To the Moon sequel Impostor Factory is a 'bonkers' murder mystery with tentacles and a cat

Impostor Factory, the next game coming from To the Moon studio Freebird Games, sounded quite a bit different from its predecessors when it was announced earlier this year. While To the Moon and its sequel Finding Paradise are tear-jerkers about regret and final wishes, Impostor Factory, Freebird said, is "a time-resetting thriller-mystery that involves a series of bloody murders."

Now we've got a little bit of a closer look at what's coming, sort of, through a new trailer, a website, and a Steam listing. I say "sort of" because it's still not at all clear what's happening here. Freebird refers to the game as "To the Moon 3" in the announcement, and says explicitly that it's part of the To the Moon (Sigmund Corp.) series; but it's also labeled as Episode X, rather than Episode 3 as you might expect, and "the topic of how it is connected is suspiciously avoided."

"Impostor Factory is a bonkers time-loop tragicomedy murder mystery sci-fi thriller with multiple casualties and a suspicious cat, from the creator of To the Moon," Freebird founder Kan Gao said, which sounds like fun but doesn't really clarify how it connects with the prior games.

The description on Steam is similarly baffling. It makes specific reference to Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts from the first two games, but then says that "this isn't their story. Probably." Instead, it's about a man named Quincy, who was invited to a very fancy party at an oddly secluded mansion with a time machine in its bathroom.

"Quincy could wash his hands and time-travel while he was at it. Talk about a time-saver!" the Steam page says. "But of course, then people start dying, because that's what they do. And somewhere along the way, things get a little Lovecraftian and tentacles are involved. Anyway, that's around 1/3 of what the game is really about."

The FAQ section isn't any more helpful, saying that Impostor Factory may or may not be a sequel to To the Moon and Finding Paradise, or might be a prequel, or could possibly even both, maybe through the whole time travel thing. Whatever it turns out to be, Freebird emphasized that it's a standalone game, so there's no need to play the other two first.

Whatever it turns out to be, Freebird said—as it did in the original announcement—that it "will likely mark the end of an era" for the studio and the To the Moon series. It's expected to be out in late 2020.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.