The Cosmic Horrors of Moons of Madness
So you’re alone on Mars. Millions of miles from home. Your only companions are a handful of crew members and the endless red dust stretching to the horizon. Now add in some Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and you’ve got Moons of Madness, a game that takes the already-terrifying concept of space isolation and cranks it up with the well-known tentacles.
Moons of Madness is a First-Person Exploration and cosmic horror game developed by Rock Pocket and Dreamloop Games and published by Funcom. It was released in 2019 and connects to the Secret World universe, which gives it some interesting lore depth, but you don’t need to know anything about that to appreciate what’s happening here.
The Story of Moons of Madness
Life on Mars
In Moon of Madnesses we control the engineer Shane Newehart, who works at a space base located on Mars. He wakes in his dormitory after a nightmare about some creature overrunning the base and soon realises that the power is not working. Shane, along with a few colleagues, has recurring nightmares about a figure they know as the witch. While the other crew members are busy with their duties, it falls to Shane to adjust the solar panels and restore power to the base.
He also communicates with other colleagues, such as Josephine, Inna, Lukas and, above all, Declan. Through these conversations, we learn that the base is a secret project owned by a company called Orochi, and its aim is to find alien life. In addition, Shane laments the disappearance of his mother, a famous researcher who vanished some time ago.
The Greenhouse Incident
Upon returning, Shane must rush to the greenhouse to reset a leaking water system. However, he discovers that Inna and Lukas are conducting an experiment with plant-like biomass. After completing his task, Shane confronts a mass that spreads like a giant tree, taking over the entire greenhouse. Soon afterwards, a creature attacks him, forcing Shane to flee the base.
Visions Beneath the Surface
Shane heads towards the communication tower, where Declan is supposedly stationed. Yet as soon as he steps out of his rover, he is confronted by a cave that appears before him like a hallucination. As he descends, Shane encounters a dreamlike landscape that merges with his childhood home. There he sees the witch again, speaking in riddles about Mars and the moons Phoebe and Deimos. A scar on Shane’s hand refers to the two moons, and he uses this symbol to progress through the oneiric cave. In a place resembling his home’s cellar, he discovers a book within a kind of sanctuary.
Waking back inside his rover, Shane climbs the communication tower, only to find it empty. Moreover, Declan has left signs that he is losing his sanity because of the witch. At the top of the tower, he sees a supply ship, Cyrano, crashing in the distance. After boosting the communication signal and contacting the other members, Shane must flee once more as he is pursued by shadowy figures resembling astronauts.
Secrets of Orochi
Returning to the base yet again, Shane finds everything overtaken by the Filth (the biomass), and his colleague Lukas has been killed by the entity. Before his death, Lukas created a poison capable of destroying the biomass tree. Armed with the poison, Shane enters the greenhouse and succeeds in contaminating the water. However, he must face Doctor Inna, who has merged with the tree and become possessed by it. With no alternative, Shane defeats her. Meanwhile, Josephine and Declan head towards the crash site of the Cyrano, whereas Shane discovers a secret lift within the base that leads to an underground facility known only to the company Orochi and Doctor Inna.
The subterranean installation contains evidence of the creation of the Filth. Shane also encounters androids throughout the complex and uncovers Orochi’s involvement in his mother’s disappearance. Deeper inside, there are emails revealing Orochi’s work on cloning the base crew and constructing a colony on Mars called Eden. Shane’s curiosity leads him to release a being held within the base, which triggers a series of hallucinations. His mother, Sarah, had been researching occult matters and became influenced by this other realm, as often happens, through reading the Necronomicon. Sarah speaks of creatures known as the Dreamers, cosmic beasts of immense power.
Orochi abducted her in the past to obtain such knowledge and access the Dreamers’ power. She eventually escapes from the company. As it turns out, the witch is a form of projection of Sarah, who exists between dimensions, and she asks Shane to stop the Dreamers.
The Final Choice
After waking back at the base, Shane makes his way to a gigantic stone door set into a mountain wall on Mars. This place was discovered by Orochi and can only be opened with a special key. Apparently, an ancient race created both the site and the key to contain the Dreamers there. Once inside, Declan and Josephine are killed by the Filth, which intends to awaken the Dreamers through a machine at the centre of the cavern. Shane fails in his attempt to restore the Gaia Engine as he watches the moons align and the entire structure collapse.
