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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CAT Interstellar – Steam Quickie Review

This “game” is one gorgeous looking title! It’s developed and published by a company called Ionized Games, which as far as I know hasn’t released any other games in the past. One important thing about CI however, is that it is an Early Access title. I have explained Early Access before in case anyone is unfamiliar with the concept. Although this title is MUCH more Early Access than most titles I have played, or reviewed. In fact, it’s so early access that referring to it as a “Game” is being very generous. Right now, there’s not much to it. It’s basically a tech demo, but it is still fun to explore and look around. For 4 bucks, you will probably get your money worth. Just don’t go in expecting a game, story, ending or much of anything really. In fact, the only parts of the title that has any gamelike feel are a couple times when you are asked to go get something.

Like I said at the start, the graphics are gorgeous, and while I normally hate filters, the filters in the “game” make it look really nice. It does a good job of making you feel like a robot or at the very least at the controls of a robot. The graphics remind me somewhat of Alien Isolation. Not that it’s dark or creepy, but the filters and texturing job are very similar.

As far as the voice acting goes? To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the voice acting at all! Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. The voice acting was tolerable, it was the script that I had an issue with. hearing an android use words and slang like “Awesome” just didn’t feel right to me. Though the actors themselves could pass as androids I suppose.

My main concern is, like I said: The game is nowhere near completion, and in fact probably shouldn’t even be released into early access yet. It has a long way to go before it’s considered anything more than a tech demo. Anything can happen between now and then. so, the game could go downhill fast as production advances on it, or even just bottom out all together(Worst case scenario of course).

However, I do love what I see so far. If the game continues on the same track, this will most likely become one of my favorite games. However it still has a long way to go!

PROS

• Beautiful Graphics!
• Original Concept.
• You control a Robot.
• Detailed Game World.
• Only 4 bucks!

CONS

• Too early to be sold.
• Horrible dialog.
• Not frequently updated
• Clunky Controls

Overall score: 6/10

JJ Abrams Trek

Image via Wikipedia

I re-watched the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie the other day, and it is better the second time around I suppose. I’m not saying that I now find it enjoyable, in fact quite the opposite. I really don’t like it, but at least I don’t despise it. I know, a lot of people love it! Most people think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, and I am thrilled that they enjoy it. I however, do not.

So, why do I dislike the movie? To begin with, it makes no sense! Don’t get me wrong, I am not stupid, or ignorant to Sci-Fi plotlines, I get what they were trying to do, and if it were in an original setting, I wouldn’t have an issue with it.
To begin with, it’s established that when Nero and Spock travels back in time, they cause the timeline to split, and create an alternate reality. I get that, and I understand the multiverse. Hell, I theorised about the multi-verse before I even knew there was a name for it, So I get it! I really do. However, it has already been established in Star Trek, that time travel does NOT create alternate timelines, it modifies the prime timeline.

Let me give some examples!

1) In the movie First Contact, When the borg traveled to the past, the Enterprise followed after them, and got caught in the wake of space/time. Before they slipped back into earths past, they saw that the earth had been assimilated, but they weren’t affected cause they were in the wake. That alone, says that prime space/time is modified from the actions of time travel.

2) There is a Temporal Integrity Commission, whose purpose is enforcing the Temporal Accord treaty, which basically prohibits the use of Time Travel to change history. There’s a set of rules and procedures apparently in place so you don’t contaminate the timeline. Now, I ask you, why would any group go through all that trouble, if changing the timeline had no affect on the timeline? If it just created an alternate reality, then the point of this group is moot and pointless.

I could give several other instances, but you get what I am saying!

I am also sure that there are other instances in Trek history, where traveling back in time created a split timeline, though off-hand I can’t think of one, other than the JJ Abrams movie, but like I said, I am sure they exist.

I realise Star Trek is fiction, and I shouldn’t think too much into it. It just seems like a show that created the Klingon Language, would have some rules regarding how time travel works and affects the timeline in place! Maybe I am missing something? I am not the most avid Star Trek fan, So it is entirely possible that I missed an episode or three that actually does help all that make sense.

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