Developer: Stage 2 Studios
Publisher: Stage 2 Studios
Platform: PC, OS X
Lifeless Planet – Preview Update
As game development progresses, an alpha build slowly turns into a beta build. A while ago, I had the chance to play the alpha build of Lifeless Planet. So now I am giving you an update on what changed. If you haven’t read the alpha preview yet, be sure to check it out first!
The biggest things that have changed since the alpha are the story and environment. Controls and graphics are pretty much the same, so this is just a little update about the big changes.
The start of the level is pretty much the same, you wake up after being unconscious and you’re low on oxygen. Your space ship has crashed and it wasn’t a light crash! Apparently the crew has disappeared, maybe they’re setting up a perimeter, or is there something fishy going on?
The planet you wake up on was proven to be full of life before the journey. Now however, the planet is dry like a desert and there’s no sign of life at all. Because of the crash, most of your equipment is broken and your suit is barely functional. Your jet pack barely works so you can only use a single burst of it on every jump.
You decide to follow the trackway left behind by your crew, but you get separated from their trail. Soon after, you find an empty town. Not far outside of town you find a collection of makeshift graves, you can’t seem to figure out what happened. On top of that, you get flashbacks of your home planet. After the flashback, you find another trackway leading to an underground facility. The footprints glow green for some weird reason, you take some samples but you don’t analyze them as you don’t have the time. As you follow the footprints, they take you back out of the facility.
That’s pretty much the story so far, except for one thing. While progressing through the game, you find a source of life! It’s some kind of alien that has a Russian shirt on. Did some experiment go wrong? Did it wipe out the complete planet? You aren’t sure what its intentions are because it speaks an inexplicable language that you don’t know.
Apart from the story, the environment has gotten a big overhaul. Instead of vast flat areas, the planet is now scattered with mountains and rock formations, even power plants, cable cars and abandoned towns! The improved environment gives the game a great atmosphere as you wander through abandoned towns in search for your crew.
The last thing that has gotten an update is your adventure log. Documents you pick up, events that happen and science reports that you find are now accompanied by nice voice acting! The Russian documents you find are even spoken in Russian! To make it more understandable, your adventure log auto-translates the documents.
Conclusion
The game has taken a huge leap forward since the alpha build. The gameplay and atmosphere have gotten a lot better and it’s really fun to play now. There is finally somewhat of a story that makes sense now and it’s a pretty good one. If the game keeps progressing like this, it will probably receive pretty high scores! Be sure to keep an eye on the site for the review once the game releases!
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