As a psychological horror adventure game that takes place on a space station, this game looks like Backstage times Iron Gaia, squared. (Well, what I WISH they had looked like.) Now just to be totally clear, I am not accusing ANYONE of plagiarism. This is in fact, (spoiler) a lead in to a glowing review. I'm just stating the fact that made me so very interested in playing this game. And play it I have. And here are the results:

Story

"Venus will arise
And tear us apart
And make us meaningless again"

<begin log>
"This is Selim Shirazi, structural engineer aboard the space station Vestel. Personal audio log. Day 2. Is it Day 2? We'll say Day 2. These are the facts:

*I am having trouble remembering things.
*The doctor says I am suffering from space sickness. The symptoms are nausea, insomnia, strange dreams. And...partial amnesia.
*My name is Selim Shirazi. That is my name, that is what it says on my tag. That is what I remember.
*The doctor prescribed some kind of medication. It isn't helping.
*I have just transferred here, from earth. That is one of the things I remember. Other things...I don't remember so well. Like what exactly the function of this station is. Or...

...I should go out of my quarters and meet the crew. Hmm...that guy said there was a listing of the crew members in the main corridor. But where is the main corridor? ... There, found it. Took me a while. Hmm...let's see. "Crew Roster, Living". What...does that mean? Enough people have died on this station that they need to categorize the roster into living and dead?

This can't be good.

There are about eight living crew members. I've already met some of them. Let me try to remember. There's the guy in the lounge...he seems nice enough. James Montgomery. A psychiatrist; handy to have around. Seems to want to give me more pills, though. And that creepy cook who thinks everyone's out to get me. What is up with those big sides of meat hanging up behind the kitchen...that can't be sanitary. And...at least two others. There was that woman Tanya East...she winked at me...bizarrely enough, then told me to leave. Then that guy Eric Marlowe. I knocked on his door twice with him not answering, then saw him bolting out when I left Tanya's room. He was in such a hurry, he didn't even let me introduce myself. Come to think of it, I wonder where he went...might as well explore the rest of this place.

Let's see...up through here there's nobody around. An American flag though. I haven't said the pledge of allegiance in a long time...hold on a second. Aren't I Iranian? I...can't remember. Anyway, no one hear. Let's back out. Back down the umbillical, through the main corridor, and,,,what? Trees. What a strange sight on a space station...

Met a few more crew members. The woman in the arboretum wasn't particularly striking. The actual physician...wonder why he's in the library (and what a library!) and not the medbay. The girlfriend of one of the two people killed in the murder-suicide. Aiden...Hawkes? Was that one of them. By process of elimination, I guess she must be Jessica Huang. And-

Hold on. What the hell was that? I just thought I saw that door open. But...that can't be possible. What's up with that door...

This...can't be right. This can't be right at all. Is that...singing?"

<End Log>

Story Score: 6/10

Gameplay

"A universe is trapped inside a tear"

Nothing much happened in the short demo I played. I was really interested in what MIGHT happen story-wise, and the place I wandered around while nothing happened was very pretty and atmospheric but...gameplay wise, this game doesn't really HAVE gameplay, at least not yet. It should get some, statim.

To extrapolate (on almost nothing) Muse is an adventure games, which identifies itself as science fiction, horror, and a psychological thriller. As an adventure game, I expected to have to collect key-items and experiment with them and other things to solve clever puzzles. There were no puzzles in the entire demo I played. I collected some items, but never used them, including a breakfast I was never allowed to eat. (I tried to put it back in my fridge to save it for later, but the game didn't allow that either.) What is left then but pure exploration and character interaction? Well, you'll find more of the former than the latter here.

My mind immediately latched onto the latter- character interaction- seeing that was where I would see the nuts and bolts of the gameplay. I was reminded of the obscure but, to me, very influential PS1 adventure game "Solaris" where you arrive on a space station and have to essentially convince the various disparate factions and dangerously unhinged characters on the ship to work together before the ship crashes into the sun (I never got anwhere in it; it was poorly designed and overly difficult, but still entertaining). I thought this might be something like that, or maybe even better, a murder mystery of sorts where you have to interact with the characters and manipulate them to learn the identity of the killer or what have you.

And indeed, the final gameplay MIGHT be based on character interaction like that. I have no idea what the mechanism of advancement might be. Because, after I completed my first lap of the Vestel, and heard the one line or so of dialogue available from each of the characters (few enough of which really distinguished themselves in my mind) , I turned the wrong corner (or the right one?) and something EXTREMELY creepy happened. And then the game abruptly ended.

I do have two major gripes:

1. One big detractor for me here was the move speed. I felt considering how small the maps were, the way I was zipping around them like a little jet plain really, really killed the atmosphere for them. Nothing was urgent enough that I felt my character should be running at that speed. I'd like it if the creators made the "default" speed in this the run speed, and introduced a run button, with a new default speed one notch slower.

2. It took me FOREVER AND A HALF to realize that it was possible to walk out the right side of the map where you can access the medbay and lounge from. I almost quit the game there, thinking it was an inscrutable dead end. Please make map exists clearer, even if you need to put little glowy things on the teleport tiles like some games. This is purely an issue of functionality.

Gameplay Score: 5/10 (I almost went with NA here. But I figure this is pretty much average.)

Atmosphere

"Justify my reasons
With your blood."

The lighting effects are really nice (Malad is very good at these). But they're not all I'm going to talk about here. Team Cascade did an amazing job of making the Vestel feel like a real place. And a really not very nice place. I can't stress this enough. For all the RPGs and whatnot I play that take place in horrible dungeons, haunted houses, mutant-overrun research facilities, and literally HELL, for some reason the Vestel station, which is at worst MILDLY CREEPY, disturbed me much more, because of how well Team Cascade nailed the atmosphere.

The music is well chosen but pretty standard (hi there, Akira Yamaoka) horror fare. The sound effects were hit and miss, although I liked the menu sounds. The map design, lighting, and other tricks worked to great effect, however, to make the Vestel feel genuinely claustrophobic and unnatural, drawing on the cramped environment of classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and the more recent (but no less excellent) Solaris. Because of how small all of the areas were (again clamoring for a lower walk speed!) whenever large spaces were introduced, like the library, the arboretum or even the lounge, they felt very, very striking. Also, I think with clever use of backtracking and eventing, the creators could make the entire game with just the 28 or so maps you have on display here...which I'm all for, because it would add to the claustrophobia. Other great touches- like the ability to knock on locked doors rather than just note they are locked and move on, or the dripping hunks of meat in the kitchen pantry- really make this game's atmsophere king.

Although I must say the clothing on the Theodore sprites looks pretty retro for a game meant to be in the future.

Atmosphere Score: 9/10

Bottom Line

Although it is hard to tell from this perilously short (though much lauded demo) Muse is shaping up to be an extremely taut and atmospheric thriller. I only hope that the eventual gameplay is as good as the atmosphere and this one will be a real winner. Definitely right up my alley. : )

Final Score: 8/10 (not an average)