Crimson Moon review

Crimson Moon sets itself up with an interesting premise. The idea of a third-person cooperative roguelite where you command a heavenly warrior against the forces of evil? Sign me up! While the lore behind Crimson Moon is intriguing, in execution the game is neither heavenly nor hellish, leaving it in passable territory some will enjoy, but few will chalk up as memorable.

You are a Nephilim, the descendant of a union between mankind and the celestial. As such, you are profoundly well-equipped to be the sword arm of the church, and they fully plan to utilize you as such. Evil forces have taken over the city of Gildenarch, and you’ve been, from what I can gather, raised from your coffin so you can help set things right. 

Crimson Moon is a run-based game that tells its story largely through collectibles you’ll stumble across on your travels. Each run, you’ll select the mission, customize your loadout, and hit the streets. Each run is broken up into three zones, each with a specific goal for each zone. Some examples include clearing all the enemies, collecting three artifacts, and so on. When you complete your zone objective, you’ll get to choose from one of three major upgrades before moving onto the next zone. After you complete three zones, you’ll have a boss encounter, then head back to the church to recuperate, upgrade gear, buy supplies, and head back out. Do this a few times across different zones, and you’ll complete a whole playthrough, earning extra rewards and story progress for taking out a major boss.

As you play, you’ll earn XP, leveling up your character with time and persistence. Along the way, enemies will drop gear you can swap out. From one-handed and two-handed melee weapons and shields to helmets and various armors, you’ll come across a wide variety of items that grant you special buffs or abilities. Some may buff your healing or increase the damage of a certain element, while others will let you perform special attacks or unique passive skills. Each run turns into you trying to create the best kit to see your mission to its completion, dragging as much back to the church as possible so it can be sanctified for future use.

The vast majority of Crimson Moon lies in its combat. The game takes its cues from the Dark Souls games, but tries to make it more accessible. You can lock on to foes, circle-strafing them for a chance at a devastating back attack. You can also block and, more importantly, parry incoming attacks, which will flash yellow to telegraph their danger. The problem is that, yes, the parrying mechanic works…but the timing never feels quite as satisfying or consistent as I’d expect out of good Souls-like combat. 

As you work your way around enemies, you’ll perform light and heavy attacks, special attacks provided by your gear, and, most notably, invoke your angelic form. This allows you to take one of two angelic forms, each with its own advantages, for a massive temporary buff. You are part angel, after all, right? In my experience playing solo, I found it beneficial to save up your angelic meter for major encounters, especially since, at full meter, you can activate it 3 times. This almost feels like a cheat code at times, making bosses a breeze, particularly on easier difficulties.

Regarding enemies, I would classify them into a handful of categories. You have your run-of-the-mill minor foes that charge blindly and drop in a few hits. Then you have mid-tier foes that require a little tact to fight, hitting and running as you kite them around the battlefield. These will offer a prompt for a brutal kill animation when you drain their health bar. Next, there are what I would consider to be major enemies (or maybe minibosses), standing several times the height of our hero and doling out punishment. You’re probably best served to invoke your angelic form against them. Finally, there are major bosses that have their own unique names, arenas, and attack patterns. 

As you progress, you’ll level up (which doesn’t seem to really affect much, from what I can tell, though it surely affects your health and damage, right?). You’ll unlock new items and difficulties and, eventually, some new locations to explore. I personally recommend playing on higher difficulties as soon as possible. Yes, the enemies have more health, but you earn rarer gear and more XP going this route and, in a game built to let you improve your situation over time, it’ll ultimately help you progress quicker.

From an audiovisual standpoint, I’m somewhat torn. The game looks all right in motion, but everything feels a bit bland pretty quickly. You’ll go from one medieval, blood-soaked stone street to another without too many visual switches along the way. New weapons and armor always offer the welcome possibility of a new look, and some do provide that, but there just isn’t enough variety when you limit yourself to a gothic style. The game just visually feels like it runs together too much for any particular zone, creature, or piece of gear to stand out.

I know it feels like there are a lot of issues with Crimson Moon…and there are, but I want to be sure I get this point across: there’s fun to be had here. While I don’t particularly feel like I need to pay close attention to the narrative beats and I can just kind of mindlessly glide through gameplay outside of major encounters, I’ve enjoyed cutting down hordes of foes and upgrading/gathering loot while listening to a podcast or YouTube video. I could definitely see this making for a fun weekend with a buddy, too.

Crimson Moon is a neat concept that is fun, but it won’t set the world on fire. Combat lacks the impact it needs to really feel satisfying, and the decision to re-run the same static zones feels problematic for a run-based game relying on replayability. The game also suffers from poor camera at times. Still, for $20, there’s fun to be had here: kiting zombies, upgrading gear, and wielding the power of angels as you help the church drive back the forces of darkness. Just don’t expect it to feel like Elden Ring or Onimusha: Way of the Sword.