Lifeless Planet

This game is a hidden gem. If you like urban legends or glitches in the matrix, this game is a keeper for sure. Prepare to open more than one of the many Pandora's Boxes. This one requires thinking outside the box of every day comfort zones.

It's fun for a slow moving, casual game. There's no fighting aliens or anything like that.

Fun little walking sim atmospheric adventure. The gameplay itself is nothing special, basic platforming and puzzles. If you can enjoy a game based solely on atmospheric exploration, and you're into sci-fi mysteries. Then you'll enjoy this game.

I bought this game for the premise, but they tell you exactly why the town is there like 10 minutes in and left me with a far less interesting mystery. Not a huge fan of the way the game would give you a "power-up" and then take it away when convenient either. The mood and aesthetic were wonderful though, And I'm interested in seeing more from the dev!

Overall:
Buy on sale.
I really like the story. It's a level of unexplained thriller that I look for. The desolateness of the world was also very beautiful. I'd enjoy if it was a never-ending walking simulator on the first level with occasional landmarks.
Gameplay:
Most of the game is exploring desolate areas with the occasional landmark, puzzle, or parkour challenge.
Controls/Graphics:
I used an 8bitdo controller for this game and didn't have any problems.
Devices played on:
PC - EndeavourOS (Arch) w/ nvidia GPU
Bugs:
PC:
- Opening cutscene did not play, showed a "SMPTE color bars" type image and no audio. If you waited long enough, you would show up in level one. This was fixed by switching to Proton GE.
- Game started studdering once. Exiting to menu and starting again fixed it. Never happened again.
- Ran with "-force-d3d12" launch option. Saw many people saying it helped on ProtonDB.

I pretty much bought Lifeless Planet as soon as I read the blurb; and blurb is the most fitting word here as it reads like the blurb of some sci-fi thriller novel and I will make an effort to review it as such.
Let's start with the narrative then. There will possibly be some minor spoilers:
In telling the story of Lifeless Planet, I feel like a lot of story got cut. At times, it seems pretty disjointed. An example would be that at one point, the character mentions having to reach a specific oxygen tank. You do the puzzle and cross some bridge and the next section starts, unrelated in any way to the previous point.
Most transitions between chapters feel jarring like this, both in terms op narrative and visually.
The end result is that the story loses a lot of its punch and cohesion as a result.
It is a good story, not a great one.
I guess that is my main complaint.
There are things that happen or directly get pointed out by the character, that never gets mentioned again.
In terms of landscape and knowing where to go, I want to praise the developers. I won't go into details due to spoilers, but when you land you truly are in a desolate landscape and looking around, you can only ask..: "Ok. What now?" as the character would, instantly putting you in his shoes.
You are steered by a trail of crumbs: some obvious and some so utterly subtle that you can't help but admire the forethought. Only in one specific section did I run into a problem where I died over and over as I just could not find the path.
From a gameplay-perspecive, it is rather basic, but I personally did not mind that as I came for the story.
There are, however, a few points I will address, such as the complaint about the platforming and "butter boots". I did not find this a problem at all, and I think I can explain it away somewhat.
Your left/right keys (A & D respectively) does not strafe like in other games, but also turns the character and since we are used to strafing instead of turning, we mess up. It's not a big thing, but you do have to actively undo previous training.
Some of the game mechanics are also pretty inconsistent. In the town seen in the presentation, you have a source of oxygen you need to go back to lest you die. I actually died once, having been reading some exposition, which trained me to fear losing oxygen...
...then you have unlimited oxygen for a good long amount of time, only to have the arbitrary timer pop up to hassle you every now and then like an old girlfriend.
This could be better, but it also could be worse.
As a last topic, I will speak about recommending it, which I would.
I got it on sale for 3 bucks and that, I think, is fair. I probably would not want to drop a tenner on it, though, so bear that in mind.
The game is probably also not for everybody. I grew up in the 90's, so graphics does not bother me, nor the inconsistent mechanics or the jarring changes between sections, but for some, any one of these might be a deal-breaker.
All in all, I enjoyed the game, and you might too if you are just a little tolerant to the game's flaws.

Its hard to put into words how AWESOME the game is... I don't remember now how I first come across this game, but I do remember I didn't even get thru half way watching the trailer years ago, and I was in love with this game. This is not just a game but an Experience! I use a part of the soundtrack from the game as my Alarm Clock sound for probably like 8-9yrs and still love it. This a Definitely MUST play game. Thank you David for giving us the Experience.