Lunar Axe is a point and click adventure from Ops Game Studio, beginning with an earthquake trapping the player In the ruins of an old mansion. Your first task is basically to get out and a long the way you learn of an ancient threat and an ancient weapon to defeat it.
The game is beautifully drawn and does a good job of creating an eerie atmosphere with the music and scenery. The hand drawn scenes are truly beautiful, and it’s evident a lot of car time and attention went into them.
Lunar Axe is available across multiple platforms but I played through on PS5, it took me a good couple of hours to get through but if your used to puzzle games it might take you shorter. The puzzles are fun and they vary in difficulty. They take different forms, there’s an audio based one somewhere hidden objects puzzles and some are different types like find and place or use a certain item or a classic block slider. There is no option to skip the puzzles and no options for hints though, if you find yourself stuck there are plenty of both written and video walkthroughs on the internet you can look at for help.
Moving throughout the world can be a little clunky on the PS5 I imagine it runs smother on PC where you can use the mouse but it is still pretty easy to do. One annoying thing is that the directions of rooms do not always make sense because as you move around the players orientation changes and you can find yourself going back on yourself without meaning to. Most people should be able to find there way around after a short while though. Furthermore, there is a collapsible items box which when up can block you from being able to move from room to room as the actual area in which you need to click to do so is on occasion a bit small.
If you are thinking of playing this game, one thing I would mention is make sure you have given yourself plenty of time to clear the area you are in. As I learnt that if you get halfway through an area and need to exit out, when you turn it back on you will need to start allover. Another thing to note is when you do get the map to move from place to place make sure you are clicking on the right icon as otherwise you’ll reset the area and need to do all the puzzles again. I could not see a way around this and I did it with the very first area.
The majority of the story, as is often with point and click games, is told thought notes and letter you find along the way. There is a little dialogue in the starting area but that’s about it, and there is one quite fun interactive story book style part. At the very end there is a short boss fight which provides the option for a trophy as there is a pass and fail post story ending.
Overall if your looking for a fun way to spend a couple hours puzzling the value for money of this game is well worth it.