Moon Rift Demo

Randomly generated game worlds are the future, given the fact that everyone is trying it, and the experiments are beginning to be more impressive every day. Hence, Minecraft does a marvelous job at providing you with massive and random world every time you start a new map, which means that it must be possible for other games to achieve the same thing as well.

Moon Rift is a procedurally generated 2D platformer with RPG elements, in which your primary purpose is to explore the levels and try to survive the constant onslaught of enemies. By destroying them, you also get better weapons and ammunition, which allows you to do more damage and continue the cycle until you are satisfied.

The background story is a bit fuzzy and it doesn’t make too much sense, although it doesn’t matter too much anyway. The action seems to be taking place in a nondescript world and you even get to move around using rockets, presumably from world to world. Whenever you depart from a world, the environments change and everything else feels somewhat different, which is a huge plus for the overall atmosphere.

You have the option to choose between multiple characters in the beginning, although they do not differ too much from a gameplay point of view. Each one of them has an inventory, on the other hand, which can be used to hold money and a variety of weapons to unload into the nasty creatures. Speaking of which, the monsters are quite funny-looking and aggressive, so you’d better keep your guard up at all times.

Visually, you shouldn’t expect wonders from a basic 2D engine, but that doesn’t mean the artwork isn’t great. However, some of the special effects are a bit too sketchy and unrefined, although you can safely ignore them most of the time. The sound effects are almost entirely absent as well, which doesn’t make for a great atmosphere.

All things considered, Moon Rift could have been quite the hit with the crowds, even if the entire project was developed by a single man. However, he seems to have abandoned it a few years ago, which means there will probably never be a full version.