Moss: The Forgotten Relic promo shot
Image: Polyarc & Blackbird Interactive

While some VR games are designed fully around free movement and tactile controls, many others could work just as well on other platforms. Polyarc's Moss duology is a prime example. A charming pair of platformers played mostly with traditional gamepad controls, viewed from the perspective of a benevolent observer spirit guiding a tiny mouse adventurer (wielding a literal blade of grass) on a grand quest. With a few tweaks from Hardspace: Shipbreaker studio Blackbird Interactive, Moss: The Forgotten Relic makes its flatscreen debut today, combining both 'books' into one extended adventure.

At its core, Moss is a relatively standard platform adventure, but played from a fixed perspective, making the world feel less like a contiguous space and more like a series of storybook dioramas. You're leading around Quill, a tiny mouse hero drawn into a grand quest, collecting magical powers along the way and occasionally leaning on you - the player and the diegetic camera - for more direct help. While this flatscreen version feels a little more claustrophobic (as the camera tends to be zoomed closer in on Quill), it's fundamentally the same game with few mechanical changes. And thus, it's an excellent game out of the box.

This version combines the two halves of the story into one game, which should (assuming there's been no major cuts along the way) clock in at around a ten-hour adventure. Linear and cinematic without massive reason to replay it, but in VR, these were two of the most charming adventures around, and are still among the best you can play.

Having played the original VR titles and tried the demo of The Forgotten Relic, I can confirm that the fundamentals remain unchanged. That's not to say that something hasn't been lost in the transfer, though. Part of Moss's appeal was in its scale. You felt like a regular human-sized presence, peering down upon a truly miniature world, with Quill herself being the size of a real-life mouse. Even in smaller, cozier scenes, she felt absolutely dwarfed by the environments, and most of the enemies encountered, too.

It's hard to convey just how important that sense of scale felt, plus the sense of the player's importance when Quill turns and addresses the player directly, attempting to communicate in sign language. While it's well worth trying the game in its revised form, if you've got the means (or plan to - the Steam Frame VR headset is due very soon), I highly recommend trying the VR originals.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic is out now on Steam for £16/$20 (significantly cheaper than the VR originals), with a 10% discount until July 30th. Further discounts are available to those who own the VR versions, and folks who'd previously picked up cat-themed platform adventure Stray.