Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEMoon Watch
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!
Our score
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Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
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.
What players praise
- 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)
What players criticize
- 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
Distinctive features
- 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
Divided opinions
- Whether the concept and itch.io-demo-level quality justify buying now: itch.io players rate it 4.7/5 while Steam reviews are Mixed
- Whether the time-stop plus deckbuilding mix is a fresh hybrid or two genres that clash (one reviewer says Loop Hero does the deck/auto-battler blend better)
- Whether the game is truly dead or just quiet: some supportive posts say keep going, devs, while many call it abandoned
Repetition and friction
- 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
Hoped-for improvements
- 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
Early Access launched on Steam Dec 4, 2024 at $9.99 with an 8-10 month EA estimate; the itch.io version had earlier builds (Act II in Sep 2024, Endless Mode demo update Oct 2024) and was well-liked there. Steam reviews turned sharply negative from about Sept 2025 onward as players noticed the absence of updates and communication (a Steam thread titled around 'STILL NOTHING' dated 7 Nov 2025). Top negative reviews had dozens of upvotes for calling it abandoned; a few players still recommend it for the few hours of fun it offers. Metacritic has a page but no scores; no OpenCritic entry found. Revenue data is unreliable: the steam-revenue-calculator estimate shows $0 and the owner estimate is under 20,000, so sales were likely small. Caveat: the WebSearch budget was exhausted during this research, so the picture rests on Steam store/community pages, the itch.io page, the local Steam reviews file and Metacritic; Reddit and outlet reviews could not be fetched.
Community sources
- Local file of top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (abandonment, loop/strategy critique, short but fun) ↗
- Local Steam metadata: appid 2878030, release date, price, review counts, tags, SteamSpy owner range ↗
- Steam store page: content list, EA roadmap, Mixed reviews, last update over 21 months ago ↗
- Steam reviews page: abandonment, limited content, good bones, worth about $5 ↗
- Steam discussions: abandonment threads, bugs (starter decks, unlock persistence, Steam Deck achievements, no cloud saves), resolution requests ↗
- itch.io page: 4.7/5 from 112 ratings, Superhot/Vampire Survivors comparisons, crash reports, update history ↗
- Metacritic page exists but shows tbd for critic and user scores ↗
- Boxleiter-based revenue estimate shown as $0, not meaningful ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 3 (2025)
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.
What the creator praises
- 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
Issues raised by the creator
- 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
Design observations
- Time only advances when you move, yet you can trigger hand abilities while time is stopped
- Mana regeneration tied to standing still forces a tension between positioning and casting
- Boss items act like cursed items, e.g. no mana gain from moving but mana from kills, making it all-or-nothing
Updated opinion
Early access evaluation; he says it could move to B or potentially A as content and tweaks arrive.
