To celebrate the launch of the Meta Quest  3S, Polyarc decided to surprise everyone by releasing a brand new update that substantially improves the visuals of both Moss games, whilst also introducing some quality of life additions that the community has been asking for over the years.

As it has been a long time since I first played the original Moss game (and I’ve never played the sequel!), now seemed like the perfect time to dive into both games and see how they fare after the new update!

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NOT JUST A PIPSQUEAK
In Moss, you play as a guardian spirit to a brave young mouse called Quill, who embarks on an adventure after finding out that her uncle has been captured by malevolent forces. It’s quite a simple story that doesn’t try to do anything particularly new, but the appeal lies in how the tale is told.

What makes the narrative feel all the more compelling is the storybook presentation that accompanies it, as key narrative elements are played out between gameplay segments on the pages of an ancient book in a massive magical library. It’s really well done, and helps to make it feel like a fairytale whilst also cleverly allowing for a way to add flat cutscenes that don’t break any of the immersion.

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Much like Max Mustard, Escaping Wonderland, and the like, the gameplay has two main aspects: on the one hand you are controlling the protagonist directly, guiding Quill as she attacks and platforms around each scene; but also as her guiding spirit you’ll need to play a more active role as you manipulate the environment around you to aid her progress.

It’s a great way to ensure that you feel connected to the world, and it’s done very intuitively too. Interactable objects have a shiny glow to them, allowing you to move them in a variety of ways. You can even give Quill a hand by healing her whenever she’s hurt, which may have a tendency to happen frequently given how surprisingly tough the combat can be. Whilst it’s not necessarily hard, I have to admit that it threw me off at first as the game pretty much requires you to get a hang of the dodge mechanic right off the bat. Should it be too tough, this new update allows you to skip some – or all – of the combat, so there’s no reason to overly stress about it.

What impressed me the most about the worlds was not necessarily the platforming, nor the combat, but just how beautiful it all looks. The lush environments are fantastic to look at up close, and the new visual update makes it even more impressive. I wasn’t expecting the graphical update to be so huge, but it’s surprisingly really good – especially as the improvements don’t come at the expense of the performance either.

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VERDICT
Moss is well-known as a classic for good reason, and this new update only improves on what was already a fantastic game. With around four hours worth of game for you to enjoy, it’s not exactly the longest experience, but it’s certainly one worth experiencing.