Lifeless Planet – PC Game Review

Lifeless planet is a game available on PC through Steam or GOG, as well as the Xbox One home gaming console. The game is an indie title developed by “Stage 2 Studios“, and published by KISS Ltd. In fact, it is one of the better games published by KISS Ltd in my opinion. Most games that KISS Ltd releases, just aren’t my cup of tea, so it doesn’t really take much for me to consider a game to be one of their better games. If it doesn’t make me want to smash my head through my monitor, it’s one of their better games!

Lifeless Planet tells the story of an astronaut sent to a fertile green planet. Their pod crashes on the home world, and he has become separated from his crew. Even more confusing? The planet isn’t a forested green world like they were led to believe! It’s instead a barren wasteland void of any life! As you search for your crewmates, you begin to discover signs that you aren’t the first visitor to this planet!

So, what type of game is it you ask? It’s a mixture of game genres! It’s mostly a third person perspective exploration/walking simulator. You just walk, and as you journey the story begins to unfold around. You can follow the trail clearly laid out in front of you, or go off on your own and discover things hidden around in the game world. Be warned though, traveling off the beaten trail can often lead to danger!

The game also has platforming elements, where you are required to reach an area just out of reach by jumping from rock to rock, or crates, or anything that will boost you up high enough to reach your goal. It also has a lot of puzzles to solve! Between the platforming and puzzles, the game will really put your mind to work!

Movement is smooth, and the controls are very intuitive. At no point did the game ever leave me confused or frustrated with the controls! It was all pretty smooth sailing! If mouse and Keyboard isn’t your cup of tea, the game is also 100% compatible with the Xbox 360 USB PC gamepad! Which, was also flawless! Basically, no matter how you decided to play, controls won’t be an issue!

So, the game has an amazing and captivating plot, and great gaming elements and super spiffy controls! That’s all fine and good, but how are the graphics? Remember that the game is an Indie game! So, it’s not on par with other AAA titles. For an Indie game though? The graphics and animation is outstanding! The world even reflects in the visor of the astronauts helmet! It really is gorgeous, and very well done! There’s a wide variety of locals, from wastelands, to caves, to volcanic hotbeds! All very beautifully rendered!

Unfortunately, the game lacks any type of audio options. Making it impossible to lower sound in the game, or to disable the few voice overs that exist. A lot of the voice overs are russian, and hearing spoken russian dialog distracts me when I am trying read the “Auto-translated” text. Having a way to disable it, or at the very least turn it down enough so that it’s not a distraction would be ideal.

As far as glitches go, the game seems relatively glitch free! I did encounter one glitch however. What happened was, I picked up a rock and carried it onto an elevator and used the elevator button. This froze my controls and prevented me from moving or dropping the rock. All I could do was bring up the pause menu, but even then the “Restart from last checkpoint” option was missing. I eventually had to quit the game, and then go back into it. No other bugs or glitches were encountered, and the one that I did encounter? I was unable to duplicate it.

Overall I had a fantastic time playing this game! Which is good, because the last two games I played sucked so bad that I was about ready to give up on gaming altogether! The story was it’s self was so interesting that I just did not want to stop playing until I was finished! Kind of how like when you read a good book, you don’t ever want to set it down? I had a similar experience with this game!

Should you get it? Well, the game is 20 bucks, which is a bit expensive for what you get. I finished the game in 4 hours roughly,and the majority of those 4 hours were spent wandering around exploring. I imagine it could be finished much quicker for someone who is just rushing through the game. If I had paid 20 bucks for it, I would have been a bit upset! For 20 dollars, I expect a little bit more than just 4 hours. Thankfully I got the game(As well as several others) for just 4 dollars in a bundle deal from Indie Gala.

I would suggest that if the game sounds interesting to you (And it should, because it’s awesome!) that you wait for either a Steam sale, or for it to be included in another Bundle(It has been bundled several times, so odds are that it will be bundled again).

PROS

• Great plot
• Easy to understand Controls.
• Flawless Gamepad support

CONS

• No Audio Controls.
• Tad overpriced for what you get

Overall Score: 8/10

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter PC Game Review

Are you are looking for a first person horror/mystery game that feels like a cross between Alan Wake, and Murdered: Soul Suspect with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure? Then this might be what you are looking for!

First, let me talk about the graphics! The graphics are gorgeous! Right from the start when you find yourself standing on the train tracks at the end of a tunnel, surrounded by a dense woodland area. It’s probably one of the most beautiful games I have played. In fact you might spend more time wandering around the game world, looking at the scenery than you do solving mysteries. In my 8+ hours of playtime I spent 2 hours of it just looking out over oceans and frolicking around in the woods.

(Actual gameplay screenshot)

In terms of gameplay, the game starts off telling you that it’s not going to hold your hand, which it doesn’t. this is a double edged sword in my opinion. On one hand, you don’t have some clumsy UI detracting from the immersion of the game. On the other hand, the games definition of “Hand holding” apparently includes: Explaining controls, explaining your abilities, explaining why you are wherever it is you are, letting you manually save and letting you view an inventory(or notebook system….or map). So, in the end it’s kind of cool that you have a nice clean screen to enjoy the visuals of the game, but that also means that if you quit playing for a few days and forget what you have collected, or what you were trying to do, yer pretty much up a creek without a paddle.

-Pros-
Beautiful graphics.
Challenging yet logical puzzles(mostly)
H.P. Lovecraft vibe
Good voice acting
Excellent controls
Clear UI
Flawless gamepad support

-Cons-
No tutorial explaining controls
No manual save
No inventory/journal system
Insanely short(I beat the game in 6 hours with 100% achievment completion)

NCIS: The Game Review – PS3

I will be upfront with this review. I am not a fan of the series, in fact I have never watched it. If I had, my views on the game might have been different.

What I expected was a game with similar play mechanics to the CSI titles. The premise isn’t much different, and it’s released through the same publisher.

Needless to say, it’s not what I got. The game was a mess! Sure the graphics were standard(For the time of its release), but the animation and voice acting were very sub-par, which is a shame since apparently the game uses the voice talents of the actual shows actors(Which leads me to question the shows entertainment value).

The game consists of you walking around the screen taking pictures of whatever one of the other characters tell you to take photos of. Basically, it’s a “Hidden picture” game. I say that in quotes, because the items aren’t really hidden. They usually are just right there. You may have to walk around a counter to see it, but it’s sitting in the blue.

Occasionally you might be asked move something, or help move something. During these scenes you are expected to press a combo of buttons. Kind of like a Quick Time Event, minus the Quick Time.

You also play as the medical examiner and perform autopsies, which sounds interesting at first, until you discover that an autopsy consists of you taking pictures of red glowing marks on a wire frame body.

You are probably wondering by this point, if the game has any puzzles! Yes, it does. If you have the same idea of puzzles as this game. Puzzles tend to be matching up a piece of evidence with another. Sometimes the puzzle is a memory game. Other times, its keeping your crosshairs on top of a moving target.

The only redeeming aspect of this game is the “deduction board” where you connect all of the gathered clues to reach a final conclusion. It reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes deduction boards, however, it too is fairly simple.

Overall, the game is nothing like what I expected, and was a huge disappointment from start to finish. perhaps if I was familiar more with the series, it might have left a better taste in my mouth, but from a purely gaming point of view, this is an abomination to video games! Sure, it’s not the WORST game I have ever played, but that’s not really a redeeming factor.

In the end, unless you a truly hardcore NCIS fan, I would stay FAR away from this title.