The Moon Sliver

The main thing I love about David Szymanski's work is the lack of generic "horror" tropes or really any scares at all, but with it's ambiance, story, and everything else about it being truly horrifying but also weirdly beautiful. This game is another prime example of that in his story telling and it's frankly fantastic and his work is up there on my favorite short games I've ever experienced. Genuine fantastic stuff.

A walking simulator that evoques isolation, loneliness (of course) and has a nice mysterious story.

The Moon Sliver is a very atmospheric walking sim, where you play as the last person on a deserted island. The game is trying to evoke feelings of dread, loneliness and giving up hope. Because that's what seems to have happened, the people living on the island you're exploring has given up hope that their life will become better. It's not a long game, and it's not hard to figure out the next step. There are some interesting mechanics, for example how the flash light is charged. It is noticeable that this is one of the first games from the developer, as the game feels very experimental (much like his other title, Fingerbones) as it's trying to tackle a topic regarding faith. It's definitely worth checking out!

Gameplay is not a relevant aspect to this game, it's more like a short horror book turned interactive experience. It's fun to piece together whatever is going on. Even in such a bleak scenario humans and their emotions can turn things worst. But there's something more than that in play, and this game will leave plenty of space for interpretation. It does manage to feel hostile and overwhelming (in the good way one would expect from a horror game) while allowing you some moments to take in the atmosphere and the implications of the story.

This "game" is one of the worst pieces of media I've ever consumed. It looks like the Excel 97 secret 3d level thing and there's literally no gameplay except walking around and reading oddly placed text on your screen that do nothing in terms of storytelling or atmosphere. If you hit yourself in the head with a hammer and wrote something before passing out, it would be a better scary story than whatever this is. It's truly baffling how this has any positive reviews at all. My brother recommended this game to me and now I'm seriously considering getting a new family.

Por ahora, junto a Iron Lung, mi juego fav de esta persona. Será corto (40 min aprox), pero está muy bien escrito, diseñado y ejecutado. Encima tiene uno de mis momentos favs de los videojuegos de este año al menos.

I've never had such an experience, and even after I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up and didnt realise that you could insert codes on the round door thingies, I still almost cried while playing it. This game is the closest experience to reading a book in gameplay form. Now that Iron Lung was successful as a movie, turn this one into a movie too!

for two bucks? definitely worth it imho. more than worth it. turn the lights off, mute your phone. from here on out, spoilers and rambling: this game highlights my issue with the term "walking simulator". it isn't always a derogatory term, i use it lovingly, but when someone who uses it to group + dismiss narrative games as though they revolve around "walking" have failed to see the potential of the video game medium. so i suppose if you hear "walking simulator" and roll your eyes, you're not gonna be able to appreciate the tension this game builds. i think the moon sliver, technically speaking, does exactly what it was built to do. and! i like the little note on the opening page that describes its intentions: a no-save, one-hour experience. i can agree with others, that the text system isn't my favorite, but i certainly don't hate it, especially for a game that takes less than an hour. and, it's unique! it calls to older puzzle games such as myst and syberia. i see why szymanski would take this approach to conveying the game's text (in his own words, i believe he said he wanted to simulate flipping through the pages of a book, which i definitely got and enjoyed). going in, i knew this wasn't the type of game to have other characters or entities wandering around with responsive "ai" (using the term in the old-fashioned sense now), and i'm a very technically-minded person. However. i really got freaked out in these tunnels. lol. similar to iron lung, there's something about the sound design, and the game's understanding of immersion + less is more. as for the story, i felt it was told in a way that was easy to follow but still asks the player to read between the lines. wandering around was rewarding, as well as harrowing. i love worlds that are dying, and this was a good and melancholy illustration of just that. i like the hopelessness of unanswered questions (ie: the chapel of endless light i believe it was called? no one questioned that. what's the point in seeking an answer?) and the unquestioned acceptance of so much loss ("this used to be a forest").

I liked this game! Cool story, I recommend if you play this that you also play The Music Machine. Can't say which I recommend playing first, but play both!

I liked the ambience, sounds, mood but not the narration. Huge random text blocks just killed the mood. And I understand the idea between the narration to make player to put all the pieces together, but it was somehow messy when you do not know what to do next. There is also no save option. I like walk sims, just not this one.