Lifeless Planet, as a concept and as a game, is a success by a lot of measures. From its respectable Kickstarter earnings to the game’s eventual execution across a trio of platforms, I can’t imagine the developer and publisher can find any room for Disappointment. Representing Stage 2 Studios, developer David Board delivered near exactly what was promised during the game’s initial funding run and hasn’t shown signs of stopping, with the only promise yet to be met an eventual mobile port.

There’s something to be said for independent developers and the communities that support their visions. Where Board imagined an action game with an emphasis on adventure, the market for such a game quickly materialized to double Lifeless Planet’s initial fundraising goal which must have been both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. Rather than rushing through development to meet demand, Board wisely spent nearly two and a half more years than planned to execute a playable game consisting of a heavily customized spin on the Unity engine and the first few chapters of story content. In the months leading to full release, quality voice acting, an original score, and many new game chapters were added, alongside prominent lore to augment the unique science fiction tale. And unlike other recent “walking simulator” exploration games, Lifeless Planet did include a handful of non-story features in its environment that made exploration sometimes feel worthwhile.

The real problem then is not with the game itself, which is in my opinion perfectly realized, but with what I want and expect from a game. Certain expectations I have are quite reasonable, like the ability to save your game at any given point; while others are more personal, like precision movement in any game which requires you to move precisely. On these counts I imagine David Board and I would simply agree to disagree. If you start up Lifeless Planet mid-game and continue exactly where you last left off you’ll lose the deliberate pacing and possibly have forgotten the goal of a given chapter, he might say. I’d argue that’s my own business to contend with as a player and not an excuse to omit a helpful UI element like a quest log. Where I prefer concise and accurate controls anytime I need to make a character jump across a series of platforms, Board might insist clunkier movement more realistically conveys the burden of a full space suit. Rejecting conventions that others, if not an entire industry, might view as a standard doesn’t automatically make something wrong. If nothing else I respected the game more for its stubbornness, especially where deviating from such expectations, like making the space suit difficult to maneuver in, would require substantially more effort.

What disappointed me the most was that the supposedly lifeless planet wasn’t really lifeless at all, in any sense. Not only is half the game spent chasing down a mysterious living figure, the planet is teeming with carnivorous foliage and various animal life which exhibit quite clearly that the planet isn’t barren in the slightest. Sure, there are no other humans except for your fellow spacemates and possibly this mystery woman, but that hardly designates an entire planet as lifeless. In fact, the supposedly abandoned settlements even featured the sounds of rocking chairs when nearing certain houses, which either indicated life indeed or a suspiciously rhythmic wind.

Thankfully though exploration was at least halfway rewarded through achievements, but for a game this size the collectibles were definitely few and far between. Thorough exploration and poor controls dovetailed nicely into another achievement to “Die every possible way on the planet.” Although there were some unique landmarks and interesting terrain I ended up resorting to an illustrated walkthrough about halfway through, as there was frequently just too much wide open ground to cover without enough of a reward. On the achievement front though, Lifeless Planet did feature some unforgivable sins with a beat-the-game-without-dying achievement (thankfully amended from an “on your first playthrough” requirement); a time-trial achievement; and two stay-in-one-place-for-x-minutes achievements, the higher of which required 10 hours. (For those who don’t know, that latter achievement is designed explicitly to generate free advertising.)

As far as the actual gameplay was concerned, the character movement was clunky (by design), the mechanics were gimmicky (by design), and the puzzles were challenging only because of the gimmicky mechanics. That last point is important as the game’s barrier to entry needed to be low but at the same time puzzles needed to at least feel challenging for novices and veterans alike. For me many of the puzzles were like asking people to run with an egg on a spoon: the task at hand isn’t inherently difficult, but the execution can be regardless of skill which, of course, was largely by design. Personally I found those design decisions disagreeable and frustrating. Cutscenes were unskippable and half of the dialogue between the two main characters was in Russian, both of which may indeed have added to immersion in the game but at the cost of alienating a player who wasn’t buying into it. On the other hand, when you’re an indie developer who spent weeks on each of those cutscenes and big bucks on those professional voiceovers you can certainly be forgiven for wanting people to experience them.

Where it’s easy for me to say, “I didn’t like this game and wouldn’t recommend it,” I do like the story of a developer who stuck to his guns. Where Lifeless Planet failed for me is where it can succeed completely for somebody else more willing to immerse themselves in its world. Achievement sins aside, the game did many things right and if nothing else should be respected for that. My hope is that David Board takes Stage 2 Studios even further, building on the lessons learned while developing Lifeless Planet (specifically that audio should be centered on the character and not the camera), which I hope is just the beginning. If the story of an astronaut trying to make sense of the Russian ruins on an unnamed foreign planet appeals to you this is definitely a title to pick up, because otherwise I can’t recommend it.

4/10.