Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon from Tiger Style is a very fun puzzle/platformer on the PlayStation 4. It places you in an abandoned mansion you can explore in small chunks at a time. Oh, and you do so as a spider. Yes, the eight-legged freak variety. Come read our Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon review to learn more about this fun game!

You can use the left analog stick to walk and since you’re controlling a spider, that means you can walk all over the place – roofs, walls and floors are yours to conquer. By holding the X button and aiming with the left analog stick you can make a fast jump to another spot. Holding down the Circle button will allow you to spin a web, and you must do this several times in order to claim an area as your own with the web. Insects who find themselves in your web will be trapped and ready for you to eat.

At it’s core, gameplay could be compared to that of old-school puzzle release Qix – you must close areas of the screen with your web to claim as your own as you do in Qix. Once you’ve trapped all bugs in your webs, you can proceed to the next area. Actually, you only need to eat half of all bugs in an area before you’re able to exit, which means that players of all skill levels can give this one a go.

You can’t just create webs whenever you want since each thread will cost you one silk, and if you run out of silk you won’t be able to cast more threads. If you want more silk, then you need to eat more bugs. You have a short window of opportunity to eat a bug or else the spider will starve, and we can all agree on how that would be a bad thing. Maximizing the number of webs you build with the available silk and eating as many bugs as possible in a combo are a must for getting a high score. Once you touch a web you will activate your web multiplier which will increase the points you get for each bug you eat. As long as you don’t touch a surface, the multiplier will keep going.

This is true for bugs you can trap in your webs, but there’s also insects you have to tackle to eat them! After tackling and eating your first bug, you have a ten second window to do the same to another one before the multiplayer will reset. After tackling another bug, you’ll have another ten seconds to tackle a new bug before the multiplayer is lost. You must therefore plan accordingly so that you can tackle as many bugs as possible so that you can max out your multiplier.

There are plenty of secret areas in the game, so be sure to search every single spot to make sure you’re not missing something! It might be as simple as noticing how a small stream of water is somehow finding its way inside of a small spot in the screen, or realizing one particular bug is going out of the main area through a small spot. By pressing the Square button you’ll activate Free Look mode so that you can carefully inspect your current location.

Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon does something very interesting: it uses your location in the real work to determine the time of the day and the weather you’ll face in the game. This introduces chances to the gameplay for each of the included 30 levels which, in theory, gives you 120 levels in total. Since some bugs only show up under specific conditions, you can use the included Time Machine and Weather Device to set things just right, but you only use it once per moon phase.

There’s more to the game than casting webs and eating bugs. There’s a large unsolved mystery at hand and you must search for clues to solve the many puzzles that will bring you closer to the truth. For example, the first mystery seems to involve music in some way or the other since you’ll find things such as a sheet of music with actual musical notes on it that you must read in order to solve a puzzle. This is just one example and a simple on at that. There’s a lot of lore behind the setting and the story of this particular PS4 game, and learning more about it is half the fun!

You see, there’s a secret society in the game’s story: the Knights of the Buried Chambers. The team did a lot of research into this real organization in order to depict them accurately in the game. By doing some research of your own, you’ll be able to dig deeper into the game’s story was you work your way toward unlocking all of its trophies on your path to its Platinum trophy. Sure, there’s also trophies for eating bugs in a combo, creating specific web patterns, finding special bugs and more, but if you want to add this Platinum trophy to your collection you’ll need to dig into the Knights of the Buried Chambers.

I highly recommend that you purchase Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon on PlayStation 4. It’s a very entertaining puzzle platformer with some fun gameplay mechanics and an interesting mystery to solve. If you’re aiming for unlocking all of its trophies you’ll have to make the most of the weather in your area as you us the Time Machine and Weather Device to get some of the bugs that won’t normally show up due to your weather or the time of the day you’re able to play the game. Replaying levels to obtain a high score and improve your rating will also increase the overall time you spend with this clever game.

Oh, and if, for some reason, you are scared of spiders, don’t worry. You can play as a walrus.

[review pros=”Easy pick up and play controls.
Fun gameplay mechanics.
Interesting mystery.” cons=”Weather in your area might get in the way.” score=89]

Disclaimer
This Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon review is based on a PS4 copy provided by Tiger Style.