Ever since I was a little boy all I have ever wanted to do was go to space. To be an astronaut and be fired up into the sky, beyond the clouds and into the darkness that surrounds us. I love space, I love planets and the one thing I want more than anything else in the world is to visit another world. Lifeless Planet took me there.
As you rocket through the darkness, the endless void that is space for 15 years you're pod crash lands at your destination with no hope of returning home. The planet that you believed to be full of life, vegetation and everything you would need to colonise it turns out to actually be a desolate wasteland of deserts, canyons and volcanoes. But this is not as it once was.
As you begin to explore the planet you realise that you aren't the first to land on the planet and that these people may have had a part to play in the destabilisation of the environment. However, empty buildings, experiments and corpses tell a story that is a lot darker than first thought.
Lifeless Planet is hard to pin down to an actual genre, much like Sony's inde hit Journey the majority of the game is spent walking around large environments and looking at beautiful vistas. Gameplay mainly takes the form of platforming using a limited use jetpack across large gaps or complex climbs up cliff faces; or using a mechanical arm to solve simple power related puzzles.
These sections aren't exciting, or even interesting at all to be perfectly honest, but they help to extend the experience and break up the sheer quantity of walking that has to be done.
The game is also at its most irritating during the platforming sequences as it isn't always immediately obvious where to go, plus controlling your character is very sensitive making precise manoeuvres difficult and ultimately frustrating.
However, the large environments the game offers are examples of some of the best level design I have ever seen in an indie game. They offer a bone crushing sense of loneliness that I have never experienced before; right from the word go you feel lost, alone and know that you are likely to never escape the surface of this new planet. The view goes on for miles and the play areas themselves are extremely large, with clever signposting for which way to go by having subtle cues such as a narrowing path or some lightly trodden sand trails. Its never obvious where you need to go, but there is a good sense of flow to these large areas.
The more linear sections of the game, though still good and well designed, are there more for tension building or narrative purposes and unfortunately this represents most of the middle of the game.
The Unity engine is something someone wouldn't normally associate with great visuals, however it is a very user friendly engine that a lot of first time game devs use. Lifeless Planet however uses lighting and scale to its advantage to provide something that looks beautiful in an engine that uses largely low resolution textures and angular shapes on objects.
The game was largely developed by just one man and this only furthers just how much of a technical achievement this is.
The games sound design adds to the atmosphere more than it adds something of beauty. Footsteps echo in tunnels and a subtle soundtrack plays over important parts of the game and thought this definitely adds to the experience, its nothing spectacular.
Lifeless Planet as a whole is something you should play not as a game but as an experience in isolation. It perfectly captures how it would feel to be billions of miles away from anyone you know or care for, in complete isolation, stranded in never ending plains.
It offers little else of interest, the story is interesting yet undeveloped and doesn't capture the potential it had. The platforming is tedious and the puzzles are downright boring. But much like Journey, the thrill comes from never knowing where you're going to end up next and being able to gaze upon the sheer beauty of it all.
Lifeless Planet – 6/10
+Unparalleled Isolation
+Enormous & Beautiful Environments
+Good Length
-Gameplay Brings the Whole Game Down
-Story Has Unfulfilled Potential
