack.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I can't recall what Reives was going to follow up on. I hope he has started up on a follow up episode. I haven't checked the Freebird Games forum in awhile. I'm just glad the game finally made it to Steam.

He was going to respond to Minarchist's issues.

reives wrote:
Do you mind if I point your assessment to Kan Gao on the Freebird Games forum?

No need. :p I actually came across this thread from a Google alert earlier. Interesting read; thank you for playing and the feedback, folks!

@Min: Thanks for the detailed assessment! There're some intriguing points there, some of which I completely sympathized with at one point during its making, actually. I'll try to explain what changed my mind personally tomorrow or so (not that it'd change your view; just showing my side of the coin).

Cheers, all!
Kan

Minarchist wrote:

Hah! Awesome. That's getting a yoink.

Hah, awesome. Glad the comment was taken in the spirit it was intended.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Even leaving aside the fact it was one guy, I think it hit most of the points pretty well.

Spoiler:

Eva and Neil's job is to make a person's memories as perfect as possible. If it's too Hollywood or Stepford, that would be considered a job well done.

John wanted to go to the moon because he wanted to find River again, even though he didn't know that. So sending him to the moon without her would have been a failure. Even though the River he met at NASA was based on his memories of her before finding out about the condition, so would be idealised.

For me the climax of the game was at the carnival, basically everything after that was a coda. And I'm glad it ended upbeat, otherwise I would have been a wreck.

And man, even now thinking about poor River trying to reach out to John with the rabbits makes me crack.

Hah, awesome. Glad the comment was taken in the spirit it was intended.

Serious spoiler:

Spoiler:

The game ended with the same flashing pulse as encountered earlier which suggests that you're not actually in John's head, but in Neil's. Remember the pills from earlier?

silentsod wrote:

Serious spoiler:

Spoiler:

The game ended with the same flashing pulse as encountered earlier which suggests that you're not actually in John's head, but in Neil's. Remember the pills from earlier?

More serious spoilage:

Spoiler:

On the contrary, as Neil seems to be aware of / reacting to the "pulses" (which did not seem to be the case for Johnny in the final sequence), it suggests to me that it is in fact Neil who is in somebody else's head (Eva's?)

Edit: Just re-watched the sequence, seems that I was misremembering it. Please disregard the above.