The next book

Moss is a VR “third-person” platformer set in a story book where you help a little mouse on a big adventure. All six VR players liked it so much that there’s a sequel! Moss: Book II picks up right after the events of the first game, after you helped Quill kill the big bad snake.

The game starts with me opening the literal next book in the story and being transported into it.

It’s on the mouse

Quill, the mouse, works with the usual third-person platforming controls. Like every game that calls itself action-adventure, there’s the usual mix of combat, puzzles, and exploration.

However, the special feature of the Moss series is that you can directly interact with the level to help her, with the level shown at about the height of your chest. You can pull and push objects to help Quill get around or even grab enemies to hold them still for her to hit. The combat is very forgiving, with enemies slowly telegraphing their attacks, plus you can heal Quill any time by holding her in your hand.

As expected from a book, Moss: Book II is a linear adventure. I sometimes get pulled out of the book world back to my seat to watch the next pages of the story unfold.

A VR game that doesn’t try to throw you around

Even as an experienced VR user, it gets annoying when a VR game feels the need to have very large spaces or to fling you halfway to Mars to try to sell the immersive power of virtual reality. In contrast, Moss sells the immersiveness of VR modestly but also more intimately. The environments are smaller but very detailed, like a stage right in front of you on a desk.

Unlike a lot of VR games, in Moss, sitting is actually required. Sometimes, you need to lean and look around, but the game never asks you to get up and move around. Keeping with the book theme, instead of scrolling the view as Quill moves around, scene changes are represented as turning a page of the book.

Since everything happens right in front of you, at about chest- to eye-level, and you never need to turn around, Moss is a much more comfortable and less intense experience.

Friend-shaped

Virtual reality is a very intimate format for a game. Eye contact and physical gestures feel so much more compelling in VR than in any other format. VR games inevitably integrate the players themselves into the game setting, so the fourth wall is always at least a bit loose in VR.

In Moss, there is no fourth wall. Quill knows you’re reading her book and often turns to look up at you to ask for help.

And you can pet her!

And you can high five her!

Where we’ve been

At this point, I’ve explored swamps and castles on a quest to get the important things that do the important stuff. I’ve just made it past a big twist in the story, which I deliberately left out of the pictures and videos in this article.

But here’s a picture of a beautiful swamp.