Luna Abyss Review: Tight Movement and Stellar Performances Carry an Unmissable Shooter Despite Bland Enemy Design

When I first checked out Luna Abyss earlier this year with its Steam Next Fest demo, I called it a clash between DOOM and Returnal because it was a fast-paced first-person shooter when you didn't have to worry about reloading your weapons, and you're constantly dodging slow to fast-moving orbs being hurled at you by enemies.

That was just based on my short time with the demo, which consisted of only a couple of levels from the game. After playing through the full game, I'm glad my instincts weren't entirely off since that description of DOOM + Returnal remains apt. Not just with its gameplay focus, but even with its narrative focus, since Luna Abyss was surprisingly more narrative-driven than I anticipated (though, in retrospect, that's because I hadn't read Wccftech's 2023 interview with the developers).

Luna Abyss's full package, then, is its own unique offering that, frankly, isn't doing anything you haven't seen before in other single-player, story-driven first-person shooters, but everything it is doing, it does incredibly well.

With standout level and environment design that communicates an undefinable setting like 'the Abyss' better than I'd seen any game, tight movement mechanics that evolve combat and 3D platforming sections, four well-made weapons for some very fun first-person shooting, and a story filled with more than a few stellar performances and character designs, Luna Abyss is altogether an unmissable game for fans of single-player shooters.

Luna Abyss Review - The Fool's Journey is Really Fun

On the Moon, Into the Abyss

In one sense, Luna Abyss takes place on the moon. Its title slightly gives that away, but the majority of the game doesn't happen on the moon, at least not physically. Your player character and the game's protagonist, Fawkes, is in a high-security prison on the moon for crimes that are never really explained, but they must've been significant as you start with thousands and thousands of days on your sentence.

You can reduce it, however, by carrying out objectives within the Abyss, which you reach by having your consciousness connected to a Warden, which is essentially an empty shell you're able to inhabit. You get sent to the Abyss by Aylin, a giant head that snakes into your room to sleep, and recoils back into the wall until it's just her head showing again when it's time to wake up.

Each time I watched my sentence tick down by 10, 20, or even 1,000 days at a time, depending on the importance of the task I had completed, I was reminded of Freedom Wars. Aylin, however, along with the rest of the characters' designs, constantly reminded me of Tim Burton. With extended limbs and aesthetic elements like giant stitches as part of their face and a clear fusion of metal and biology in their entire body that suggest a darker origin, contrasted by an everyday or even cheery tone in their voice, just had me feeling a bit like Luna Abyss was a bit of Tim Burton in space, minus the Claymation.

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The enemy design in Luna Abyss, however, is very different as it feels much closer to something you'd find in DOOM. None of them really stand out, though, because every attack you see from an enemy is either a strong laser firing at you or a bright coloured orb. There's no animation or element to their design to add any variety, save for the few bosses you'll encounter, and you don't get the close-quarters kills featured in DOOM.

While the story begins with reducing your sentence as the main driver, as you uncover more of the Abyss' mysteries, a reduction in your sentence quickly becomes a background consideration, as you're more keen to learn more about what happened to the characters you meet and how they became the way they are. The story is largely told in journal entries you read and still conversations between NPCs that make up in performance what they lack in visual intrigue.

There are also a few quick animated cutscenes, but much of what makes Luna Abyss' story interesting to experience is the stellar performances from its voice cast and the writing behind it. Again, Luna Abyss is never really doing anything that's entirely new. Its plot doesn't hold any huge, unexpected twists, and it's not executed in any fashion that's an innovation in storytelling in games. But it's an engaging story that's told very well in its chosen forms, and it keeps you interested for all the 10 hours it'll likely take for you to hit credits.

The Hits Still Bang

Sometimes, a game's design and its mechanics feel like the game design equivalent of Top 10s radio. Developer Kwalee Labs is simply 'playing the hits,' it feels like, with how Luna Abyss plays. Fast-paced first-person shooting? Check. Standout first-person 3D platforming sections that evolve and become more complex the deeper you get into the game as new mechanics like a dash, double-jump, and grapple hook are added? Check.

A mix of four kinds of weapons that can essentially be broken down to an automatic rifle, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a rocket launcher, all of which are good to fire and don't require reloading, so you can focus on the combat more than resource management? Check. World design that not only communicates the setting and tone of the game but also offers interesting platforming challenges? Check.

I'm not trying to diminish any of these aspects, to be clear, nor am I saying they are cookie-cutter elements that can be plopped into any game. They're all things you'd want in a game like this, of course, and having them be as high-quality as they are in Luna Abyss is where the artistry of the team at Kwalee Labs comes in, and what they've achieved is by no means a rote or small feat. I'm more pointing to the fact that nothing about Luna Abyss feels new or fresh; if you're a fan of story-driven first-person shooters, you've probably played a dozen games just like Luna Abyss, and that's completely fine. Because Luna Abyss is a very good game.

It's even a great game at its best moments. It's a game I'll recommend to anyone who likes shooters in a heartbeat, but it's not one I imagine I'll be thinking about for years to come.

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If I am thinking about it years from now, though, what I'm sure I'll be thinking about is the level design. I said earlier that this is probably the best way I've seen an undefinable setting be communicated through level design, and what I meant by that is the way you move from one massive structure to another, usually by leaping huge distances, made the Abyss feel bigger than space with how the areas you explored in each level looked different but all still felt connected.

As if they could exist nowhere else but in a place that afforded endless expansion in every direction with little regard for gravity's rules. Everything kept afloat by whatever is traveling through the massive pipes that usually act as the ground for you to walk on, with several sections featuring little more than you traveling in tunnels made of pipes or falling further and further deeper after you've thought that surely, there can't be anything deeper than what you've already explored.

It's fitting, really, that I'm struggling to define just how well Luna Abyss is able to communicate its alien and intentionally undefinable setting. I guess the thing you should really take away from my ramblings is that not only is the design of each level really well done, but each level is very fun to run through across the game's six chapters.

More Than the Sum of Its Parts

If I were giving you an elevator pitch for Luna Abyss, the seven words above this photo would just about do it. It is a classic case of a game overachieving in the experience it delivers when you look at its individual pieces.

A game that is more than the sum of its parts, Luna Abyss works wonderfully as the kind of game you have likely already played, but is more than worth checking out because it delivers at absolutely every turn. When its first-person shooting is starting to become a little stale, it mixes things up by throwing in a couple of fun spectacle sequences where you take control of a giant mech-like creature to blow through massive waves of enemies.

Even when its 3D platforming starts to get a little same-y, it switches things up by adding fast-paced rail jumping sections and sequences where you take control of a giant spider-like creature to scale up floating pieces of scenery. And before any of that can start to feel dull, it's already hurtling towards the end with a bombastic boss fight that, like the rest of the boss fights, might not break the mold but still offer a fun and engaging challenge.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that the cherry on top of everything that Luna Abyss does is the fact that it has practically no performance issues whatsoever. Even on my desktop, which I'm sure most would consider a bit of a potato PC, since it's only armed with an RTX 2060 GPU, a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and 16GB of RAM. It kept a smooth 60 FPS at 1440p at High settings, without any upscaling, without issue. It feels really refreshing to play something that just works right out of the gate. That's more than can be said for a lot of modern releases.

By the end of 2026, Luna Abyss probably won't be my game of the year. I sort of doubt it'll be many people's personal pick for that mantle. But it is without question one of the better games I'll play this year, and one of the better story-driven shooters I've ever played. Any fans of single-player shooters looking for something to play in 2026 should look to Luna Abyss.

Tested on PC. Review code provided by the publisher.

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