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Moss (Quest): COMPLETED!

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I was recently bought a Meta Quest 2, which – naturally – meant I needed to figure out what games work well on such a thing and which were worth my time playing. One that was recommended over and over was Moss, so here I am telling you about My First Ever Completed VR Game!

If you take VR out of the equation, Moss is a nice little platformer with some puzzles and sword fighting as you take your mouse through some pretty areas like woods, a deserted village and eventually a castle. But, being in VR, it all feels like a set of interactive dioramas that you can reach into and look over walls and round corners as you do so. I suppose it isn’t immersive in the way you’d “traditionally” expect a VR game to be, but it is wonderfully tactile and immersive, like a kid’s playset come to life.

The Quest 2 itself doesn’t quite have a comfortable level of resolution so everything feels a bit pixellated and/or blurry, but Moss doesn’t seem to be affected quite as much as the other demos and apps I’d tried before playing it. All the depth effects feel “right”, and although I’ve yet to feel any VR nausea (not even in the VR rollercoaster sims) I can appreciate that the mostly static stage “scenes” would probably go a long way to helping those who do.

Graphically it is quite lovely, with nice lighting effects and detailed characters. Some of the backgrounds are populated with large objects and creatures (there’s a fantastic stag in one section) which help make you feel mouse-sized. Moss herself is animated really well and I love how you can pat or stroke her and she responds. She even high-fives you after tricky sections. Well, providing you don’t leave her hanging.

The gameplay isn’t actually that novel or unique, although physically reaching for handles and buttons with your own hands does change things a bit from the norm. It’s the way it is presented, the polish and the animations that really make it stand out for me. The VR is understated but impressive, the puzzles are OK but nothing too taxing, and the combat is a little quirky (especially when you use one baddie to attack another), but the sum of the parts is a beautiful little game with a lot of heart.

Pepper Grinder (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I’ve often said that some games that are previewed too far in advance of release are not doing themselves any favours. For me, anyway. Pepper Grinder is one such game, that piqued my interest in a Nintendo Direct long, long ago and then when it came out I’d totally forgotten about it whereas if it was wowgoshlookithtis and it was released a couple of weeks later, I might have jumped on it immediately.

Then I saw it in an eShop games-on-sale roundup video somewhere and I was repiqued. So I bought it. And it was great!

The main gimmick is that you have a big ol’ drill bit which you use to not only mole your way through soft earth, but also to damage baddies and turn gears and stuff. Digging through the ground (and ground that’s, uh, in the sky) will sort of launch you when you break out of it, so much of the game is about aiming your drill so as to launch and land in the right place.

There are some puzzles in that certain things have to be drilled or activated in specific orders, and tricky platforming where angles and timing are key to success, but you’ve also got baddies everywhere, and some clever bosses where you often have to make alternate use of your drill to damage them. Oh, and sometime you get a MASSIVE GUN and there are also shops to buy upgrades with stuff you collect along the way,

It’s also got nice pixel art and feels like the sort of game you’d play on a Game Boy Advance only this game didn’t exist then. Was Drill Dozer similar? I never had the £££££ needed to buy that rarity.

Cat Quest II (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Since I enjoyed the first game, and also had a free copy of the second, of course I was going to play that too. It isn’t actually vastly different to the first one, although you now have two characters you can swap between (you’ll never guess that the other one is a dog), and as well as a largely-similar map to Cat Quest OG there’s a whole dog-populated area north of it.

Gameplay is mostly as before, although upgrades to your equipment are now more like a traditional RPG with an actual upgrade shop rather than a lootbox-y gambling mechanic. The graphics are noticeably more polished too. Other than that, it’s pretty much more of the same, which it turns out, is Just Fine: a pretty laid back Zelda sort of game with silly characters lots of dungeons.

Xenosphere (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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I can’t tell you about this game too much because it will spoil it for you. What I can say, it’s a sort of simplified Trials game (you know, that motorbike on a 2D track thing) but also that it isn’t.

It’s also not very long, is very free (on Steam), and it’s by Nifflas who you might know from such games as Knytt and Affordable Space Adventure.

Cat Quest (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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My daughter picked this up on the Switch some time ago and loved it (and the sequel) so much she actually preordered Cat Quest III the day it was announced. She had never preordered a game before! I’ve always liked the look of it – 2D sprites on a map in a way that sort of feels a bit like Paper Mario but the game is more like Zelda and the camera angle is like those 2D-HD remakes of old 8-bit RPGs.

Anyway, after getting it for free on about twelftynine different platforms via PS+++ and Epic giveaways and stuff I finally got round to playing it on my Steam Deck (Lord bless the Steam Deck and its infinite supply of free games) and you know what – it’s really good. She was right.

It’s much more simple than Zelda, but it’s cute and mostly laid back. You, as a cat, travel the world and sword up baddies and enter dungeons and find better weapons and armour and level up your various magics like fire and ice and healing, and there’s nothing especially new or difficult here, but it’s all done in a polished way with great humour and silly events and characters. And I love the art style.