The creatures’ awakening during the lunar eclipse becomes imminent. Even so, Orochi created a safety mechanism, and Shane uses the Invictus, a space module, to launch himself into space. His mother never intended to prevent the awakening; instead, she wishes for the Dreamers to devour reality. Shane must choose between following his mother’s desires or attempting to stop the eclipse by using the missiles of the Invictus module. By destroying the moons, he saves the world, yet he is left adrift in space, where he dies without oxygen.
Into Shane’s Helmet: Gameplay
Moons of Madness is played entirely from a first-person perspective, which immediately puts you in Shane’s helmet (both literally and figuratively). You’ll spend most of your time walking through the Mars research station and venturing out onto the Martian surface, taking in the environments and uncovering the station’s secrets. The exploration is deliberately paced; it is more of a “walking simulator” with puzzle elements and horror thrown in. You’ll be reading logs, examining objects, and piecing together what happened before things went sideways.
As a technician, Shane’s job involves fixing things and solving problems, which translates into the game’s puzzle design. Many puzzles are practical and grounded in the reality of maintaining a Mars base—in sci-fi terms, at least. These puzzles aren’t usually brain-busters, but they are well-integrated into the setting.
There is no combat in Moons of Madness. You cannot fight back against the horrors you encounter; your only options are to run, hide, or avoid danger entirely. The game isn’t particularly punishing with its checkpoints, but losing progress to a death can break the atmospheric immersion.
Like many modern narrative-focused games, Moons of Madness relies heavily on environmental storytelling: messages from crew members detailing what happened, research notes, emails, and reports. While these aren’t mandatory to complete the game, they are essential for understanding the full story.
Atmosphere and Setting
The combination of Martian isolation and cosmic horror creates a genuinely unsettling mood that the game maintains throughout. The feeling of being utterly alone on a hostile planet, millions of miles from help, is captured beautifully. The visual and audio design work together to create a sense of genuine dread. The Martian landscapes feel appropriately alien and empty, while the research station interiors nail that claustrophobic sci-fi vibe.
The game understands what makes Lovecraftian horror work: the slow revelation, the breakdown of reality, and the incomprehensible nature of the threat. The environmental storytelling and lore scattered throughout the station are strong points. The game rewards players who take the time to read logs and explore, building a richer picture of what went wrong.
Problems with Pacing and Puzzles
The game takes its time—perhaps too much time for some players. The first few minutes involve a lot of walking, reading, and completing technical tasks before the real horror kicks in. While this slow burn builds atmosphere, it also risks losing players who expected more immediate thrills. Even after things get weird, there are stretches where you are solving technical puzzles or walking long distances that some might find tedious.
Regarding the puzzles: on one hand, they make sense for Shane’s role as a technician and fit the setting well. On the other hand, they are often quite simple and can feel like busywork interrupting the horror. Some puzzles also suffer from unclear objectives, leading to frustration where you know what needs to happen but cannot figure out the specific steps the game requires.
The stealth and evasion sequences, where you need to hide or run from threats, are arguably the weakest link. These sections can feel like trial-and-error, requiring you to die and replay them until you find the specific route. For a game focused on atmosphere, dying repeatedly and respawning breaks the spell quite severely.
Furthermore, it suffers from being an “exploration game without exploration.” While it is categorised as such, there isn’t much freedom in how you approach situations or solve problems. You are following a predetermined path through a linear story, leaving little room for experimentation.
Wrapping Up
Moons of Madness is best described as a narrative-driven horror exploration game with light puzzle and survival elements. If you enjoy atmospheric, story-focused experiences and don’t require action-heavy gameplay, you will likely appreciate what it offers. If you prefer games with more mechanical depth, combat systems, or player agency, you might find it lacking.
The gameplay serves the story and atmosphere rather than standing on its own as a complex system to master. And honestly? For this type of game, that’s perfectly fine. Sometimes you just want to be creeped out while slowly unravelling a mystery on Mars, and Moons of Madness delivers exactly that.