During the Electronics and Entertainment Expo of 2017, I was able to see a small sample size of Moss, a charming virtual reality game that was shown off during the Sony presentation as well as the Polyarc booth. Fast-forward to this years E3 and I was able to stop by the Polyarc booth again and play the more complete version of Moss. For those who are unaware, Moss is a lovely storybook adventure that comes to life in the form of virtual reality.
Between the pages of the story, you help guide swashbuckling field mouse Quill on an adventure unlike anything you’ve ever seen before! The difference between what was shown at this years show and last years show was like night and day. What was shown at E3 this year was as close to the final product as the developers were willing to present to the public!
You play as Quill’s guide in Moss and that means you get to help out when the going gets tough for our mouse friend. You can move things like stones and pillars so Quill can move in the right direction. You can also reach into the water and pull out/up stones so Quill can use them as stepping-stones to access different areas. The water looks so real that you might think when you reach into it, your hands are going to get wet! What you also get to do is move Quill and attack enemies with her wooden sword but at the same time, you can grab enemies and help out. You’ll be able to grab them and hold them to make it easier for Quill to attack.
You also have the ability to look pretty everywhere as there might be a solution to a problem in a spot you haven’t looked in yet. You’ll have to look in every corner of the area to see if something is a miss so you can get through to the next location. There might be vines that need cutting with your sword or you’ll have to make a certain jump to scale a small cliff so keep an eye out everywhere! It’s interesting to see Quill interact with the player and by interact I mean have her give little hints on where to go next and what things need to be moved, like the stepping-stones in the water for example. Graphically, the full version of the game looks great and if you didn’t know you were playing a virtual reality game, you might actually think you were outside helping a field mouse! You and Quill will have to work together if you expect to get anywhere during the story that is Moss!