After the cliffhanger ending of Moss returning to Moss' fairytale world with Moss 2 is a wonderful and long-awaited treat. Who wouldn't want to join a loveable mouse in VR and help him defeat fearsome bosses and overcome platforming challenges to save the world? Moss: Book 2 wastes no time, picking up just after the end of the first game and then building on much of what made it so memorable, even if the aging PSVR tech it's currently limited to doesn't quite keep up.
The Tale of Moss 2
It's best to play Moss first or again before starting Book 2. Book 2 manages to be a welcome sequel for newcomers. Moss 2 is told like a fairy tale, and you control both a mouse named Quill and the human-sized reader who flips through her story again. This time she is being hunted by a winged tyrant named Tylan. As before, this isn't necessarily the strongest story, but Moss 2 is a sequel that at least improves on other aspects like world building. You'll learn about Ash Night, the event in which arcane forces brought down Quill's kingdom, and there's an interesting but underdeveloped cast that bears emotional scars from the tragedy. Book 2 fascinates with its late revelations and once again makes you want more. Developer Polyarc has obviously listened to the criticisms of its predecessors, so at least this time the game doesn't end on a total cliffhanger, but there's definitely still room for a sequel.
Find the broken glass
Quill's goal is to find the broken glass she needs to stop Tylan. In Moss 2 she hops through a ruined castle, a winter garden, arctic mountains, a steel foundry and much more. Of course, it's never quite that simple. You are frequently interrupted by arcane minions who stand in your way and who must defeat Quill and the reader in often lengthy combat sequences. Book 2 adds new enemies to the previous roster of mechanical bugs, such as an armored tank variant that can only be cracked with a special weapon. Also, there's an unfortunate creature known as the Ripper that the reader can throw straight like a pinball.
The fights
The combat in Moss 2 will feel familiar to anyone who's played the original, but Polyarc has added some new options to Book 2. Previously, Quill only had one sword, but this returning weapon is joined by two new ones: a hammer and a chakram. The hammer hits hard, but is slow and unwieldy like many heavy weapons in other games. The Chakram is a fast and light weapon that is better suited for taking out weaker opponents in large numbers. Your sword is somewhere in between. Aside from armored grenades and certain bosses, combat doesn't usually require you to use one weapon or the other, providing a welcome flexibility that suits different combat styles.
New Weapons
New weapons in Moss 2 offer welcome flexibility to your combat style. Polyarc also incorporated the weapon abilities into platforming, giving Quill additional powers in alternative ways. Holding down the attack button charges the currently equipped weapon, and moving your controller to touch it allows you to activate its special ability as a reader. For example, with the sword, Quill can jump over gaps that she would never be able to jump with a normal jump, slicing up enemies in her path. The chakram can anchor itself in walls and then be thrown back like a boomerang to hit obstacles that would otherwise be unreachable. Finally, you can place a reflection of the hammer over enemies or a switch and drop it as a reader if needed.
Load the gun
Holding down the attack button charges the currently equipped weapon, and then moving your controller to touch it allows you to activate its special ability as a reader. For example, the sword in Moss 2 allows Quill to jump over gaps that she would never jump over with a normal jump, slicing up enemies in her path. The chakram can anchor itself in walls and then be thrown back like a boomerang to hit obstacles that would otherwise be unreachable. Finally, you can place a mirror image of the hammer over enemies or a switch and eject it as a reader if needed. This fusion of platforming and combat is really interesting. Not only does it elevate combat beyond just swinging a sword, the puzzles make creative use of each ability so you can't just run through and hope for the best.
The Reader and Quill
The reader also has their own abilities in Moss 2, which allow you to interact with Quill as a separate character in this world. She is fully aware of this. While controlling Quill, your path in Moss 2 is often blocked by puzzles that require direct interaction from the reader to progress. These can be as simple as triggering Quill's special attacks, or more practical as moving blocks and dragging enemies onto switches by using the Dualshock controller's gyro sensor to point at them. The reader also has some new abilities, such as creating climbable vines in certain spots or dragging others across the screen to create bridges, giving you imaginative new ways to complete these challenges.
solve riddles
Solving puzzles is also cleverly used in Moss 2 to build the relationship with Quill. Book 2 focuses more on your interactions with her, such as B. High fives for a task well done, when she pretends to surf while you move a platform she's standing on, or when you just give her a hug. This is one of the most heartwarming aspects of Moss 2, and it's an emotional journey that wasn't expected. That Quill's relationship with her reader could grow in part through level design alone is a testament to its strength.
The playing time
However, Book 2 doesn't always feel fresh in terms of design, with many of the new mechanics only appearing after the first hour. Thankfully, Moss 2's adventure is longer than its predecessor. It takes you under six hours to complete Moss 2, and without exhausting your quest for the collectible Fragment Scrolls, which are a compelling reward for thorough exploration. While the campaign is entirely linear, you can hop between chapters at will and hop back to find missed collectibles, some of which are even inaccessible until you later secure the new weapons.
The tried and tested brings success
Book 2 doesn't take any unnecessary risks with its already successful formula, instead opting for an evolutionary approach. It's a pure sequel, with no big changes that could ruin the original or big innovations that could take it a long way instead.
Outdated technology
This sequel feels hampered with Moss 2 by PSVR's outdated tech. Unfortunately, this sequel is also held back by PSVR's outdated tech. The headset might have been a revelation in 2016, but six years later and with a successor on the way, it's extremely outdated. After playing Moss on PC with an Oculus Rift S, the game felt like a step backwards in terms of the quality of interactions. Thanks to this controller's light bar, a DualShock 4 is required, meaning there's no way to use the PS Move controllers or PS5's DualSense once you've opted for backwards compatibility. The DualShock controls feel nice when moving Quill through the levels, but direct intervention as the reader is another matter.
Lack of immersion
When using the DualShock, Moss 2 lacks the immersion that offers full motion control that is so important to VR. That's something the PS Move controllers are admittedly no longer good at, even if they were available. The PlayStation camera's field of view proved to be limiting, as distant objects can't always be accurately captured. This is a rare but frustrating problem when it occurs. While it's still functional, I couldn't help feeling that Book 2 occasionally had to make compromises to work around these limitations. Hopefully the PSVR exclusivity will come to an end soon like it did with the first Moss.
attention to detail
Book 2 feels polished, and despite the limitations, Polyarc has put a lot of detail into this world, which tells its story through a mix of in-game moments and cutscenes that you can flip through at your own pace. As before, Moss' audiobook-like approach to voice acting is a delight, with the narrator using different voices for different characters without them being recognizable. It's a charming approach that keeps interest alive and captures the mood of Book 2's more emotional sections well.
variety
Moss 2 also offers more variety, both thematically and in design. Each world you can explore is highly detailed and wonderfully colorful. It takes full advantage of the third-person gameplay to explore the levels with a 360-degree view. It's something that's not easily replicated in a non-VR game, and Polyarc encourages you to get off the couch and go in search of hidden secrets with your VR headset. Most of the time, it's worth getting up for the items you find.
Conclusion
Moss: Book 2 is an exemplary sequel that offers even more of what was so popular about its predecessor. The game builds on the original with new weapons, clever puzzles, and a living fairytale world, and it's still entertaining four years later, even if none of the additions really offer anything new. The exclusive availability of Moss 2 on the PSVR, with its now noticeably outdated technology, is more of a hindrance than anything else. Hopefully the game will make the leap to PC or Meta Quest in the coming months like the first Moss eventually did. But even with a Dualshock 4 in hand you can have a wonderful time in this world and you can be curious what Polyarc will do next.
Continue to Polyarc Games website