Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, the Hard Life of a Merchant (Part Two) – PC Preview

Moonlighter is one of those indie games that "made a career" for itself, with a good critical reception and over two million copies sold. This allowed its creators to continue working on the franchise, refining the original and developing a sequel, which will be released in early access next week.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault reinterprets and expands the progenitor's formula, introducing new mechanics, refining elements most appreciated by the community, and wrapping it all in a new 3D graphics engine. We tried it in preview; here's what we think.

You've probably often seen it on sale in digital stores, but in case you missed it: what is Moonlighter, and consequently, this second chapter, all about? It's an action-RPG with dungeon crawler dynamics. As the merchant Will, we'll explore remote regions, full of monsters but also precious treasures. And once we return home safe and sound, if we manage to, we'll have to sell them, adjusting the price based on customer feedback. The reality is a bit more complex, but basically, we'll be raiding parallel dimensions to make ends meet.

The story of Moonlighter 2 takes place after the events of the first episode, with Will and the inhabitants of his village evicted by a "world invader" and now forced to start over in a small rural community. During his first expedition as a refugee, Will stumbles upon a strange supernatural entity, the Endless Vault that gives the game its name, which in exchange for large sums of money will provide him with juicy rewards and access to new areas, with the promise of fulfilling any wish once the mission is complete. Unfortunately, the trial version stops at the fourth milestone out of seven, but there's already enough material to grind for a few dozen hours.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Digital Sun's title is the sense of progression. There are many mechanics, but they are introduced gracefully and are all very intuitive. The first runs are slow and not very lucrative, but as soon as you get familiar with the various aspects of the gameplay, you go from selling four trinkets for a few pennies to pocketing hundreds of thousands of credits in one go, pushing deeper and deeper into the dungeons.

More than dungeons, however, I would speak of interconnected arenas, which the player will navigate based on the proposed reward, be it chests or power-ups, but also events, rest points, and of course, minibosses and end-level bosses. The combat system is simple and immediate. Each of the four weapon types has a regular combo and a special move, but they also have particular properties and different variants that significantly influence the playstyle and the build we will assemble.

The short sword, for example, relies heavily on "finishers," the blow at the end of a sequence; the greatsword has an acuity system that rises and falls depending on the attacks dealt, with damage bonuses if you manage to keep it above a certain threshold; the spear will drop spikes after each thrust, with the possibility of "recalling" them to spin around or chase enemies, and so on. We also have a ranged weapon, useful for taking down flying targets, activating abilities, and generally eliminating out-of-reach enemies, and finally, a clubbing with the large backpack, to smash stunned monsters against allies or knock them off the map.

Will controls precisely, and the AI telegraphs its attacks quite well. With a bit of practice, you can avoid most damage without problems thanks to the dodge's iframes. Bosses are the toughest opponents, mostly fair, although in the later stages the mix of projectiles and explosions seems straight out of a bullet hell, and without a decent setup, it's impossible to take them down without losing a lot of time.

In this regard, the amount of power-ups we can equip is impressive. The dedicated "altars" will always offer three random ones, so luck plays an important role, and although they generally limit themselves to flat increases in offensive parameters, percentages, or altered statuses, the variety is such that each session is very engaging, especially if you find higher rarity items.

If, on the other hand, one or more chests await us at the end of a battle, the second soul of the work takes over: inventory management. Most of the relics we can collect not only have an intrinsic commercial value (unknown until we sell it, but deducible from rarity) and a certain quality, which acts as a multiplier on the final price, but also secondary effects, or "curses," that alter themselves or other treasures if certain conditions are met.

In the first area, for example, some objects can set nearby ones on fire, or protect them with a shield; in the second, we can electrify them and then discharge them by connecting them to a battery; in the third, a matryoshka system prevails, with dolls that absorb crystals and other dolls of the same rarity, leveling up to become priceless legendary pieces... Although exploration stops for several minutes while we rummage through the backpack, tinkering with so many trinkets to maximize income is a lot of fun, a puzzle with numerous nuances, and I can't wait to discover what else the adventure has in store.

In case of death, we won't lose anything; however, the quality of the collected relics will be halved (which doesn't mean being left with nothing, but close to it). Fortunately, we can return home at any time with the appropriate button, and without any penalties, even in the middle of combat. At this point, to end the day, all that remains is to open shop.

The cost of the goods is chosen by the player, who will have to pay attention to the reaction of customers, in order to find the "perfect" price, not too low to lose money but not too high, to the point of scaring away potential buyers. We must therefore constantly fill the displays and choose the appropriate ones, keep an eye on current events, the perks that unlock after a certain number of sales, special customers, tips... There's a lot of stuff to monitor, but the pace is relaxed enough for anyone to manage it all calmly.

And once you've cashed in, what then? The Endless Vault demands a hefty monetary tribute, but we'll never actually have to shell out a cent. This is why an elaborate upgrade system comes into play, capable of always emptying our wallet, regardless of our business. Weapons and armor, renovations, decorations and furniture for the shop, patches and extra pockets for the backpack, potions, raw materials, bonuses and extra properties for loot and power-ups... So many (really so many) variables that will converge to make Will stronger, more versatile, luckier, and richer. If you like grinding, you'll lose your mind over it.

On the technical side, the new three-dimensional graphics very well capture the spirit of the original pixel art, with a pleasant visual presentation, designs and environments detailed just enough, and action that is always clean and readable thanks to a balanced use of colors and lighting effects, even when it decides to become a shmup.

It must be said, however, that the experience proved to be anything but stable. During the test, we were plagued by enemies falling into textures or being dragged towards the edge by mysterious forces, collisions that stopped working, the pistol's automatic lock deciding to wander off, long seconds where the game completely froze, only to restart as if nothing had happened, and frequent stuttering problems, even though the frame rate never dropped below 120fps. Nothing serious, or that affected my optimism towards the title (it's no coincidence I accumulated 15 hours in a couple of days), but it wouldn't hurt to remedy them before release.