Developer: teedoubleuGAMES
Publisher: teedoubleuGAMES
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Immortal Planet – Review
Another hard game? Is it just like Dark Souls you say? It seems that ever since Demon’s Souls was invented, a new genre of games took the world by storm. Finally, developers realized that it’s fine if the player dies, a hundred times, at the first boss. The thing about these games is that you either hate them or love them. For some of us, they are like a drug. The rewarding feeling when you finally claim victory over that one boss that’s three times your size is great. You kept trying, kept adapting, paid attention to every cue at every attack the boss made, and as a reward you are the new king.
Story
You, an Immortal, are awoken from a deep sleep without knowing what’s going on. The world around you is not what it used to be. Everything is a mess. Before long you encounter some mindless creatures which used to be more humanoid. They attack you and you quickly have to strike back. From this point on you fight yourself a way through many enemies that have various skills. They can be fast, slow, ranged, melee. big, small, but almost always very lethal. You start out with a single weapon that you chose from three different starter types, but as you progress you arm yourself with all cyberpunk types of melee weapons and magic. Soon enough, you learn you are the last of your kind while the rest has gone mad or died. It’s up to you to save whatever is left and worth saving.
Graphics
Immortal Planet has elements inside that look like engine particles and some that look like they were made for a flash animation. It’s a barely noticeable mix that works because of the fantasy-rich environment in the cyberpunk world you exist in. Even though very occasionally there seems to be a slightly hard cut between frames because of this style, it manages to look smooth overall.
The game is set up from an isometric perspective, and you can walk up, down, right and left. The fact that you don’t have the freedom to move in eight directions instead of four might take some getting used to, but eventually, it works. Also, it might take you a bit to recognize which part of the floor is walkable and which is not. The game claims you can dash over short gaps, but it’s not always logical which gap is jumpable or not. And if you’re familiar with the souls-genre, nothing is as aggravating as falling to your death because of stupid reasons that don’t feel like your fault. Especially if it means losing a lot of your currency that you use to level up. That being said, the style is nice. It’s reminiscent of games such as Bastion, and it has especially well-placed effects that give you that colliding feeling on any hit you make.
Sound
The background sounds are amazingly haunting. It’s very diverse in its howling machinery sounds. Wind echoing through the vast halls you are roaming, a working mechanism in the background somewhere, rattling chains, they blend in very well for a highly atmospheric ambient noise that gives you chills while playing. There barely ever is any music present, just this ambient type of background. The few times there is music it is appropriate for accompanying i.e. boss fights or challenge levels. The good thing about all this ambiance is that there is so much more room for the general sound effects as well. The steps you take seem more meaningful and the slashes seem to hit harder. Maybe the most important side-effect that the lack of music is bringing is the feeling of being totally alone versus unknown enemies. Which obviously is fitting for a game that’s supposed to be quite hard.
Gameplay
Being an action adventure Souls-like game, Immortal Planet gives you three weapons of choice to start with. A shield that’s more defensive, some kind of polearm that gives you a little advantage in range, and some type of axe-sword that is something in between. Soon you will learn you will also have the option to ”awaken” weapons. In this case, it means taking a different stance which for example does more damage but drains your stamina faster. The equivalent of using a weapon with two hands in Dark Souls games. As you get further ahead in the game you gain usable ranged weapons, items and something like spells. All have a limited amount of uses that refill every time you rest in between. As is tradition, as soon as you rest the enemies in each room will respawn. Boss enemies not included.
It’s highly recommended to play with a controller considering pressing the keys together simply feels way better than when using a keyboard. It’s not impossible or anything to play with a keyboard, but it will take you about an hour to get used to the feeling, where with a controller it’s more natural. The feeling you need to get to play an isometric Souls-game with only four directions has a learning curve by itself. Dodging by dashing, for example, doesn’t always feel like it’s going the right direction. This can be annoying considering the game has quite a hard difficulty level, especially at bosses.
You have a couple of stats that you upgrade by using the currency gained from fallen enemies. Endurance, Strength, Agility, Wisdom, and Intelligence. Upgrading these give you more health, stamina you use to execute your desired actions such like dodging and attacking, item and spell uses or spell power. Also, for certain spells or items you need to have the required stat raised to the required number.
As you progress you get to know each enemy a bit better, learn to use your weapons and skills, and gain stats and knowledge in the game. These things will help you get to the next area in the linear levels, where you need to do some easy puzzles and battle some hard enemies to get ahead. TeedoubleuGAMES thought of something interesting to gain more potion uses as well. After each boss fight, you can look for a challenge bot somewhere in the level which teleports you to an area with some challenging waves of enemies. They might take you a few (dozen) of tries to finish but once you did you get an extra fill for your health consumables, thus making the game advancement easier.
Overall, the areas are structured clearly. Once you’ve found and reached your next destination, you progress through the next certain amount of rooms that you have to solve. At the start of each room there is a respawning and leveling-up point, during your progress you will unlock shortcuts to this. At the last room, you kill the boss and continue the story and your search for the next area.
Conclusion
Challenging? Yes. Souls-like gameplay elements? Check. These two components make this game for each player looking for a challenge and each fan of the Souls-series, a good title to pick up. Even though it might take you a little bit of time to get used to the style and controls, the cold-steel atmosphere and ever surprising challenges make it a game worthy of its genre and your time. It might not be as big of a game as you are used to from anything called Souls, but as an indie, it has every right to promote itself as one.
Immortal Planet - Review,
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