Red Moon
Jonathan Hay (2008)
Red Moon starts out creepy, with macabre writing setting the dark tone. It sort of
reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft's The Outsider, but I expected a little more out of this one.
The real up side here, it's short. So you won't have to spend a lot of time on it.
This game is only one room, and there are no characters to speak of. Your sister is mumbling
to herself in the corner, and only responds with the standard no reply. There's not much to
do here, and I suppose most players will get frustrated pretty quickly. There is a hint system
built in, and it helps out a bit, but if the programmer is going to expect you to try all of
your senses, then they need to be accounted for in the code. Touching stuff doesn't do anything,
and even though there is a number of ways to get out of the room, the overall implementation is
lacking. Then there's the cross-genre ending that just kills it.
It's too bad the creepiness in the beginning of the game couldn't have paid off in the end,
and with little agency I figure most players will become frustrated, giving up early on. The
author only spent three days on it, and it's a nice try, but in the end the game just comes up
short. I gave this one a 6.