Moonshine Inc. gives players a chance to experience what it is like to run their own business brewing moonshine in the Appalachian Mountains.
It’s finally December, the time of year when the weather gets chilly, while you can curl up with your favorite cozy game, and what’s cozier than making moonshine? Moonshine Inc. is a unique farming game developed and published by Klabater. It sees the player swapping out the typical farm tools with a distiller as they learn about how to brew one of America’s most famous illegal substances, likker, also known as moonshine.
The story of Moonshine Inc. sees the player take the role of a young man who left his small country town to try and make a name for himself in the big city, which is easier said than done. After making a few connections and asking around, our protagonist finally gets his big break working in a mafia-run pub. But just when he thinks everything is finally smooth sailing, the pub is raided by the police.
Luckily, he was out of town, but unluckily, he had to head back home. However, all is not lost as he is now much wiser than when he first left. From there, you set up your own business making and selling moonshine in the scenic Appalachian Mountains with the help of your wise gruncle and younger sister. Just be careful, though, because your business may garner the attention of both the law, as well as a few unsavory characters.
In Moonshine Inc., the player will need to run and manage their new business. This includes buying all the equipment you need to brew moonshine, as well as hiring workers to clean and maintain said equipment. When it comes to making moonshine, there are four different types of liquor you can brew: moonshine, brandy, whiskey, and vodka. Before you can start brewing, you need to choose a recipe.
A recipe gives you a list of ingredients each liquor requires to achieve the desired flavor for each drink. The main goal is to achieve as close to a match as possible to the recipe. You unlock more recipes through doing side or story missions, or by making liquor of a certain type. The more you make, the more you learn.
Once you have your ingredients and recipe picked out, you now need to brew your drink of choice. During the brewing process, the player has full control over how much they want to brew and for how long they want to brew it. After this, you then distill your alcohol, picking which jars from the batch you want to toss and which jars you want to keep.
Then all that’s left to do is bottle your booze and sell it. After every batch of alcohol you brew, depending on the quality, the player is then rewarded with Mastery points. These points allow you to learn new skills that will help you make better likers, as well as gain access to better equipment.
The better the equipment, the better the quality of your brew. The quality of your brew also dictates the price you can sell your liquor, as well as how closely it matches the recipe. From there, you sell your liquor to the various locations on your map, but be careful if you visit a location too many times. It will get the attention of the police, and if you get caught. Game Over.
Moonshine Inc. tries to replicate the brewing of moonshine as realistically as possible. This means that even though you followed the recipe as closely as possible, there is still a chance for a batch not to pan out exactly as you had hoped. That’s why when you have a successful batch you can archive it, meaning as long as you have all the ingredients and equipment,t you can replicate it again later.
However, some side missions require you to make a moonshine brew that has an ingredient that is not in the original recipe, meaning players will have to substitute an ingredient in the recipe, but still need to achieve the same desired taste.
As you can probably tell, Moonshine Inc. is a rather complicated game that tries to make the experience of being a moonshiner as realistic as possible. While this attempt at realism makes the game feel authentic, it’s also incredibly overwhelming. Particularly in the early game, you will waste ingredients and make a lot of low-quality brews until you get the hang of the game’s mechanics. If you don’t have a lot of experience with playing similar games of the genre, Moonshine Inc. will not be the best place to start.
That’s not to say the game simply tosses you to the wolves. It provides you with an in-depth tutorial that tells you everything you need to know about brewing moonshine… well, almost everything. That’s the thing with Moonshine Inc., it doesn’t fully explain everything, it doesn’t tell you how to lower the police level of hotspots, it doesn’t tell you that at the beginning, you won’t be able to use all the ingredients in a recipe.
And it also doesn’t tell you that your delivery vehicle needs to be maintained like the rest of your equipment. You will have to figure out all of these things by yourself. So, in that sense, Moonshine Inc. does throw you to the wolves, but it also throws you a survival guide, albeit with a few pages missing.
Despite the early game difficulty spike, Moonshine Inc. is an enjoyable game to play. The game’s fully 3D environments have their rustic appeal to them and are just lovely to look at while your workers go about their day. Pair this with a relaxing acoustic soundtrack and Moonshine Inc. makes the player feel as if they are actually in the sunny hills of Appalachia, doing a good, hard day’s work making and brewing American likker.
Overall, Moonshine Inc. is a beautiful game that gives the player an authentic experience. However, this game is not for everyone and is better suited for someone who is a moonshine enthusiast and has a genuine interest in learning about the history of American alcohol, because if you just wanted a regular farming game or a business management sim, Moonshine Inc. will sadly leave you empty-handed.
Moonshine Inc. is currently available on Steam, and also stay tuned to GamesCreed’s game reviews for the latest updates.
