You’re floating. It’s quiet. Not the peaceful quiet of a Sunday morning, but the terrifying, suffocating silence of a lunar base where everyone is dead or missing. Honestly, Deliver Us The Devil doesn't care about your comfort zone. KeokeN Interactive didn’t build a typical space shooter here. They built a desperate, lonely, and remarkably grounded prayer for survival.
The premise is heavy. Earth is a dust bowl. The World Space Agency (WSA) found a solution in Helium-3, a clean energy source mined on the moon and beamed back to Earth via a massive MPT (Microwave Power Transmission) system. Then, the lights went out. The moon went dark. Five years later, you're sent up to figure out why. It's a "last-ditch effort" story that feels uncomfortably plausible given our own current climate anxieties.
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What Deliver Us The Devil Gets Right About Space Horror
Most space games go for the monsters. They give you a plasma cutter and a xenomorph. But this game? It realizes that the scariest thing in the universe is just a lack of oxygen. It’s physics. It’s the fact that if a door sticks, you die.
The developers leaned heavily into the "hard sci-fi" aesthetic. You aren't a super-soldier. You're an astronaut in a bulky suit that feels heavy. When you're in first-person mode inside the helmet, you hear the raspy, rhythmic thumping of your own breath. It’s claustrophobic. It makes every puzzle feel like a life-or-death situation because, well, it is. The vacuum of space is the primary antagonist.
The Environmental Storytelling Masterclass
You spend a lot of time reading emails on dusty terminals and listening to holographic recordings. Usually, this is a chore in games. Here, it’s the only way to meet the cast. You start to piece together the lives of the crew—Sarah Baker, Rolf Robertsson, and Isaac Johanson.
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Their drama isn't some grand space opera. It’s petty. It’s human. It’s about people disagreeing on whether to save Earth or flee further into the cosmos. You're basically a forensic investigator in a vacuum suit. You see the half-eaten meals. You see the abandoned birthday cards. It’s depressing, sure, but it’s incredibly effective at making the moon feel like a place where people actually lived, not just a series of levels.
The Mechanics of a Dying Moon
The gameplay is a bit of a hybrid. Sometimes you’re in third-person, navigating the desolate corridors of the Pearson station. Other times, you’re controlling a small drone called an ASE. This little floating robot is your only friend. You’ll use it to crawl through vents or activate panels you can’t reach.
There’s a specific tension in the "blackout" sequences. When the MPT goes down, you have to align these massive towers. It’s not "hard" in the sense of a Dark Souls boss, but the timer is ticking. Your oxygen is depleting. The sound design ramps up, the music swells, and suddenly a simple task like "align the dish" feels like defusing a nuclear bomb.
- Puzzles: Mostly logic-based. Finding codes, rerouting power, or using the ASE to bypass security.
- Vehicles: You get to drive a lunar rover. It’s floaty. It’s fun. It captures that 1970s Apollo-era vibe perfectly.
- Zero-G: These segments are disorienting in the best way possible. Up is down. Left is whatever.
Why the Ending Still Sparks Debates
Without spoiling the exact beats, Deliver Us The Devil ends on a note that is both hopeful and devastating. It deals with the "Great Deliverance," a plan that some viewed as salvation and others as a betrayal of humanity.
Some players found the ending a bit abrupt. I disagree. It fits the tone. The game is about the weight of responsibility. It’s about whether a dying species deserves to be saved if it can't even get along on a moon base. The ambiguity is the point. If everything were tied up in a neat little bow, the stakes would feel lower.
Technical Evolution: From 2019 to the Next-Gen Upgrades
If you played this at launch, you saw a great indie game. If you play it now on PS5 or Xbox Series X, it’s a different beast. The ray-tracing updates changed everything. Reflections on the station's metallic surfaces and the way light hits the lunar dust actually matter for the atmosphere.
The game uses Unreal Engine 4, and KeokeN pushed it to its limits. The scale of the moon’s surface against the tiny, fragile rover is a visual reminder of how insignificant you are. It’s a gorgeous game, but in a "bleak, gray, and desolate" sort of way.
Sound is Half the Experience
The score by Sander van Zanten is incredible. It’s synth-heavy, echoing the works of Hans Zimmer in Interstellar. It knows when to be silent. It knows when to let a low, vibrating hum build the dread. If you play this without headphones, you’re doing it wrong. The sound of a depressurizing airlock should make your hair stand up.
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Common Misconceptions About the Game
People often lump this into the "walking sim" category. That’s a bit of a disservice. While there is a lot of walking (and floating), the interaction level is much higher than something like Dear Esther. You are active. You are fixing things. You are failing.
Another myth is that it’s a horror game. It isn't. Not in the traditional sense. There are no jump scares. There are no ghosts. The horror is existential. It’s the realization that you are 238,900 miles away from home and the only thing between you and the void is a few millimeters of reinforced glass.
Practical Steps for New Players
If you’re picking this up for the first time, keep a few things in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Don't Rush: The lore is the game. If you skip the notes and the audio logs, you're just playing a series of basic puzzles. Read everything. The story of the Johanson family is what gives the ending its emotional punch.
- Oxygen Upgrades: Watch your tank. In some sections, there are canisters hidden in side rooms. Don’t just follow the waypoint. Explore.
- Check the ASE Skins: It’s a small thing, but you can find different shells for your drone. It adds a bit of flavor to your lonely journey.
- Play the Sequel: Once you finish, go straight into Deliver Us Mars. It expands on the mechanics and follows a specific character from the first game, providing much-needed context for the events of the "Great Deliverance."
Deliver Us The Devil remains a standout in the sci-fi genre because it stays grounded. It doesn't need aliens to be interesting. It just needs the moon, a malfunctioning heater, and the crushing weight of human expectation. It’s a reminder that even in the vastness of space, our biggest problems are the ones we bring with us.
To fully appreciate the narrative arc, ensure you complete all the optional "Scanned" items in your database. This unlocks the final bits of dialogue that clarify the motivations of the WSA leadership during the final days of the lunar colony.
Stay focused on the MPT towers. Earth is waiting.