If you can make a movie out of a video game plot, you have done it wrong. Although games like Resident Evil, Beyond Two Souls, or  Dead Space have well written plots for the most part, they don't fully utilize the medium they are placed in. They could have done as well if they were a movie, although heavily edited to better suit it. It's because the plot is straight forward told to you. You don't need to explore much to find any missing parts of the plot. They are just as good of a game as the rest (except Beyond Two Souls), but the reason behind this linear storytelling is because they were written like a movie, this isn't a bad thing since it works for movies, but it fails to fully embrace the medium it's in.

An excellent example of video game storytelling is Bioshock by Irrational Games. You have the "driving plot" pushing you through the game, but what makes it really shine is it's "hidden plot." The game rewards you for going down every hallway. When you do you can find supplies and audio logs to listen to. The audio logs provide you with the hidden plot, something that movies could never hope to accomplish. In a movie you can't hide audio files lying around the scene, the idea is absurd, but in Bioshock the plot is intentionally hidden away from you. You have to search for it in order to know why there is a city at the bottom of the ocean, something the driving plot won't be bothered to tell you. Bioshock also has hidden plot found around the world in the form of posters, blocked off doorways, blood spatters leading to a last word audio log from beneath the skeleton. These environmental hints are just as important to unravel the lore of the world as the audio logs. By giving the player the freedom to view the world freely and at their own pace you can put so much more detail into everything to tell the better story that movies couldn't hope to enjoy.

Another excellent example is Dark Souls by FROM Software. The driving plot is almost non-existent, and everything is told through the hidden plot which takes the form as difficulty, environmental hints, and flavor text. If you lack the skill to get to the late game you won't be able to experience the hidden plot. By doing this every late piece you unlock is rewarding. Getting a weapon from the boss you just defeated and get to read the flavor text to figure out what he added was to the plot. Nothing is more satisfying.

The reason why the story in so many games fall flat is because storytelling in games is relatively new. It hasn't be around as long as movies to learn all of the quarks of the medium. Although we have learned a lot about it such as when telling a story you need to reinforce it through the game play. The story should never be at the expense of the mechanics, and it should be working together flawlessly with it. You need to have a solid driving plot with an interesting hidden plot that gives reason to the players agency. We have the ability to tell the story in a piece-wise way that no other art form can, but as time goes on we will learn more about how to tell a good story, and we will create plots that can rival any story made in existence. Because games are the ultimate art form.

Shortly after starting the game, I was beginning to get pulled in by the simplicity and casualness that the app presented itself in. One click, two clicks, three clicks. Just watching that number rise was giving me a weird sense of accomplishment, but like the sugary-sweet addictive flavor of the pastry that the app gets its name from, I needed more. Ten clicks, fifty clicks, one hundred clicks, I couldn't stop. Bake those cookies my little virtual grandmas. Bake until you can bake no longer.

Then out of nowhere, a large golden cookie appears. I clicked the shiny sweet biscuit, then my total started to skyrocket. One thousand cookies, five thousand, twenty thousand. My confectionery greed knew no bounds. This app had its claws in me and I could not escape. I needed to sober up from the game. I tried to leave for a while to do something else, but I had forgotten to close out the window. When I came back I had over one million cookies. I bought farms, mines, factories, anything and everything that would maximize my cookie output.

The Grand Matriarchs were pleased with my performance, but they questioned my loyalty. They demanded I seal a pact with them, to prove I was loyal, to prove I cared only for cookies. I needed time to think, I had billions of cookies and was feeling proud of myself. I didn't feel like the pact was needed, so they bribed me with even more cookies. I looked at the time; six hours I was trapped in this app, but before I could refuse the offer, it had already been done. The pact had been sealed and the horrors of the Grand Matriarchs had been unleashed.

My cookie count went up at an extraordinary pace, one trillion cookies, two trillion cookies, but it wasn't long when their horrid wrinklers arrived from the cookieverse to consume all I had worked so hard to build. I needed out. I needed to escape from this app before it completely consumed my life. There was only one thing left I could do. I pulled the plug. And with that act, I was free. The app no longer controlled me with the promise of digital confections.

Now if you're all scratching your heads in confusion after reading all of that, please allow me to explain. Let my experience be a lesson to you all. Don't let an app or game consume your life. I unknowingly spent over six continuous hours on a program where all you do is watch a number go up while clicking on a digital cookie, but now it feels like something is now missing from my life. I long for that effortless sense of accomplishment again. Hmm... Maybe just one more go...

Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier opens with a brief summary of how a tribe of apes got separated from Caesar's tribe and had to make a new home on a mountain devoid of any food or livestock. Because of this lack of food, the tribe of apes are slowly starving to death and must act quickly if they hope to avoid this fate. Khan, the chimpanzee leader of the tribe, instructs his sons Bryn, Tola, and Juno that they must go out on a last-ditch effort to hunt for food. However, Khan and his adviser Clarence, an orangutan, warn the brothers not to hunt outside of the mountain because if the humans know of the ape presence in the mountains, it will put the entire tribe in danger. Tola disregards this warning due to the knowledge of there being no food on the mountain and convinces Bryn and Juno to hunt with him on the plains below.

We cut back to the three ape brothers as they spot a small farm with cattle guarded by two humans. Tola recommends that they kill the humans so they can get the cattle without witnesses, but Juno advises that they should either turn back or find a way to gather the cattle without harming the humans. Regardless of who Bryn sides with, one human ends up dead and the other wounded. The wounded human is able to reach Jess' town and explain to her and the town's folk that apes attacked, killed his brother, and stole cattle. This is where the human characters' story begins to intersect with the apes' story. Anything beyond this would be a spoiling the plot of the game.

The choices themselves don't seem to make much of an impact outside of smaller, more inconsequential ones either. No matter what you pick, Bryn will go with Tola to steal the cattle. No matter who you side with, the human farmers will be attacked and will alert Jess to the apes living on the mountain. It seems to me that outside of the possible endings, the choices dictate more of who will like you rather than where the story will go.

You may have noticed that I spent much more time looking at the story than I would normally. This wasn't by accident. That is because Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is a purely narrative driven experience. And I do mean "purely narrative."

While I've defended games that have been falsely labeled "interactive movies" in the past, this is one instance where I can not because the label adequately defines Last Frontier. With the lack of any sections where you can actually control and move your character around, your time spent with Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier can be similarly experienced by watching War for the Planet of the Apes and pausing the film for 10 seconds every time a character is contemplating a decision. So Last Frontier ultimately begs the question of: Why did this have to be a video game? With the underwhelming performance of the latest film at the box office, it is still uncertain of whether or not there will be a fourth film in the rebooted franchise, and seeing as how the scope of this game is nowhere near as large as any of the films, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier would have worked much better as a short film or as a television mini-series.

With a fantastic story, but devoid of any actual gameplay, it's difficult to recommend Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier to anyone. Especially with a price tag of $29.99 USD for a 3 hours experience. However, I understand that this is the type of experience some players are looking for, and for them this is exactly what you want. But for those of us that prefer to play a video game rather than watch one, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier may only be worth your time once the price drops significantly, if only to experience the story.

Going through the game you switch between realms to keep moving forward sometimes you need a spirit snake, who is a rock in the physical realm to follow you, so you can use that rock as a little hill to get to the level above you. So many spirit animals help you along your journey. When I saw this game I thought it was going to be more like Never Alone. Another platform game with an ancient tale of survival using the the spirit realm to move through the icy tundra of Alaska.

Though the two have some similarities, there are some big differences. In The Mooseman you can't jump. You just rely on your spirit animals to help you get from one end to the other. In Never Alone there is no switching between realms to get help from your spirit friends, and you have the ability to jump. The Mooseman is a game of isolation, where in Never Alone you have a white fox as your companion and protector.

The visuals of the game are taken from the roots in Perm Animal Style. Perm Animal Style is a unique metal plastic form, an animal style that existed till the XIIth century A.D. Which gives the game a very cool ancient looking feel to the levels, it's like cave drawings are coming alive in front of your very eyes. You don't see this from many games and it's very refreshing.

As I said in the beginning of this review this game has no fighting mechanic, because there is nothing to fight. Not everyone is good at fighting games, or even walking around in a 3D environment. Some people can't even handle the mechanics of Super Mario Brothers on the NES. Though games that are as simplistic as Mooseman gives those people a reason to pick up a Nintendo Switch and spend a hours trying to find all the hidden gems in the game. That's why I think this game and games like it are so important to the gaming community. So everyone can escape into a world unknown, to find peace and tranquility.