Moon Hunters co-op action RPG released for Linux, some thoughts

Recently Samsai and his band of misfits took you through some Moon Hunters on a GOL livestream (follow us on Twitch!) while I was unwell, now I am better I gave it a shot and here's some quick thoughts. Disclosure: Keys provided by developer.

I had some initial troubles with the game, as it seemed to detect the Steam Controller fine, but when trying to start a new game it wouldn't let me actually join as a player, despite the entire main menu and options working fine with it. Turns out only some games work properly with the Steam Controller if you're not using Steam Big Picture. Running it in SBP made it work fine. Seems Valve have some kinks to work out there with it.

It has full gamepad support, local co-op and online co-op play, so you're not short on options to enjoy this one. On first thoughts, the music is absolutely lovely and really makes me feel at home. Some music just feels perfectly suited to a game and this is one of those awesome times.

The intro video gives the impression that it ends really abruptly, as if it's some sort of bug or in need of tweaking. It literally cuts, stops dead and goes to load into gameplay. There's no fade-out of the music or anything. Other cut-scenes have felt the same.


Moon Hunters oozes style out of every orifice and I love the look of it for sure, but there's far more to a game than how it looks. It must perform well and be entertaining, so is it?

Performance wise, the game is mostly fine. It occasionally feels like it does a quick (less than 1 second, but you can see it) stutter when it's loading in a new section of the map, but apart from that it's very smooth.

The game feels like it literally just drops you in it and it does. No tutorial or anything, so prepare to learn quickly. Luckily, the game is pretty easy to learn with only a few buttons being needed.

I lasted all of 5 minutes of my first little run due to zipping around and running into some weird and ugly creature. It was tough and I ended up crawling away from it in my defeat. You come to your village and prepare for a meal, it turns to night, but there's no freaking moon! Well, I guess that's what a "Moon Hunter" is then. It seems you have five days to figure something out.

After that, I was left confused as I picked places to travel to at random, speaking to a bunch of unhappy people and gaining attributes from having a quick chat.

So, there I was running along, darting about all over the place, slaying beasts and suddenly I come to an area that locks me in as trees grow all around me and some sort of monkey boss appears. It takes some swipes at me, throws a few rocks, but ultimately it cannot best me. I wasn't expecting it at all and it was pretty cool, the encounter literally jumped right out at me.

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As far as the combat goes in this game, it's pretty slick. Only one point about the combat I don't like, which is your direction seems to be locked in place when you start attacking, so you can't turn as you attack. Minor point, but still weird at first.

After each day you pick what your character will do from things like Resting, Cooking and so on. Each decision grants your character bonus points in specific areas like Endurance or Charm. It's a very cool idea, as it's another way that allows you to play each run vastly different.

At one point I found a snake that had been mauled by some desert creatures, I hastily healed it and it now seems to follow me around hissing and helping me fight, so that's weird and cool.

Overall, I've found the game to be charming, challenging, stylish as hell and something you simply must try. To get the most out of it you do need to play it more than once though.

You can find Moon Hunters on GOG, Itch.io and Steam.