Stage 2 Studios, developers of Lifeless Planet, haven’t really made any games before this one, but that’s not to say it’s a novice experiment in game creation. On the contrary, Lifeless Planet is very good platforming experience with puzzle elements mixed in. With that being said, Lifeless Planet is heavy on the platforming, but light on the puzzles.
Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition
Developer: Stage 2 Studios
Price: $20.00
Platform: PC, Mac, and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with an Xbox One copy the game
In Lifeless Planet, you play as a nameless astronaut that has been sent, along with his crew, on a one way mission that will take them 15 years to reach their destination. As if that weren’t depressing enough, the trip doesn’t go according to plan and you find yourself crash landing on an alien planet, without a trace of the rest of your crew. After you come to you have to find a source of oxygen in order to refill your suits tank. I understand the idea of including this task in the game, but it was never a big deal as far as finding a place to resupply, and it honestly felt a little tacked on since it was always pre-scripted when you needed to refill your tank.
The planet you find yourself on in Lifeless Planet looks like a desert you might find on Earth, and things only get interesting from there. After a while of traversing through the extraterrestrial landscape for some time, you come across telephone poles, as well as a Russian colony that looks like something out of the American Wild West era. The colony is completely deserted, which adds to the mystery. After finding the Russian ghost town, you begin a mission to uncover what exactly is happening on this mystery planet.
In Lifeless Planet, taking damage is similar to the Golden Gun in James Bond 007. What I mean by that is if you get hit once you are dead. Whether a fall is too high, you pass out from oxygen deprivation, or any of the much odder things that could affect your astronauts mortality rate, your best bet is to not get hit.
The controls in Lifeless Planet leaves a little bit to be desired. I’ve found myself not being able to make certain jumps because the astronaut doesn’t jump quite high enough from a single jump, but will be uncontrollable on a second jump. This isn’t an issue with long jumps, it has more to do with taking what I would call a stair jump, meaning that you are only trying to jump one platform up that is directly connected to the platform that you’re jumping from.
When you start moving in Lifeless Planet you don’t run with the same speed as you would all the time, which makes it a chore to take jumps from one small platform to the next. As an example, if you plan on jumping from a small stone that you can’t run in one direction to hit to speed, you’ll need to run your astronaut in a circle to go from a turtle walk to regular speed in order to make the jump.
Lifeless Planet hits you with a kind of preachy undertone that makes you think about the way we use our own planet. Human beings treat Earth as if everything will be around forever, consuming our precious finite resources on a rapid scale for our own selfish creature comforts. I can totally appreciate where it’s coming from and I think people should become more aware of our consumption and the effects that it has on our planet.
Check out the Trailer for Lifeless Planet below:
The Final Word
Lifeless Planet is a decent platformer with a great story. The puzzles are few and far between, but if you enjoy science fiction Lifeless Planet is a great game with an intriguing mystery. It could be scary for younger gamers and drudges along in the middle, but the juice is most certainly worth the squeeze.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
Quick heads up that we’re currently hosting a giveaway right here where you can win an Xbox One code for this neat game.
