I’m a fan of anything to do with space. Well, that and robots. Well, that and exploration. Coming to us from Bounding Box Games, who previously brought us the delightful “Star Ninja”, comes “Thunder Moon” which brings together all three. It’s like it was designed to suck me in.
Bringing together the aforesaid themes with a block-building landscape, it does the one thing that only a small number of these so-called Minecraft-clones do well: gameplay.
Want block-building for its own sake? Try to open-ended building mode. Want combat? Try the same mode, but filled with enemies. Want structured gameplay? Try the campaign mode full of object-oriented missions. The variety is nice.
Also nice is the variety of upgradeable weapons and other equipment. Customised so much of the map that you don’t want to walk across it? No problem, you can teleport across the map.
The presentation is good (solid texture, great music, great in-game frame rates, animated menus, etc.) as are the controls. It’s single-player only, but the game is so well done in every aspect that it really shines. Perhaps the sequel will enable Xbox Live play.
Here’s what the developer (Bounding Box Games LLC) has to say about the game:
“Explore Thunder Moon’s cavernous alien landscape by foot, with jetpacks and by vehicle in this sci-fi shooter adventure! Fight bosses, warp time, craft weapons, boost stats and items with powerups, place turrets, mine resources, build structures, and much more as the story unfolds in the vast world of Thunder Moon!”
Writings of Mass Deduction 