Talking about Moonatic Studios’ One Last Breath without bringing up the excellent 2016 puzzle-platform game Inside by Playdead would have been quite difficult since the former borrows quite a few elements from the latter, to the point where it becomes a cause for a skeptical eyebrow raise.
Fortunately, Moonatic adds just enough fresh and grand variations to make its game feel like it can stand on its own two feet, using deeply immersive visuals and sound design to get the message across while throwing in a couple of nature powers to differentiate it from similar games that came before.
One Last Breath is out now for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
The Visuals and Sound Design in One Last Breath Elevate the Experience
There is no denying that One Last Breath looks and sounds absolutely amazing, as the visuals and sound design are undoubtedly the greatest aspects of it. The game does a great job of showcasing the evident despair that the world is going through because of humanity’s own actions, and calling it hauntingly beautiful would be an understatement due to its ability to engulf the player right from the beginning.
From destroyed cities to shady laboratories, Moonatic manages to imply a feeling of a much bigger scope than one might expect from a relatively linear 2.5D title.
Visuals like these let players use their own imagination to add the apparently missing pieces to the whole puzzle, and when they are accompanied by a stellar soundtrack and just the right sound effects, it is quite fascinating. Trying to make it through a level in One Last Breath and randomly hearing the screeches and hisses of its somewhat generic but effective creature abominations definitely creates a necessarily eerie atmosphere.
One Last Breath’s Plot and Protagonist Could Have Used More Personality
One Last Breath‘s narrative is not something that has never been tackled before in various forms of media, as humanity has, obviously, failed Earth, and because of humans, the planet is basically dying. As a last resort, Mother Nature spouts out her last breath, giving birth to the protagonist of the game, Gaia, who has the power to connect with trees and alter environments as she sees fit to progress.
That is essentially all that Moonatic Studios gives to the player in terms of information about the plot and main character of its title.
That removes any kind of personal attachment that the player should have to what is being presented on the screen, and just a hint of more personality for Gaia or the narrative would have made it a completely different experience.
For now, it feels like there are no real emotional stakes in One Last Breath that should be cared about, resulting in heading towards the destination becoming a bit of a chore, and especially considering the major theme of the game, the message comes across as unnaturally preachy.
The Thirteen Levels in One Last Breath Are Creatively Distinct, but the Puzzles Really Are Not
Another thing that glaringly stands out in One Last Breath is the way each of the thirteen levels looks and feels like its own distinct section, very rarely repeating anything that was seen before in the game. From crossing the great outdoors through a fallen metropolis to an underwater-esque level that is surprisingly not as annoying as it usually is in other titles, Moonatic gets the unique level design right, even throwing in a blazing field into the mix at one point.
Not only does this stop the game from getting monotonous, but it also allows the developer to experiment with various forms of puzzles thanks to the variety of terrains.
Where the levels excel in One Last Breath, the puzzles are just serviceable, taking almost every single puzzle element from Playdead’s Inside with not much variation of its own. Remember the levers, buttons, and moveable boxes from the 2016 title? That is all here, but Gaia’s tree-bending powers are not nearly as cool as the boy’s controlling abilities.
Is One Last Breath Good?
For those players who have checked out Playdead’s video game Inside, there can be two ways in which they perceive One Last Breath. They would either appreciate getting somewhat of a spiritual successor to the 2016 title, complete with gameplay mechanics that feel quite familiar and gorgeous technical aspects, especially the stunning visuals and the wonderful sound design.
Or they would think that Moonatic Studios took a bit too much inspiration and implemented a lot of the same things in its own game, to the point where it became blatantly obvious.
For those who have not, One Last Breath keeps things vibrantly engulfing throughout its outstanding and varied levels, although the main themes and character could have used more individuality. However, it does not really do anything innovative or out-of-the-box with the puzzle-platform genre, resulting in the core message and the game not being as effective as they could have been.
