Luna Abyss: A great game through a layer of industrial mist
Gameplay
The gameplay is really solid at its core. The engine feels smooth, movement is fluid, and the combat is genuinely fun once the game opens up. I played on the highest difficulty, where enemies get more health and projectiles become significantly faster, and honestly that’s where the gameplay started to shine for me. The boss fights especially became way more intense and enjoyable because the game constantly pushes your reflexes and movement. first I actually thought the game was going to be too easy because the lock-on system basically feels like an aimbot. But after playing longer, I realized the game isn’t really about precise aiming at all, it’s much more focused on dodging, positioning, and reacting quickly under pressure. Once that clicked for me, the combat loop grew on me very fast.
The platforming is handled pretty well overall, but it also felt a little too easy. I kept wishing the game had more puzzle-like moments similar to Portal instead of mostly straightforward traversal sections. There’s definitely room for more creative environmental gameplay there. There were also a few sections I didn’t really enjoy. The moments where you just have to shoot tons of blobs to carve a path forward started feeling pretty tedious after a while. Another section that really didn’t land for me was the spider area. It basically throws you upside down and asks you to navigate forward, not because it’s difficult, but because it just isn’t very pleasant or satisfying to play through.
Overall though, the gameplay felt consistently solid and fun. The movement and combat carry the experience hard, especially on higher difficulties where the focus on reflexes and dodging really comes alive.
📕 STORY
The story is decent enough, but honestly it felt pretty predictable most of the way through. The game does a respectable job building up mysterious lore and atmosphere, and there’s clearly effort put into the worldbuilding, but it never really delivers any major shock moments or reveals that elevate the narrative in a meaningful way. Throughout the game you’ll come across different characters and get dialogue choices during conversations, but it’s worth mentioning that none of your choices actually affect how the story unfolds. The dialogue system adds a little personality to interactions, but don’t expect branching paths or meaningful consequences.
To be fair, I did spend time exploring and reading most of the tablets and lore entries I came across, and I think completionists or players who enjoy digging into environmental storytelling will probably have a good time uncovering all the secrets hidden around the world. There’s definitely enough lore there to keep invested players interested. For the average player though, the story is mostly just serviceable. It does its job well enough, but it never becomes something truly memorable.
🔈 Sound
The sound is overall pretty solid. The voice acting is decent and gets the job done well enough, but it’s not really something that stands out as genuinely impressive. None of the performances are bad, but they also aren’t particularly memorable, and it’s probably not something you’ll think much about once the game is over. The music, however, is definitely one of the stronger aspects of the audio experience. The soundtrack has some genuinely great tracks that fit the fast-paced action and atmosphere really well. The final boss theme especially is incredible, but honestly the entire soundtrack is strong enough that I’d gladly listen to the full album again outside the game. Its not quite on clair obscur expedition 33 level, but hey is anything?
The sound effects are also pretty good overall. Weapons, movement, and combat all sound satisfying enough during gameplay, although it’s fair to say that other games have handled audio feedback and impact with more polish and intensity. Overall, the sound side of Luna Abyss does a good enough job overall.
🌆 Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is good, although it does feel somewhat held back by the visual presentation in many of the darker areas. At its core, the setting is genuinely interesting and built around a unique sci-fi style that gives the game a strong identity. There’s a constant sense of mystery surrounding the world, and the atmosphere does a solid job pulling you into its strange environments and lore. Gradually, Luna Abyss unveils layers of fragmented storytelling tied to the catastrophic Scourge event, the shadowy organization known as F.A.T.E., and the enigmatic All-Father. The mythology itself is definitely intriguing and feels deeply connected to the world and atmosphere around you rather than being dumped through exposition. A lot of the lore is discovered through exploration, environmental details, and scattered tablets.
The biggest issue is as mentioned that some of the darker areas are visually cluttered by heavy fog and filters, which makes it harder to fully appreciate the environments and environmental storytelling. You can still tell there’s a lot of effort behind the world design, but certain visual choices stop parts of the game from having the impact they probably should have had.
Visuals
Visually, Luna Abyss can actually look quite beautiful, especially in the areas where there’s proper lighting and the environments are allowed to breathe visually. The art direction itself is strong, and there are moments where the game genuinely looks stunning.
What really holds it back though is the strange decision to cover many of the darker areas with an extremely heavy gray fog effect. It ends up ruining a large portion of the atmosphere and visual clarity throughout almost half the game. It constantly feels like there’s a filter sitting over the screen that dulls the environments instead of enhancing them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers eventually add more graphical tweaking options, but as things currently stand, visual enthusiasts will probably feel like something is missing. This becomes especially noticeable once you reach the meadows area, because suddenly you get to see how good the game actually looks without all the aggressive filters and fog effects covering everything up. It almost feels like seeing the game properly for the first time.
Another issue is the bloom lighting in certain sections. Some areas become so overwhelmingly bright that you can barely see what’s happening on screen, which gets distracting pretty quickly instead of immersive. Overall, the game still has good visuals and for players mainly here for the gameplay, it’s more than satisfying enough. But for people who are excited to fully immerse themselves in the world and appreciate the visual design, it might honestly be worth waiting until the game gets some visual tweaks and better customization options.
Luna Abyss is a solid sci-fi action game with a strong core foundation. Movement is fluid and the combat built around reflexes and timing is the game strongest suit. The puzzle and platforming sections are fine overall but nothing groundbreaking. The presentation side is also strong in key areas. The music is genuinely good with several standout tracks, the voice acting is decent and serviceable, and the worldbuilding is well done. That said, the game is held back by a few issues as mentioned. The heavy gray filter used in many of the darker areas ends up ruining a lot of the visual clarity and atmosphere, and it affects how much you can actually appreciate the environments and world design. Combine that with a few other minor flaws, like the bloom lightning, poorly done spider section and some other tedious areas it keeps the game from reaching its full potential. In the end, there’s a lot to like here, and the foundation is strong enough that the score would have been a bit higher if not for the heavy gray fogging and those smaller issues dragging parts of the experience down.
If you’ve made it this far, you either enjoyed the review or you’re avoiding real responsibilities, respect either way. If you want more honest opinions, occasional praise, and the rare game that doesn’t disappoint like a pre-order promise, follow my Steam Curator page. Im willing to waste my time so you don’t waste your money. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44944862/
