A spider simulator for conspiracy theorists (★★★★★)
Good indie games find their own original concept, but great indie games also explore that concept to its fullest. Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon is one such game.
So it’s a spider simulator. You shoot web lines by jumping off surfaces and any enclosed space between multiple lines becomes a web that traps insects. Then you eat them. Yum!
But the devil is in the details, as the insect types behave differently: some will only get caught in a very large web, some you can scare away into getting caught and others will avoid your web unless you build it right on top of them. Some insects have to be physically tackled, so there’s a nice variety. So it’s mostly a puzzle game with a bit of action when timing your jumps. Finishing levels is easy, but hitting each level’s target score is a lot trickier, but it’s a fun challenge. A cool addition is that you can look at your bug collection from the menu and some insects are rare finds.
Some things can only be done or found in certain weather, as levels have variations. There are 30 levels, each with 4 weather variations, for 120 levels. That’s a decent package. The only annoyance is that the weather is tied to the real world weather in your location and even with that gimmick turned off, there doesn’t seem to be a reliable way to choose what variation you want to play. Kind of annoying if you can’t be there at the “correct” time and weather.
The music is relaxing and airy, but also a bit odd and creepy, so it sets the overall mood of the game very well. The interior of the mansion is not as well realized as say, Bad Mojo (another “insect simulator”), but the added layer of atmosphere and depth is very welcome.
The game’s slightly absurd subtitle comes from the fact that it is set in a larger setting where the mansion you hunt in is apparently the abode of a secret occult organization. Or something, it’s very mysterious. There are secret levels to find through puzzles, with clues that have to be gathered from multiple levels and the rooms contain details of the story of the Blackbird family. There’s even a strange ARG on top of it all, and it seems anyone who finds out the answers deletes their posts on the Internet. They’re all in on it, I know it!
Idle Thoughts 