Moon Watch

Developed by: Jaspel
Published by: Pretty Soon

Dec 4, 2024$9.99

Bullet heaven, deckbuilding, and strategy – Moon Watch is a wild new mix from the creators of Backpack Hero! Master your tactics, not reflexes: stop time at will, craft a killer deck, stop the horde in their tracks!

Consensus

F52.5/100

Steam players63.6% positiveMixed77 reviews

VG Insights estimate ↗≈5.1K copies · ≈$32.1K gross

What creators say

PepperHead

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Moonwatch is an early-access deckbuilding, turn-based real-time action roguelike from the Backpack Hero developers, where time only moves when you move, in a Superhot-like fashion. You play abilities from a hand built over the run, spending mana that regenerates faster the less you move. He loves the core concept and the space zombies-and-vampires vibe, but finds it unbalanced, thin on content and with unsatisfying bosses. He places it in high C, with real potential to climb to B or even A as it gets tweaked and expanded.

Liked

Very unique concept: a Superhot-style time-stop mechanic fused with deckbuilding
Mana regenerating faster when you stand still creates a cool gameplay loop of move, cast, wait
Characters have different starting decks and feel drastically different from each other
Runs feel unique between characters and builds
Funny overall vibe of fighting zombies and vampires in space
Developers (Backpack Hero) have a track record of unique concepts, and he is excited about where it goes

Disliked

Currently unbalanced and finicky, feels early even for early access, with exploitable mechanics and underwhelming ones
Each character has only about three builds that do not fuse well, so runs feel similar once tried
Few abilities and items, so duplicates show up often and chaos or breakage results
Polarizing boss items can make you overpowered or instantly dead after a bad start
No good way to discard or reshuffle a bad hand
Most bosses cannot be fought directly (for example activating towers) and none has a DPS check, a wasted opportunity
Visuals feel minimalistic and he is not a fan

What players say

A time-stop bullet-heaven/horde-survival roguelite with deckbuilding from Jaspel (Backpack Hero team), published by Pretty Soon, set on the moon in an alternate 19XX against vampires and cybernetic undead.

Moon Watch has Mixed Steam reviews (about 49 positive vs 28 negative, roughly 57-64% depending on snapshot) and no critic coverage on Metacritic or OpenCritic. Players who engage with it like the Superhot-meets-Vampire-Survivors hook and card synergies, and the itch.io page rates it highly (about 4.7/5 from 112 ratings). The dominant complaint by far is that the Early Access project looks abandoned: the store page promised 8-10 months of EA at the Dec 4, 2024 launch, but there has been no substantive update since then and no developer communication, and recent reviews are overwhelmingly negative on that basis. Content is thin (3 characters, 80 cards, 43 relics), so even fans say it is short. Net: a promising concept that is stalled, hard to recommend at $9.99 beyond a few hours of play.

Players love

Core hook of pausing/stopping time inside a bullet-heaven format, described by players as Superhot plus Vampire Survivors in one
Fun card and relic synergies that reward combo-building
Runs are replayable in short bursts; some players keep looping back for a run or two
Multiple modes (Classic, Horde, Wave, Challenge Runs, Infinite Loop/Endless) and progressive unlocks of cards, relics and starting decks
Nice, fun little game with a few good synergies despite short length (recurring sentiment in positive reviews)

Common complaints

Perceived abandonment: no meaningful updates since Dec 2024 and zero communication from Jaspel or Pretty Soon, which drives the most-upvoted negative reviews (33, 22, 15, 11 upvotes)
Early Access timeline of 8-10 months was blown far past; roadmap items like the tech-tree meta-progression have not appeared
Thin content for $9.99: 3 characters, 3 acts, 80 cards, 43 relics, 23 enemies and mini-bosses; one reviewer valued it at about $5
Gameplay described by some as basic and repetitive
Bugs: starter decks reportedly not working properly, unlock progress not persisting for some, card selection bugs, crashes with certain card combinations
No Steam Cloud saves and Steam Deck achievement tracking problems

Can feel tedious

Dominant strategy is to spew out as much as possible to offset everything being temporary, described as boring and time-consuming
Movement can feel superfluous: when the build is strong you can stand still, when weak no dodging saves you, and few things need dodging until late
Repetitiveness and short length drain replay value after a few runs
Lack of meaningful new content means players hit the same ceiling quickly
Unlock progression and bugs that interrupt runs

What's unique

Time-stop as the central weapon: stopping time lets you plan and set up combos in a horde-survival game
Hybrid of three genres: bullet heaven, deckbuilder and tactics, which players say is doing something new
From the creators of Backpack Hero, bringing a deckbuilder-flavored design sensibility to the survivors-like space
Setting and tone: a moon in an alternate 19XX fighting vampires and cybernetically enhanced undead
Modes including Wave, Horde, Challenge and Infinite Loop rather than a single run structure

Players want

Communicate a roadmap or at least confirm whether development continues
Add the promised content: more cards, characters, stages, enemies and the tech-tree meta-progression
Fix the unlock/save persistence, starter deck and card selection bugs; add Steam Cloud
Add windowed resolution options and more control customization (requested in Steam discussions)
Rework build strategy depth: weapons and items are both temporary, pushing players toward just spamming as much as possible
Better balance between movement and build power so dodging matters across the whole run, not only late

Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.