Bite-sized Review:
Of Murder & Moonshine

By Chris Picone, 16 February 2024

Of Murder & Moonshine is a 2d side-scrolling shooter with a sweet noir / prohibition setting. But this ain't your average shooter.

Aesthetics

Pixels, glorious low res pixels.  Most of it's kept quite simple, impressionistic, really it's more about creating the atmostphere and that works really well.   As minimalist as the graphics are though, there are some really nice touches - the lighting and shadow's really good, and I love the stars in the night sky. Some of the buildings can feel a bit samey after a while but for the most part there's enough variety and they've achieved a lot with quite little.  Also, there are nice funny little cutscenes between levels that tell the story and the jazzy music's perfect. 

Gameplay

Unlike most shooters, Of Murder & Moonshine is purely mission-based.  You're a hitman.  At the start of each level you can choose from a range of weapons (the expected - baseball bat, pistol, bolt action rifle, tommy gun, pump action shotgun) and then you can scan the level ahead to find your target.  From there you need to choose an approach, and there's often more than one.  You can go in the door guns blazing but that's often suicide.  Sometimes you can sneak in through a back door or even through the front door if it's a busy public place and you keep your weapons hidden.  But sometimes if you can't sneak back out you're then facing a stack of guards on the way out. As you do kill the guards you can swap your weapon for theirs; important, because they'll be using a range of weapons against you and sometimes you'll be facing them up close and other times from afar.  The levels are quite creative, too. In one, you have to use molotov cocktails to burn down the building the hit is hiding in; in another, you have to jump across rooftops and try to snipe your target.  Precision shooting is key to success because the enemy is unforgiving.  So is timing: Take too long and the police arrive on site and arrest you. It's really fun.

Verdict

Of Murder & Moonshine's a hidden gem. It's a really great fun little game, good for casual play as you can just run through a level or two and put it down again, but it can also be quite challenging. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2661890/Of_Murder_and_Moonshine/