Where Lifeless Planet works best is in its early stages. However, they don't explain everything, and the main mystery – a fleeting woman who you ultimately pursue throughout the game – isn't revealed until the final part of the adventure. These slowly weave together a narrative that begins to reveal who the colonists were, and what happened to the planet to turn it into a desert. What are they doing here, and why do they lead to a small abandoned Earth-like town? How did these people arrive here, and where have they gone?įortunately, along the game's linear golden path, there are clues in the form of audio journals that you can pick up and listen to. It's the first of the game's many mysteries that throw up more questions than there are answers. Despite his bulky space suit, the astronaut is quite athletic, and can jump with the help of a jetpack, which can give him a boost when negotiating the game's many platform challenges.Īfter a brief trek across the desert, and navigating some narrow ravines where you learn the ins and outs of Lifeless Planet's basic platform mechanics, the astronaut comes across a line of very earth-like telephone poles. However, there's always a way forward, usually in the form of some platforming. From the very outset, the astronaut's quite considerable trek through the game is made challenging by environmental obstacles, the occasional red herring path, and what often look like dead ends. Fortunately, it's a supply vehicle, and with his oxygen levels topped up, the astronaut starts exploring the environment, looking for clues as to why this once-fertile planet has become a desert during the time it's taken him to travel there from Earth.Ĭreated largely as a solo project by David Board, Lifeless Planet is an odd combination of third person walking simulator and platform-puzzler. Fortunately a glint on the horizon helps give the unnamed spaceman a waypoint, and he sets forth, jogging towards the target. His first objective is to find fresh air, which means walking out into the desert and looking for supply vehicles that were dropped onto the planet in preparation for the astronauts' landing. His landing craft is wrecked, the planet – supposedly rich and full of life – looks like a barren desert, and, most importantly of all, his oxygen is running out. There's one immediate survivor, and the prognosis is not good.
After spending years in a cryo-chamber so that they could survive the rigors of long-distance interstellar travel, a small group of astronauts has crash-landed on the planet they were sent to explore. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.
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