Moss PS VR2 Review

Synopsis: In Moss, players meet Quill, a mouse with dreams of greatness. While exploring the woods, she finds a mysterious Glass Relic and an ancient magic is awakened. With her uncle now in danger, Quill must embark on an epic journey—and she needs you there by her side. Together, you’ll travel to forgotten realms, solve challenging puzzles, and battle menacing enemies. Alone, no one can conquer what you’re up against.

Story Editing: Eric Raab
Music by: Jason Graves

Publisher: Polyarc
Reviewed on: PS VR2
Also available for: PS VR, PC, Oculus Quest

Cast: Morla Gorrondona

Developer: Polyarc
Lead Credits: Chris Alderson, Tam Armstrong, Peter Boldt, Chris Bourassa, Danny Bulla, Lincoln Davis, Stephen Hodde, Mike Jensen, Rick Lico, Corinne Scrivens, Shauna Sperry, Josh Stiksma, Chad Taylor, Brendan Walker, Tyler Walters, James Yavorsky

Moss is a relatively old VR game, released in 2018 on PlayStation VR before having a PC release later that year and then an Oculus Quest port in 2019. But the original game was greatly limited by the hardware — as was everything on the original PS VR — and so having the chance to boot the game up properly on a headset not prone to freaking out if you go outside its tracking zone and waving around PS3-tech wands was a must for me at the start of this new VR journey with PS VR2.

I’ll jump straight to the point: Moss is excellent on PS VR2 and a must-buy for your new shiny headset. If you’ve played it before, it’s better. If you’ve never played it, you must. The only real negative to Moss is that it’s a short experience that’ll take about three hours to finish. There is a slightly longer playtime here than the original release, including the free DLC released in 2019; it’s still over seemingly as soon as you begin the adventure. It can feel like a prologue, but since a sequel is already available, it will help to know you can jump straight into the next game.

You play as ‘the reader’, flicking through a book as the game begins. It’s the story of Quill, a young mouse who discovers a secret orb that enables her to interact with you, the reader, and you can help Quill on her adventure to save her Uncle, who Sarrffrog, a fire-breaking snake, has taken prisoner.

Using the analogue stick in the left PS VR Sense controller, you’ll move Quill across the screen and guide her through simple platforming and combat. It’s all like a throw-back PS1 mascot game, except you’re in VR and can reach into the world to help Quill. This ranges from being able to pull in and push blocks to get Quill across paths and ridges and interact with enemies to stun them and save Quill. All of these motions are improved with the PS VR Sense Controllers, which make controlling Quill while reaching into the game’s world to grab something feel more organic. You can still play Moss on PS VR2 with a DualSense controller as you could a DualShock on the original PS VR, but it’s not my advised way to experience the game.

Play

Everything in Moss looks much more gorgeous on PS VR2, thanks to the increased resolution of the headset. The environments are lovely, the background more lively than I remembered, and the character models are all finer in detail.

There’s little to dislike about Quill and Moss outside of how short it is, especially now that the technical complaints are cleared up. This is a beautiful entry into a VR series that’ll hopefully have more than just one sequel, and Quill is a wonderful character who deserves more players to get to know her.