Moonshine, Inc. rolls onto the PS5 with the charm of a backwoods still and the subtlety of a drunk uncle at Christmas. You inherit a moonshine operation, dodge the law, and attempt to become Appalachia’s top distiller. On paper, it’s a tempting recipe: management, experimentation, and the thrill of illicit booze. In practice, it’s a game that spends more time telling you what to do than letting you enjoy it.
Gaming Heaven
There is some merit buried in the barrels. The brewing system is surprisingly flexible, allowing experimentation with flavours, techniques, and equipment. Crafting a batch that actually works feels satisfying, almost like a small victory against a very patient adversary. Menus and dashboards are detailed enough to support real strategy, and the visual presentation of the stills and rural hideouts has a quaint rustic charm. For players who enjoy methodical, menu-driven simulations, there is a thread of enjoyment here – if you can find it between the interruptions.
Gaming Hell
The game constantly restricts your freedom with arbitrary chapter gates, forcing you to follow a rigid progression while pretending you’re running a criminal empire. Deliveries lack meaningful choices; the AI drivers follow pre-set routes, leaving you to watch progress bars. The police mechanic is inconsistent, story beats are skeletal, and the tutorial actively prevents you from doing what it tells you to. Menus glitch, UI elements vanish, and most of the “gameplay” amounts to waiting – distillation, deliveries, progress checks- while wondering why you didn’t just stick to the recipes on the box.
Final Judgement
Moonshine, Inc. has a core that could ferment into something enjoyable, but it’s buried under layers of tedium and poor pacing. Making a perfect batch is fleetingly satisfying, yet the rest of the game treats you like a lab rat in a very slow experiment. For all the potential in managing a moonshine empire, most of your time is spent watching menus, waiting for timers, and hoping the next chapter unlocks faster than your patience. A concept that should be intoxicating ends up flat and watered down.
