Moss

When Moss was initially announced for the PlayStation VR, I was intrigued by the concept of aiding a mouse named Quill on her quest by manipulating the environment in certain ways. The art style and Quill’s general design also got me interested in playing, though I ended up waiting until a physical copy of the game was announced before eventually picking up the game. While short, the price is definitely worth it and may leave you waiting for a sequel.

A young mouse named Quill has been chosen by a Reader (the player), who is reading a story in a library. Shortly after Quill tells her uncle about this, her uncle tries to take care of things himself, only to get captured by the evil Sarfogg, who has taken control of the kingdom the story takes place in. Upon learning about this, aided by the Reader and equipped with a magic sword via mysterious Glass she found earlier, Quill sets off to rescue her uncle from Sarfogg.

Quill (bottom left) on her journey.

The game is immersive in its own way compared to other PS VR games/demos I have played. The game encourages you to begin in a sitting position, although the environment can be freely explored by you looking around, usually by leaning or standing up to see things that may be obscured from the default view. This not only gives a great view of the amount of detail in the level design, it can also help in locating hidden scrolls that give you collectible fragments to complete an image found in the library. In addition to manipulating specific parts of the environment, the player is also able to control enemies by grabbing them, as well as restore Quill’s health by grabbing her backpack (the color of the backpack acts as an indicator); you can also destroy some objects via grabbing.

Because the default view is just close enough to the action, you may also be able to sort of connect with Quill and your emotions are heightened during certain moments. You can interact with Quill at certain points by giving her a high-five, which actually nets you a Trophy, and the general intimacy of the design caused me to feel sad for her at one point. The immersive nature of VR also makes the final confrontation with Sarfogg more terrifying that it might have been otherwise (although at some point it was replaced with frustration over multiple deaths).

Example of an environmental puzzle in the game.

The game generally sports some really good level design, featuring highly-detailed environments that can often make you want to look around and even behind you to view more. Many levels also consist of environmental puzzles that are just challenging enough to give you a feeling of satisfaction upon solving them and can put your multitasking abilities to the test. The narration by Morla Gorrondola helps sell that you are experiencing the events of a storybook, aided by the fact she has some good vocal range, and the music by Jason Graves adds to this well.

Moss is a PS VR game I would highly recommend for adventure and puzzle fans as well as those seeking to get more out of the system. The immersion factor of the game is impressive, as is the level design, providing a perfect example of what third-person VR games are capable of if done right. The game also heavily hints that Quill’s journey is only just beginning, however the execution of the concept was done so well that I’m actually looking forward to whatever sequel that developer Polyarc has planned. At $30 New (at time of writing), Moss is one of the more affordable PS VR games on the market and should not be missed.