“To the Moon” by Kan Gao was the very first video essay I ever uploaded onto my HewwoReese YouTube Channel. A whole year before I started my AdventureWithMe YouTube channel. So, I oddly and very awkwardly uploaded a video essay onto a YouTube channel that was exclusively for gaming highlights— and it was a bad move, but I didn’t know it at the time. So of course, I kept making the same mistake…5 more times. My video essay content on the original HewwoReese gaming channel amassed around 10k views in around 7 months, but my viewer—>subscriber pipeline was absolutely atrocious, and understandably so, as my channel was extremely confusing. There would be a meme review one week and an analytical breakdown of Bo Burnham’s “How The World Works” next. So I had to bite the bullet, take the loss, and separate the channel. Though it hurt to start out fresh, I’m glad to feel as if my content is much more organized.

On the HewwoReese YouTube & Twitch channel, we just play games. On my dedicated AdventureWithMe channel we analyze them. I look at creations and experiences in art, popular media, music, & of course, videogames to explore exactly WHY we think the way we think, question what we believe, and learn something new. Media we consume undoubtedly impacts everyday life & interactions and that doesn’t necessarily have to be an inherently good or bad thing. What is important is that there’s an awareness that we have that our minds and in our hearts, that we are being affected by the media that we consume. I’ve always been supremely interested in human nature, what makes us tick, what makes us react, I want to understand what influences us. So of course, when my little brother suggest I play this game because it made him cry, I absolutely had to go check it out.

I want to preface this entire review by saying: Yes, sure, I play video games but I am not a gamer, right? Which at this point, is probably obvious because (as most people probably know), this game is more than 10 years old, making its debut back on November 1st 2011. As an already irrelevant person who seems to be desperately grasping at the chance of any kind of attention, it’s not helping my case that I also chose an extremely old game to first stream live on Twitch, then create a video essay on it, let alone a dedicated blog post. But I will die on this hill: To the Moon is a wonderfully timeless simple gaming masterpiece that both non-gamers and gamers alike are sure to either fall in love with, or at least, appreciate it’s charm.

To The Moon is the first ever videogame I finished completely —in my entire life. And I couldn’t have done it without the help of my little brother. We did it all in one Sunday afternoon, livestreamed on Twitch. My cat also thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon as I was 100% sedentary. She sat right next to the warm computer tower as my husband Thomas shuffled to bring me cups of warm tea every hour or so. The memory is really special and nostalgic, and ironically provided me a sense of escapism and relief. The very concept that the game seems to critique. As the main character—John, heavily deals with unhealthy escapism, and instead of coping with any of his problems, finds temporary solutions to mask pain and discomfort.

Gaming Visuals
So, if you haven’t played this game yet, i’m going to set the scene for you. Visually “To the Moon” is a very simple game, keep in mind it did come out 10 years ago, think the gaming style of the older 8bit style Pokémon games on the Gameboy Color. The mechanics are really simple, just up down left right movement. And you really get to focus on the dialogue because the visuals are so simple, and that’s something I really appreciated.

To the Moon is about a man named John who is very very old and is currently on his death bed, and hires a medical service from Sigmund Corp. Sigmund Corp is not a hospital per say but its corporation that hires doctors who are then able to infiltrate someone mind to implant the memory of their greatest dream coming true. The player plays as twoo cheeky doctors from Sigmund Corp. tasked to infiltrate John’s memory and make his dying wish come true. John’s dying wish is to go: “To The Moon”. The game’s title OMG.

This type of escapism is something I really think everyone can empathize with. Stresses of everyday life, it piles up and you need something to take your mind off of it and in Johns case, well it seems like his greatest dream might have never have been possible for him at all.

And life is uncomfortably unpredictable, and there’s so much you cannot control. You can’t control where in the world you’re born, what economic status you’re born into, how many opportunities you’re born with. There are almost no situations in real life where I can say "If I do this, then this will happen without question". Life is unpredictable, and doesn't follow any rules. But Games always have rules, objectives and mostly predictable outcomes: If I want to be Poppy’s best friend in Animal Crossing, I just spend time, give her gifts, and bam instant besties.

Games give you an avenue in life where actions directly advance a goal, wherein life rarely has that. And this is where this game differs from most. There’s some nuance in it, and there’s failure in our mission because the game doesn’t focus on being winnable and just achieving our goal for achievements sake. But instead, “To the Moon” explores the real implications of changing your life’s direction, and changing your lifes choices. For example, for John to achieve his dying wish of going “to the moon” that means his life decisions will have to change and his relationships will change too.