Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition
Xbox one (13/05/2015)
King Yatesy
Lifeless Planet is puzzle, platformer, space, jetpack, scary
monster game which was developed by an indie studio called ‘Stage 2 Studios’
and I think they did a cracking job bringing the game together and making a puzzle
game which has quite an interesting story to follow.
The game is set on another planet that scientists have travelled
to in the hope of finding another lifeform. However you start off by crashing
onto the planet and you can’t find any other crew members or any forms of life,
only derelict soviet union outposts which your fine fellow of a crew member
needs to find out what happened.
The game features a fair few levels for you to jump around
like a mad man on and fall to your death countless times as you over jumped a
rock.
There are different objectives you are given in different
areas such as turn the power back on by using alien power sources and getting
oxygen quickly otherwise you die, or find your way through a pitch black forest
with a torch that would barely light up a label on a tin of beans.
In each area there are a range of collectables to pick up
such as rocks, documents and audio files. Each of which have their own corresponding
achievements tied to them. The documents that you find explain what has happened
on the planet and they are actually quite interesting and are what pave the
story in this puzzle platformer. I found myself actually reading the
collectibles which is something I would never normally do on a game.
The game does have a few issues like the jumping which isn’t
the best and sometimes when you are climbing up a hill it will push you
backwards when you jump sending you to your death which infuriates me and I did
rage quite once or twice from this happening as I felt I was cheated for that
life.
The game itself at times was quite difficult and at times I found
myself walking around for half an hour trying to find a switch. (sounds stupid I
know) It’s a very linear game but at times there can be different routes to
take.
It is a very nice game to play it was a good change from
other puzzlers where you were locked in a room to solve an obvious puzzle in
front of you. On this game you have to find routes to things that you wouldn’t expect
to be there. Such as hidden paths round the sides of rocks and using inanimate
objects to reach higher areas.
The graphics aren’t the best. Sometime they can look really
nice like in the picture above but on some cut scenes when it zooms in on faces
its shocking it’s like they are competing with PS2 graphics. Other than that
there’s not really much to see other than red rocks and sand.
The music in this game is really nice its fits the atmosphere
perfectly (no pun intended). Its keeps you under suspense and makes the planet
feel very mysterious and eerie and there are different tracks for different
situations which all keep you on edge.
The gameplay is generally very smooth and performance is
never an issue. There was however a few times when jumping would send you
flying backwards instead of up which can ruin the game a bit. However flying
through an alien canyon and floating from rock to rock at quick speeds is
extremely fun and put a cheeky grin on my face every time I got the super
jetpack.
Summary
Lifeless planet is a nice little game and my first play
through took me about 4-5 hours as I had no idea where to go in places. I did
however manage to do a speed run which took 2 hours and 1 minute so there isn’t
much replay value. However an interesting indie game which I think people
should give a chance and spend their delicious bucks on.
I spent approximately 10 hours on the game getting 15/15
achievements available and finishing the game twice.
A copy of the game was provided by the developer.
Xbox one store link: http://store.xbox.com/en-GB/Xbox-One/Games/Lifeless-Planet-Premier-Edition/df5cbf8a-8b14-4967-8612-b6bf29888661
Developer website link: http://www.lifelessplanet.com/
