About The Game

You play as Fawkes, a prisoner sentenced to explore a massive, derelict megastructure deep beneath the surface of Luna, a "mimic moon." Your handler, an artificial guard named Aylin, tasks you with recovering lost technology from the ruins of a once-prosperous colony. The story leans into existential dread, blending cosmic horror with a centuries-spanning mystery about a doomed civilization. Combat is fast and reactive. You’ll be dodging swarms of projectiles while managing weapon-specific cooldowns. The game forces strategy through weapon-shield interactions. You’ll need to swap between a shotgun (blue shields), rifle (purple shields), and launchers to dismantle specific enemy types in the heat of a "bullet dance."  Between combat encounters, the game emphasizes verticality. You’ll use double jumps, dashes, and grappling hooks to navigate brutalist architecture, often requiring platforming precision reminiscent of Destiny 2 or Returnal. The game uses a "sentence-reduction" narrative mechanic, giving players tangible goals as they delve deeper into the Abyss.

History and Inspiration

Luna Abyss wears its influences on its sleeve. It combines the claustrophobic, high-stakes combat of Returnal with the environmental storytelling found in Metroid Prime and the space horror aesthetics of Dead Space. Visually, it also channels the brutalist, monolithic aesthetic of the manga BLAME!, favoring massive, empty spaces and cold, harsh lighting that emphasizes the scale of the environment.  

Critical Discourse and Player Feedback

The community on r/Games and Steam is currently split. Some players argue that the combat is repetitive on default settings, while veterans are recommending that everyone "crank the difficulty up" to experience the true, punishing intensity of the bullet-hell mechanics. Critics are largely aligned on the atmosphere: the game is "haunting" and "striking" to look at from a distance, though some reviewers have noted that up-close textures can look a bit "muddy" or unrefined.  Unlike many modern RPG-shooters, Luna Abyss is being praised for its lack of bloat. There is no massive skill tree or exhaustive crafting system; it’s a focused, 10–12 hour experience that respects the player's time.

Currently, Luna Abyss has a "Strong" 81 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic, 77% recommended on Steam from 118 ratings, a 4.0/5 average from 217 ratings on Xbox, and a 4.76/5 average on PlayStation from 58 ratings.

Steam seems to be a low-end outlier from a ratings perspective.

Hands-on Impressions

Other than it was an FPS set in space, I didn't know anything about Luna Abyss going in. It was a day-one release on Gamepass, so I decided to play it on my Series S. Man, was I surprised.

Despite a bit of a slow start, Luna Abyss is a great game.

You can watch my beginning gameplay in the video below: