You’ll begin your journey as an unnamed spaceman that I will refer to as Jim, who early into the game is set loose to explore a strange world. How did he get here? What/Where is here? Did he leave the coffee pot on? Most of these are questions that, to be quite honest, you’ll have to draw your own conclusions for. The game does not hold your hand, mechanically or in reference to theYou’ll begin your journey as an unnamed spaceman that I will refer to as Jim, who early into the game is set loose to explore a strange world. How did he get here? What/Where is here? Did he leave the coffee pot on? Most of these are questions that, to be quite honest, you’ll have to draw your own conclusions for. The game does not hold your hand, mechanically or in reference to the narrative, requiring you to fill in the blanks. A brief tutorial will give you some minor hints as to the fact that Jim can control time – not in the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time kind of way, but more like just changing the time from day to night and vice versa. I know, this sounds like a lame power, right? Well, Jim uses this ability to essentially control or manipulate the otherworldly flora and fauna to his advantage. Can’t find a way forward? You’ll probably need to change the time of day, forcing freakishly large mushrooms to form a pathway, or psychedelic flowers to bloom giving Jim super speed for a short period of time, allowing him to gain momentum for a long jump. This ability is really easy to use and is explained quite early into the game, but is used so infrequently during the first half of the game that I actually forgot it was even a thing and that it was limited to pressure pads.
The first half of the game is primarily focused on stealth and platforming with some light puzzle solving, while the second half makes use of the time alteration. You’ll spend the early hours evading robots that are also visiting the planet, but seem to be dead set on destroying each and every last living creature. There are also plenty of animals and in some cases plants that think Jim looks like a tasty snack, so be weary of those as well. The enemy forces are quite varied, requiring you to often think outside of the box to either evade, distract, or destroy the well-designed bad guys who come equipped with a better than most AI presence. There is a single weak link in this area, and that is the gigantic hornet who looks like he ate the meth, meth lab, cook, and RV in one swoop. While meth-hornet normally sleeps all day, as meth addicts tend to do, they will often ignore their own instincts (or game mechanics), requiring you to either run head first into death just to respawn, or sit there patiently changing the time from day to night, hoping they break free of whatever trance they are in. In addition to this, their sting can’t seem to decide if it wants to be lethal or not, often allowing you to be stung three or more times and still make a clean getaway, whereas others a single prick is the end. I know, I know, “the suspension of disbelief” and “it’s just a game;” I am all for imagination time, but if you’re going to make the game’s rules, I need you to stick by them.
The sneaking and platforming mechanics work extremely well, with the jumps often feeling overly forgiving when compared to similar games. The controls are precise yet accessible and the puzzles are intuitive, using simple common sense or physics in most cases, with the only point of frustration stemming from a few segments later into the game that require you to use momentum to make some extremely long jumps, requiring extremely careful planning before you can even see them coming. I found myself dying repeatedly in these areas, requiring me to take notes or even memorize the pattern to progress. Death is merely an afterthought in the world of Planet Alpha, with frequent checkpoints being the norm. The checkpoints come so often (it feels like you receive one every time your feet hit the ground) I found myself jumping off into the nothingness below in an effort to find secrets tucked away within the beautiful levels.
The stealth gameplay functions beautifully, with most of the enemies providing visual or audible tells that they are searching for you, patrolling the grounds as a normal guard would. High grass is plentiful, allowing Jim regular points to hide in. Functionally, sneaking is well executed, but a nagging glitch I encountered saw this tall grass randomly jerking and twisting about as I moved between cover, not flowing as it normally would (or does during most of the game) and breaking what would otherwise be a very immersive experience.
Planet Alpha, Team17’s 100th release since inception, is an amazing visual treat, offering outstanding gameplay that is just shy of perfection due to its underwhelming conclusion. When I started playing the game, my initial thoughts were that this is just a prettier version of Limbo. After taking in the entire picture, this is the game that Playdead should be taking note of when making their next release. Meanwhile, I will sit back in anticipation for what Planet Alpha ApS brings us next.… Expand
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