Ghost Song opens with a Deadsuit waking on the moon of Lorian V. That is the whole pitch: a machine that has slept too long, a dead rock, and a descent. Old Moon developed the game, Humble Games published it in 2022, and it released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. It is a Metroidvania in the plainest sense — side view, single player, caves that fold back on themselves, abilities that open the map a room at a time.
It is also a game about being alone in a place that does not want you. That part it gets right.
Trailer, via Balor Games.
A Deadsuit Wakes on Lorian V
The setup is spare and it works. A Deadsuit wakes from slumber on a desolate moon. It journeys beneath the surface. What it finds is an alien world with long-buried secrets, ancient mysteries and cosmic terror. That is the register: science fiction, action, a little horror underneath.
The Deadsuit is not a hero with a name and a speech. It is a body that moves through tunnels and gets stronger. Old Moon trusts the setting to carry the player, and for long stretches Lorian V does the work. The game is tagged as open world, and the map is a network of connected chambers rather than a field. What matters is that the network is worth walking.
Ranged Fire Charges the Melee
Here is the mechanic that separates Ghost Song from the pile. Ranged attacks build the strength of your melee attacks. Fire at range, close the distance, hit harder. That loop is the spine of every fight.
It is a smart piece of design. You shoot to charge, then you commit. The ability unlocks follow the usual grammar. New tools open new routes. That is standard for the genre and Ghost Song does not pretend otherwise. It executes.
Self-Discovery in the Winding Caverns
The game is billed as an adventure of self-discovery as much as an action game. That is a heavier promise than the mechanics can carry on their own, and it is where Ghost Song is most uneven.
The story is told through the place rather than through people. What you get is atmosphere and implication. For some players that is enough. For others, the mystery at the end of the corridor never quite arrives.
Journey beneath the surface on an atmospheric 2D adventure of self-discovery, ancient mysteries, and cosmic terror.
That line is the game’s own description, and it is honest about the balance. Atmosphere first. Answers later. Sometimes much later.
Where the Descent Drags
Ghost Song is good at dread and less good at momentum. The caverns wind, and winding is not the same as interesting. The mood that carried you through a room the first time does not always carry you the second.
But the game leans on the loop hard, and eventually you have seen most of what it can do.
This is the difference between a game that is atmospheric and a game that is atmospheric and surprising. Ghost Song is firmly the first. It knows its tone and holds it. It does not often break it.
Why 7.3 Out of 10 Fits
The published critical score sits at 7.3 out of 10, drawn from an aggregate of five outlets. That number is about right, and it is right for a specific reason: Ghost Song has one genuinely good idea and it does not waste it.
The ranged-to-melee charge system is the reason to play. It changes how you move through a fight, and it changes how you move through a room. Everything else — the Deadsuit, Lorian V, the descent, the cosmic terror — is a frame that holds that idea up. The frame is sturdy. It is not remarkable.
What holds the score down is the back half of the map. A Metroidvania lives or dies on whether the map keeps rewarding you for re-walking it, and Ghost Song’s rewards thin out. The mystery stays a mystery in a way that starts to feel less like restraint and more like withholding.
What holds the score up is the opening. The Deadsuit waking on a dead moon is a strong image, and Old Moon has the discipline to let it sit. The game does not explain itself. It lets you find the tunnels, find the charge, find the rhythm. That patience is rare and it is worth something.
What Old Moon Got Right
Old Moon is a small studio and Ghost Song is a small game. It does not try to be a hundred-hour map. It does not stuff the screen with systems. It picks a mood and a mechanic and it commits to both.
The mood is cosmic dread on a moon nobody visits. The mechanic is a charge that turns distance into damage. Those two things fit together better than they have any right to. A game about a lone machine in a hostile place should make you feel like you are building power out of nothing, and Ghost Song does.
Humble Games published it for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Side view, single player, no compromises for the hardware. That is a quiet achievement and it deserves saying.
The Number Ghost Song Earns
Ghost Song is a good Metroidvania with a great hook and a long tail. The hook is the ranged-charge melee loop, and it is the reason to start the game. The tail is the back half of the map, and it is the reason some players will not finish.
At 7.3 out of 10, it sits exactly where it should: above the forgettable, below the essential. If you have already worn out the genre’s best and you want a moon to get lost on, Lorian V will take you. If you need the map to keep giving, it will not.
The Deadsuit wakes up. It goes down. It finds things. That is the game, and for a while that is plenty.
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