Luna Abyss Review: The Abyss Provides An Excellent Bullet Hell (PS5)

Bullet Hells have never been my go-to gaming genre. I’ve played a few and just thought they were ok. However, Luna Abyss gets my blood pumping with both its fantastic platforming gameplay and combat. Luna Abyss is a great game for fans of exploring interesting worlds and fighting (though mostly dodging) hordes of enemies. It was a great 12 hours that left me wanting more. 

Luna Abyss is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S for $29.99/£24.99.

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1. Story – Working Off Your Sentence

The story of Luna Abyss takes place on the mysterious, red-mimic moon known as Luna. You play as Luna’s newest prisoner, called Fawkes, who is sentenced to explore the derelict megastructure that sprawls deep beneath the moon. Overseen by your artificial prison guard, Aylin, Fawkes descends into the Abyss to recover technology in the name of the All-Father, Luna’s leader. However, as you explore these centuries-old ruins, you begin to unearth the terrible fate of the denizens of the Abyss. 

Waking up to a big robot head is not going to be the weirdest thing you’ll see today

Luna Abyss has a short narrative with a few twists and turns. I enjoyed my time with Luna Abyss‘s story, discovering its secrets and getting plot twists correct (you know the ones devs). I found the concept of wardens interesting since they reminded me of Avatar, but much darker. I loved playing as other types of wardens, like the Goliath, a tank character that gave me much satisfaction when I got to cause devastation to a large group of enemies. 

Work off your sentence one dive at a time

Alongside the traditional custscene narrative, Luna Abyss includes lore entries to collect regarding characters and the history of the Abyss. Characters you come across have the strange, cryptic feel of FromSoftware characters, though with a more vulgar edge. Their side stories are interesting to find, but the game doesn’t always make it clear how to progress them.

Discover pieces of lore hidden throughout the Abyss

2. Gameplay – Fight For Your Freedom

Luna Abyss is a first-person shooter that combines fluid platforming and bullet hell combat. You’re given four weapons to play with: a Scout Rifle (laser rifle), Shield Breaker (shotgun), Monarch’s Lance (sniper rifle), and the Atom Splitter (rocket launcher). They all do devastating damage to enemies and don’t require a reload since they just overheat and refuel. My favourite was the Atom Splitter since it could lock on to multiple enemies and deal a massive amount of damage. 

The Atom Splitter can lock onto multiple enemies

Alongside your weapons, Luna Abyss has two finishers once an enemy reaches low health: one absorbs their essence for a quick heal, while the other turns the target into glowing projectiles. These finishers help make the bullet hell pressure more manageable because they keep you aggressive during combat instead of only dodging and waiting for openings.

Don’t kill them with your guns, absorb them for health and other means

One ability felt somewhat pointless, at least in my playthrough. You’re given a shield ability that looks similar to a bubble shield from Halo. The shield ability prevents damage from a few hits, which sounds useful, but with the other weapons and abilities, it felt more redundant the more I played. I only used this ability three or four times, with one being the tutorial for the ability. I think this would be useful in the harder difficulty, but for Normal difficulty, it was quickly forgotten. 

The Shield can help you if you’re in a jam, but there’s a good chance you won’t be

There was one aspect of Luna Abyss that I did hate: the loading screens. Instead of being hidden naturally between areas, they would interrupt the flow of gameplay, sometimes appearing multiple times in the same area.  

This got annoying very quickly

Platforming – Deadly Heights & Complicated Courses

Platforming can be hit or miss in most games, especially in first-person. However, Luna Abyss knocks it out of the park and successfully makes it both fun and thrilling. You’ll jump, slide, dash, create ice platforms and possess platforming wardens to complete each obstacle. The platforming never got old or frustrating; even with the floaty jumps, they were easily controllable, even in combat and the harder areas. 

Enjoy navigating through deadly obstacles

Luna Abyss also contains traversal puzzles where you need to shoot some buttons before the time runs out. I thought these were fun to complete, but I was disappointed that we never got any harder door puzzles or different types of puzzles to solve. Luckily, there was a notable increase in difficulty with the laser obstacles. They became trickier to manoeuvre through, especially when timing jumps correctly.

You’ve got to find and shoot all three buttons before the time runs out

Enemies & Bosses – Mostly Death From Above

Luna Abyss contains a bunch of deadly enemies and ferocious bosses to fight. Each enemy has its own unique bullet hell design, whether it’s simple or elaborately chaotic. Strangely, one of my favourite enemies doesn’t even shoot; instead, the Death Candle enemy explodes in a giant fiery ball of death once killed or comes into contact with you. I found it very satisfying to pop a group of them at the same time and watch the fireworks. 

These lovely popcorn-like creatures are quite deadly when they explode

Now, when it comes to bosses, they range from small miniboss engagements, which are quite common, to the big, scaled boss fights down in the reactors. The mini bosses are ok, they’re just introductions to future enemies and only appear when you have to clear the wave sections to clear the room. The actual bosses are where the bullet hell component tends to get more difficult and fun. 

You’ll face many mini-bosses that are really just introductions to future enemies

Each boss is a fun challenge, though they do fall into a small bit of repetition. Almost all their fights include a section where you have to shoot a few buttons to remove their shield/invulnerability. I didn’t think it hurt the fights since they changed it up slightly by adding a few enemies. But I did hope for some more unique fights, like maybe a couple that moved around the boss area, since they tend to stay in the middle. 

Each boss is found deep in the Abyss and is waiting for you to challenge them

3. Graphics & Audio – A Dark Beautiful Abyss

The art style for Luna Abyss looks great; most of the environment looks like you’re in the heart of a living industrial machine. For some environments, I can see similarities with games like Control, Destiny and Dishonored. Luna Abyss offers a unique selection of areas to explore, from the beautiful Whispering Meadows to the dark city of Greymoor. In between these main areas, you’ll be traversing through dark corridors that make you feel like you’re inside a living machine.

Character designs were also unique, especially with their supporting cast. You get to see other wardens in different types of bodies from yours, like a robotic crab/spider and someone with giant canons on their back. One of my favourite designs was The Waif; he reminded me of something from Dark Souls mixed with Nier Automata. 

I really liked The Waif in both design and voice acting

Regarding the audio for Luna Abyss, the soundtrack is fantastic. There were plenty of moments where the music elevated a fight or a scene. The ominous choir tracks were my favourite, especially around some of the later areas. Voice acting performances were up and down. Some characters, like Urien and The Waif, gave good performances, but then there were others like Fawkes. They tended to sound good with some dialogue and horrendous in others. 

Luna Abyss was reviewed on PS5 courtesy of a code from Kwalee.