Planet of the Eyes

 Xbox One
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. XBLA Fans
    Sep 13, 2017
    40
    Planet of the Eyes is a surprisingly short game, clocking in at around an hour and a half. The game just doesn't have the level of polish that allows such a length to be excusable. It's an incredibly simplistic take on gameplay and narrative ideas we've all seen a million times before, never doing anything new or memorable. Even at its best, it amounts to little more than a bland experience, one that will be over quickly and easily forgotten.

User Reviews

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User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. SenorKoquonfaes
    Feb 17, 2021
    6
    The first thing I learned about this game is that you can make the robot dance by hitting the ‘Y’ button, which is just fantastic in its ownThe first thing I learned about this game is that you can make the robot dance by hitting the ‘Y’ button, which is just fantastic in its own right. Add in the fact that there’s an achievement attached to it and you all the motivation in the world to make it dance at least one.

    Planet of the Eyes is a 2D puzzle platformer where you take control of an unnamed robot that I suspect will probably draw some comparisons to the likes of Wall-E or BD-1. The game starts with a small space shuttle crashing into the ground of an unknown planet. You survive the crash, pop out of the shuttle and discover you’re now stuck on a foreign and hostile world. Not long after that, you come across an audio log, presumable left by your creator, suggesting your explore the planet and hopefully find him. You then proceed to traverse and puzzle solve your way through the world and hopefully reach a satisfying ending. The story is told via audio log narrations that you can collect throughout the game. While there’s no achievement(s) tied to collecting them, the voice over is well done. It strikes a good balance between eerie and cynical.

    The one aspect of the game that stood out to me the most is the game’s art direction; it’s striking, vibrant and very stylized. The graphics make use of strong, flat colours and simple, subtle gradations with great contrast between the light and dark areas of the game. Along with the use of simple, flat shapes, Planet of the Eyes is a pretty nice game to look at.

    The core gameplay loop revolves around platforming your way across hazardous areas and solving mostly physics-based puzzles. There are a few times where you’ll also have to evade enemy creatures, but it too is also tied to puzzle solving. There’s the usual trial-and-error moments that come with virtually all games of this genre; one of the platforming puzzles towards the end of the game took several tries for me to finish. While these moments can be marginally frustrating at times, the load times after each death are quite quick and the checkpoint system is pretty forgiving, so I never found myself ascending the slopes of mount rage quit. The mechanics of the puzzles will be familiar to pretty well anybody who has played these types of game before: you push/pull objects, pull levers, time your jumps across platforms, dodge hazardous traps and enemies etc. You can certainly argue that these mechanics are nothing new to genre, but I’d argue when it comes to making good game mechanics and strong and engaging core gameplay loop, the ‘what’ is less important than the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. The mechanics fit the game well, they work as intended and I didn’t come across any game breaking bugs or glitches which can really hamper some physics puzzles.

    Planet of the Eyes also has some great sound design. The ominous ‘humming’ and ‘droning’ really give off an other-worldly vibe that meshes well with the game’s overall environment. It really helps create a tense and desolate mood for the game. Sound effects for things like bubbling lava, live electrical cables and even your feet clanking against the metal of a destroyed space craft are all well implemented.

    Overall, I did find some mild enjoyment during my playthrough of Planet of the Eyes. The game has some great art direction, familiar puzzle mechanics and great sound design. A cheap sale price, short play time and a fairly easy 1000G is enough for me to recommend picking this up.    … Full Review »
  2. GBG_Jason
    Sep 27, 2017
    5
    Platforming games have been around for years, with the most easily recognizable series stemming from Nintendo. However, PlaydeadPlatforming games have been around for years, with the most easily recognizable series stemming from Nintendo. However, Playdead revolutionized the puzzle-platformer genre in 2010 with Limbo, and every game that has come out in that play style since has been compared – even their follow up title, Inside. When a genre has been defined by a single game, it’s difficult to compete. Another game must either do something fresh, or clone it in a way that keeps you coming back (see: Gunpoint and its clone Ronin). But if you’re a fan of the type of game, does it really need to be better to be enjoyable?

    Planet of the Eyes puts you in the role of a little robot that has crash landed and is out to discover the other survivor whose story and yours unfold through a series of audio logs. These are on little cassette tapes you’ll pick up throughout the game, and while it’s not at all necessary you collect them (I believe only one was out of the way), they add to the purpose and direction of the game.

    You’ll be traversing through explosions of color on this alien planet, and if you’re wondering about the title, rest assured you’ll see plenty of eyes (see below for example). The animations are fairly basic, and the climbing one I’d venture to say is stiff at best. Not a game breaker by any means, but when I jump up and cling onto something, I expect some sort of sway in movement, opposed to a static frame of the character holding on. This is the only thing that really stuck out as wrong visually, although nothing was truly awe-inspiring.

    As for the gameplay itself, you’ll find you can run, jump, or push/pull in the occasional puzzles you’ll come across. And while you’re pressing all the buttons, you’ll likely learn you can dance too, which holds no real purpose other than an achievement from what I could tell. Perhaps there’s a secret that it opens up if done in the right spots, much like in Playdead’s games after finding all the collectibles.

    While I died a fair amount of times in the game (several, if not most of the achievements are tied to specific deaths), it’s usually not due to the game being difficult. While a couple of puzzles require specific timing for an action or death occurs, it’s more likely you’ll misjudge a jump or not quite make the proper landing as you descend a cliff that ends in your demise. The deaths are fairly amusing, and loading back up only takes a second, so you’ll find yourself ready to destroy your little robot again in no time.

    The puzzles provided in the game are far from time-consuming. I believe the longest I spent with one was a couple minutes before I realized what I was doing wasn’t working, and went up to where I had been previously to see if I had missed something. Sure enough, it was right in front of me and I had looked at it without knowing I’d need it. The end of the game tests your skill with platforming, which is by no means a challenge, although there is one box puzzle that was easily the most satisfying puzzle in the game as it made me think.

    I spent between 60-90 minutes with this title, completing it with little to no issue. This is a game that doesn’t put a lot of focus on the skill, but the enjoyment of the journey itself. The sci-fi story that goes along is a nice, albeit unnecessary addition to the game, as these types of things can propel themselves without exposition. But I will say that it was well voiced.

    If you enjoy platformers with minor puzzle solving, Planet of the Eyes may be a worthwhile experience for you. It’s short (which I appreciate since I don’t have much time for games nowadays), never becomes frustrating, and is family friendly. However, it never really goes beyond the level of mediocre in terms of what it accomplishes, and in some cases feels a bit unpolished. Regardless of the genre pulling me in, there are stronger entries you can be playing.    … Full Review »
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