I was pretty skeptical about the prospect of stapling a roguelite mode onto a game that is about exploring a setting that is fueled by its strong sense of place. How do you make a location that is as interesting to explore as Talos I but also have it shift and change across dozens of runs? In the end I think that Mooncrash pulls off this feat with aplomb. The sense of familiarity you develop with the moon base is constantly being fucked with by new hazards, enemy types, and full on room variations that are just different enough to keep you on your toes.

I think a problem inherent to a lot of roguelites is that the final run feels kind of anti-climactic due to you just have complete mastery over the mechanics and also have gained so much power that you can steam roll over nearly any problem. I think that's exacerbated a bit here by the delay loop time item that allows you to just completely avoid taking on higher level enemies or even allowing enemies to repopulate, so on a perfect run by the time you get to character 4 or 5 there's almost no major threats standing in your way, you're pretty much just making a beeline directly to your escape route. I think this offers a pretty neat reward for players that plan their route through a run smartly, but at the same time it does make the ending of your final run feel very anticlimactic. Luckily there is a final sequence as a part of the framing device of the narrative that makes things have a bit more satisfying of a conclusion.

I think the problems here are extraordinarily minor though. Overall this is one of my favorite roguelites or immersive sims that I've played, and just by virtue of tying the two together so well it should be applauded. I'm much more likely to dip my toes back into this than the base game which I think is one of the highest complements you can pay to any DLC.