The Mooseman review for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One

If nothing else, The Mooseman cements for me the idea that Sometimes You is one of the most interesting publishers out there. There are many (many, many) publishers who put out better games, but between NORTH, It?s Spring Again, One Eyed Kutkh, and now The Mooseman (along with a bunch of games I?m probably forgetting), they clearly have a thing for the artsy and the incomprehensible.

In The Mooseman?s case, this means turning the mythology of an ancient Russian tribe (the pagan Finno-Ugric Perm-Chuds, if you want to be precise) into a adventure-platformer hybrid. You know, the usual video game fare.

Snark aside, it actually works much better than you might expect. The game involves you playing as the titular character, moving across a harsh environment filled with all kinds of obstacles. The twist? The world exists on multiple planes of reality, which means that where, say, you see a rock on one level, on another you?ll see some kind of monster. Traversing any given environment means figuring out which level of reality you want to be on.

As you can tell, it?s not a complex game. Nor is it a long one, seeing as you can easily beat it in under two hours. However, it makes up for its brevity and its lack of complexity by providing insights into a culture that almost certainly has never been featured in a game before, via collectible relics and accompanying explanatory notes.

In other words, your enjoyment of The Mooseman will come down to how much you enjoy edutainment. It?s definitely not for everyone, and if you don?t feel like reading every new page, then what you?re left with is a short, uneventful adventure game. If, however, that doesn?t phase you, then there might just be enough here to make The Mooseman worth your while.

Sometimes You provided us with a The Mooseman Switch code for review purposes.