Lifeless Moon Reviews

nostalgia fueled praise: a great spiritual succesor to Lifeless Planet...would love to see what this sole-developer could do with a team behind him...the idea is there, the execution is workable, and the graphics happen to coincide with gamer's new obsession(s) with retro-style graphics (whether they be 8-bit or PS3, everyone's got a preference these days - often depending on when/where/how they grew up...but as always, i digress). if you liked lifeless planet and would like more in that universe (not necessarily that narrative except in the loosest terms) like i did, then you'll enjoy this title. I've just begun but so far i've been impressed and delighted by the refinements in the dev's game design...They deserve more with regards to both recognition and resources (whether that be people or hardware, i dont know)...for those unfamiliar with Lifeless Planet than i would say that the trailer is an accurate representation of what this game is...walking/jumping surreal/lunar sim with some puzzles and a narrative that utilizes elements of scifi and philosophy with an emphasis on loss/grief/loneliness. at least that's how i interpreted it...in the overall landscape of gaming, i give this one a 5.9/10....when one considers all of the variables and factors, i'd give it a weighted score of 6.7/10 (based on arbitrary nonsense that my mind has converted into decimal numbers for this review). hard truths: all of this being said, i do have one major criticism: if you can't do first-person, than don't...don't include some janky hidden-object/rail-shooter version of first-person with you're already (getting more and more dated, especially when one considers the first game) third-person standard that has worked so well thus far...i love first person games. i love walking sims. i love hidden object games. i hate games that are good at one thing but needless shoe in something that they are really bad at and that's what the first-person "hidden object" aspects of this game were. weird. i thought there was something wrong with my controls before i realized it was intentional. ...what really grinds my gears also, i am unsure why manual saves (not including manual saves at predesignated-location-checkpoints) have become so unpopular...i remember when you could save any game at any moment during game play but now one must depend on the random intervals of the developers and in this case, a single developer who (without really too much explanation or at least not obvious in a way that was memorable) only allows saves to occur when (seemingly unexplained/unlisted) story conditions have been met...because this isn't explained properly, one can easily lose a lot of progress without intending to and with today's modern gamer - that's enough to trigger a negative review and refund to boot. I'd advise the dev against such a poor implementation of a needless mechanic again. Master being a third person adventure game before you try experimenting with something that an entire polish team has spent years ATTEMPTING to perfect (see HOLSTIN), that is, seamlessly switching between first and third person as an integral gameplay mechanic. as it stands, there are still really amateurish rendering and clipping errors that often shatter otherwise breathtaking moments in the game. bottomest line: should you play it? if the trailer looks good to you, than yes, if you liked lifeless planet, than yes. if you're tolerant of the errors that come with a solo dev who's bettery storyteller than they are game-designer, than ENJOY! ~however~ if you're unsure in any way, than no. if you get as frustrated about the things mentioned in my criticisms as many do, than absolutely not.

It was better than Lifeless Planet, and I enjoyed that game as well.

You cannot save when you like. Checkpoints are few and far between. I am forced to replay sections over again. I just cannot stand games that do not let you save when you want, or have very few checkpoints.

Sadly for me it wasn't as good as Lifeless Planet, the story was meh and not much fun on the gameplay side