Zarya-1: Mystery on the Moon

About

Zarya-1: Mystery on the Moon is a single player action game with a mystery theme. It was developed by Plug In Digital and was released on May 22, 2017. It received positive reviews from players.

Text based quest, mix of Sci-Fi and horror in the veins of Alien and Dead Space.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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82%

Audience ScoreBased on 44 reviews

story17 positive mentions

gameplay4 negative mentions

Engaging and well-written story with a suspenseful sci-fi horror atmosphere.
Multiple endings and replayability encourage exploration of different narrative paths.
Effective use of audio cues, background sounds, and occasional images to enhance immersion.

Gameplay is very limited, largely consisting of clicking through text with minimal interaction, leading to repetitive trial-and-error.
Lack of quality-of-life features such as skipping previously read dialogue and faster navigation makes replaying tedious and frustrating.
Unskippable time delays, slow image loading animations, and arbitrary checkpoints reduce pacing and immersion.

story
63 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
67%
6%
The story of Zarya-1 is generally praised for its intriguing sci-fi premise, suspenseful atmosphere, and well-written dialogue that creates a gripping interactive narrative. However, many players find the enjoyment undermined by tedious and repetitive mechanics, such as forced replays and unskippable sequences, which make progressing through the branching story branches frustrating. Despite these flaws, the story's multiple endings and mystery elements keep players engaged, though a more streamlined execution would significantly enhance the overall experience.
- “The tale is immersive, the characters are friendly, and the story is actually interesting and original.”
- “Your decisions shape the story, leading to multiple possible outcomes.”
- “Awesome sci-fi text adventure, the story is really well written and totally worth the small price.”
- “The game wastes your time so much in between trying to find different routes or choices that I had enough after about 90 minutes and having the mission failed yet again by a seemingly innocuous random choice.”
- “Zarya-1 is a "choose your own adventure" story, but the interactive elements are very rare, quite limited, and -- which is the worst aspect -- the game is full of unnecessary and unskippable mechanics which only wastes your time and contribute nothing.”
- “The only, but not so small negative is that when failing the mission, you can only rewind the story to certain points and you will have to rewatch a lot of conversations, just so you can make a different decision later.”
gameplay
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
65%
20%
The gameplay of Zarya-1 is widely criticized for being sparse, crude, and largely consisting of repetitive, unskippable mechanics that hinder exploration and immersion. While the story and decisions hold some interest, the limited interactive elements and lack of consequence tracking make the gameplay feel more like a tedious chore than engaging play.
- “Really liked clever mechanic of fast forwarding mission time.”
- “Simple gameplay, but impactful decisions.”
- “I am curious what the writers could achieve with a game that offered more complex gameplay, and I hope they are going in that direction.”
- “Overall, the game follows a very boringly presented story using very boring game mechanics.”
- “Zarya-1 is a "choose your own adventure" style story, but the interactive elements are very rare, quite limited, and -- which is the worst aspect -- the game is full of unnecessary and unskippable mechanics which only wastes your time and contribute nothing.”
- “Unfortunately, the gameplay of Zarya-1 is extremely crude, in fact there is barely any gameplay provided.”
graphics
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The game's graphics are primarily text-based with limited still images that complement the narrative, often framed as photos from a squad member's camera. While visuals enhance storytelling and are generally well-designed, some graphical elements are minimal or occasionally glitchy. Overall, the art style is appreciated for fitting the story's atmosphere despite its simplicity.
- “It's well-written, and alongside the writing you get some decent artwork with the narrative justification that one of your squad members has a camera that sends you photos.”
- “Photo attachments and occasional visuals boost the storytelling.”
- “The graphical style, even though it is mainly just text, was really good; you should give your artist a raise.”
- “The game lacks graphical artwork.”
- “Also fix his graphic for the final chapter, which seems to be replaced with bones for some reason.”
- “Kinda like playing a text adventure with limited still image graphics on a C64.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game's atmosphere is generally praised for its creepy, well-executed mood supported by effective writing, visuals, and sound. While the horror elements and characters are engaging, certain mechanics detract from the overall experience, weakening the mystery and pacing.
- “Atmosphere is conveyed through clever writing, images, and sound cues.”
- “Atmospheric sound and visual support.”
- “The atmosphere is quite creepy and well executed in my opinion.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game involves repeatedly replaying multiple paths to unlock all endings, which many find tedious and time-consuming due to lack of skip options. While the story and writing are praised, the necessity to grind through decisions and scenes diminishes enjoyment over time.
- “Basically you have to replay the game many times, grinding through all the possible paths, until you happen to get lucky and choose the right door.”
- “I really wish we got to see what was on the hard drive you can recover (you can't to my knowledge) and it gets really tedious replaying sections of the story to find all the endings, something that really bugged me after a while... I wish some character motives were a bit clearer and also for a better understanding of what was happening in the Soviet base.”
- “And while the writing is good enough to read a scene 2 or 3 times, it does get tedious after a while, especially since there is no way to skip forward.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The music in the game is generally well-designed and effective, with a minimalistic yet well-placed approach. While some find the sound design phenomenal, others view the music and sound effects as adequate but not enough to offset other gameplay frustrations.
- “Absolutely phenomenal music and sound design!”
- “Music is minimal but well-placed.”
- “Sound and music.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's monetization relies on optional in-app purchases primarily to remove ads and enable faster progression, which can hinder repeat play in the free, ad-supported version. This setup may frustrate players expecting seamless replayability without spending.
- “Addendum: it looks like all these time wasters are actually delaying mechanisms for the ad-supported mobile builds, where players could only fast-forward time and remove the ads if they've paid for the game.”
- “Optional in-app purchases for additional features.”
- “Even though the premise of the game is to fail and repeat, the game is not set up to be conducive to repeat play.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is well-optimized, running smoothly on both PC and mobile devices, ensuring a seamless technical performance across platforms.
- “Runs smoothly on PC and mobile devices.”
- “⚙️ Technical performance & optimization”
- “⚙️ Technical performance & optimization”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers high replayability with multiple endings, encouraging players to explore alternate paths for varied experiences.
- “High replay value encourages exploring alternate paths.”
- “High replayability with multiple endings”