Lifeless Planet

By now I'm sure you know what I'm like when it comes to games that are a little... different. I've had my eye on this one for ages and finally picked it up on release a few days ago. It was originally released a year ago on Steam, but no-one here cares about Steam

The story is pretty simple. You're an astronaut. You've crashed on an alien planet that's completely devoid of life... until you find a Russian artefact laying in the dust next to a road and power-lines. What's happened to the other members of your crew? Is anyone actually still on this planet? How exactly did the Russians get here, and how long have they been here?



At its core, Lifeless Planet is a puzzle/platform/exploration game. The puzzles aren't hard, the platforming isn't difficult and the exploration isn't very vast - but these are all things that really work in the game's favour. The atmosphere is great, and the inclusion of difficult or frustrating mechanics would have seriously damaged the game's enjoyment. As it is, you can happily wander around, discovering new things, all safe in the knowledge tha...



...oh. Erm...

Okay, so maybe it's not that peaceful...

So far, I'm about half of the way through the game. I've been enjoying the platforming and especially loving the atmosphere and exploration. Collectibles include documents, logs, mineral samples and death. That's right, there's an achievement for dying in all the different ways.



Speaking of achievements, it's all pretty simple. Most of it will come while playing (as long as you spend some time looking around each area). The only "difficult" achievement is to complete the game without dying, but saving that for a second playthrough should make it pretty easy. You will need two playthroughs if you want all the achievements as the "die every way" and "don't die" achievements clearly don't go together. Once you know what you're doing, you could quite easily complete this game in under four hours - which is handy, as that's another achievement.

Overall, I'd give this game a solid four Russian artefacts out of five.



If you're looking for a change of pace, this could be the game for you.

Nice review mate. Saw this on the One and was wondering about this. May try this over the Bank holiday weekend.

Good work. Didn't know anything about this so I've been watching a couple of streams briefly to try and figure out the essence of it.

Good review bud

Brilliant!

I really enjoy your writing style mate.

Your sooooo stuffed, I will send you more to review!

Not convinced that's a good thing...

Nice review mate