A while back, Callum opened his Mortal Shell 2 review by saying that the soulslike community has been in what he called “a mixed year.” That statement still holds true if you’re thinking about Crimson Moon, ProbablyMonsters’ latest outing in the action, hack-and-slash field, which does have some elements of the soulslike genre, but still aims to make itself accessible for a broader audience.
Still, it is a fun experience, if you manage your expectations. It is safe to say that, in an industry with convoluted, highly detailed lore and plotlines, Crimson Moon manages to establish itself by doing the bread-and-butter, and doing it well. True, it lacks depth, but otherwise, it delivers a higher-than-average experience across the board.
Forgettable lore, unremarkable questing…
Starting with the part that I didn’t really like, Crimson Moon’s plotline is…well, barely noticeable. You are a nephilim, a child of angels and humans, and your role is essentially to fight back a demon invasion taking place in the city of Gildenarch. You do that by plunging and swinging very stabby things of various sizes in very angry looking monsters, all of which also bear stabby things themselves, and are also of various sizes.
Is there more to it? Sure, the entire regions you explore throughout your runs are filled with scrolls that you pick up if you explore enough, and they will tell you more about it. However, this is a context that games like Bloodborne did so well, and Crimson Moon didn’t: FromSoftware’s game entices you to know more, since it is commonplace that most games from the studio tie lore bits and gameplay together. On ProbablyMonter’s title, however, the scrolls are just…there. Pick them up or don’t, they won’t change a thing in your experience.
That also goes for the quests: there is the main objective (kill everything that moves and quell a demonic invasion), but there are a lot of side quests and bounties that, again, are forgettable both in execution and in delivery. What I mean by that is that your bosses will tell you to “kill 4 Undead Captains”, for instance, and you’ll end up running into them anyway. Then, as you turn in your fulfilled objective, there’s no sense of rewarded effort, no easily shown loot to obtain. You’re getting experience, but no one will really watch a bar go from “halfway” to “kinda almost full but not really”.
Other quests involve “finding artifact XYZ in ABC location”, given to you by the local merchant, the local librarian, the local blacksmith and, well, you know the gist of it.
…but awesome gameplay and customization, though
The bad part of Crimson Moon, which you read above, is intrinsically tied to one of the game’s most powerful features: despite simulating a few key details of any soulslike (enemies that stagger less, if at all; stamina management and few, limited resources available), this is a title that aims to be accessible and drop you right into the action.
And it does that by following a great recipe: Crimson Moon is, essentially, a “run-the-gauntlet” type of game, not unlike Elden Ring: Nightreign, for instance. Every time you leave your home base and go to the field to fight, that’s a “run”. In every run, your job is to get to the end of it by fulfilling certain objectives—some are “clear the area of enemies”, while others are “kill all Elites”.
For that, you have your initial loadout, but you can increase your capacities by picking up loot from fallen enemies. And therein lies a cool feature: warrior building. An enemy will drop greaves, while another will give you the chest and waist pieces or the gauntlets and, before long, you can have a full new set, with its own extra abilities and capacities. And the best part is that you can go for crazy attack power or build a tank so tough to crack, you’ll have two or three elites wailing at you and barely doing damage to your health bar.
That becomes especially evident when you’re playing co-op: Crimson Moon allows for a two-player session where you can both have builds that bounce off of each other’s key traits, adding another RPG element to it, alongside the loot-farming and level up mechanics, as well as some cool strategies like “you go right, I go left” shenanigans whenever you two are fighting enemies in open spaces.
There is a bit of a catch, though: since the game is divided in runs, you’ll also get a limited supply of lives. Be defeated, you’ll die and resurrect on the spot. Die too many times and you will face “True Death” and have your run restarted from scratch, losing your entire progress. So it’s not just a game where you hack away at enemies—there is a strategic component to it.
A gore galore
If you watched any Crimson Moon ad on social media, then you know how ProbablyMonsters focused a lot of its marketing efforts into showing how gory the game can be. And I’ll be honest here: it’s not DOOM, but it does its job nicely.
This is a very thoughtful compliment, given the game has a faster-than-usual pace when it comes to level progression, and unlike most “souls” games, you won’t spend several minutes in a single fight. In fact, after the tutorial and some two, maybe three initial encounters, you’ll likely end most encounters in just under 15 seconds, including Elites, the game’s answer to enemies who are not quite bosses, but not run-of-the-mill grunts either.
And at such a fast pace, highly dense visuals, such as execution maneuvers and other shenanigans, are tough to implement: do it without care, and you’ll kill the flow. Try to maintain the rhythm, and the graphics will likely be subpar.
ProbablyMonsters managed to find that finely tuned balance: while the number and context of the execution maneuvers are limited, they more than make up in visuals. Bring an Elite enemy’s health bar down just enough, a button prompt signals you the moment of going heavy metal on their heads, the camera jolts in proximity keeping up with the scene, then there’s heads smashed against the floor, massive swords cleaving things in half…you know the recipe by now.
It’s all fun, though not the most detailed experience when it comes to variety. In a single run, you’ll probably see all of them soon enough.
A soundtrack for the ages
As a headbanger myself, I sometimes do miss the metal tunes on a lot of the games I play. While they’re not “rare” per se, they’re also not abundant, especially in a fantasy setting—a genre that tends to prefer orchestra-like sounds in a more tame, controlled tempo. It’s like the musical equivalent of reading a particularly thick book. Nothing wrong with that and I do love it, too. But sometimes, you just want something to kick you from zero to everything and put the high drive there.
Crimson Moon’s scoring blends those two notions in a way that makes it sound very unique, all the while using elements that are pretty simple to find. There’s the symphony of an orchestra, and there is the powerful, fast and “in-your-face” heavy metal vibe. But the elegance comes from the fact that the music itself is not sectioned, but integrated: the heavy metal parts are treated as part of the orchestra, blended in and sounding like one, single composition.
Furthermore, the contextual sound cues have also received the same attention, drawing loads of immersion just by using the right track at the right moment: whenever you’re executing an enemy, guitar riffs and heavy drums are more prevalent, helping you feel more locked in on the action, while calmer scenes switch to an almost ecclesiastical piece—which is fitting, considering your character is based on a church. It’s all very “Nightwish-y”, if you’re a fan of the symphonic metal band from Finland, and just like them, it switches back and forth between fast tempo power tracks and more somber, slower pieces.
It is a game that will make you appreciate playing with headphones on, is what I’m saying.
Final thoughts
All in all, Crimson Moon is a very solid experience that thrives on doing the basic stuff very well. It’s not a long game by any means, but it will keep you busy for longer than you might expect, what with the levels you’ll have to rerun and collectibles you might wanna go after.
That, alongside the intelligent combat system where you do have to have a bit of a cooler head, but at the same time, can just spear enemies through and bury their faces in concrete with their own warhammers, makes up for a pretty good, fun time.
Review code provided by the publisher. Reviewed on a PC.
Crimson Moon is available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Fast-paced, accessible "run-the-gauntlet" combat paired with deep gear customization.
- Multiplayer component with strategic approach, making players create builds that supplement each other.
- Visual and audio parts show a lot of effort and care, with the heavy metal/ecclesiastical mix giving players a deeper immersion within the gory combat.
The lore is forgettable and feels unimportant to the overall progression of the game.
- Optional quests feel like filling empty space, lacking depth and a sense of reward.
- Despite the visually entertaining gore, the lack of variety in execution moves feel like a wasted potential.
