OddPlanet Reviews

Great graphic style (similar to Limbo). The story was interesting but the ending had me a bit confused and I was not sure what they was trying to imply. The quality was good and everything worked.. (at least for me) like it should. The one issue that I had was the jumping was kind of iffy at times and would sometimes not work and other times it would. Overall decent for the sale price. I would say that this was a bit on the short side with only three chapters. (Took me roughly an hour and thirty minutes or so).

The world of the game looks interesting. An attempt to create an uncomfortable environment is successful, but beyond that there is a controls... I don't know how this game works. I figured out how the control works, I was filled with the environment of the game, but I still didn't realize how to go through it - I had problems with the most obvious places in the game. The last straw was that I struggled for a long time at another obvious place. I looked into the walkthrough and found out that I was doing everything correctly, I just had to jump from another point, which was to the left a couple of pixels. It was the sixth or seventh such place. For me, this game is full of moments that are obvious, but for some reason they aren't passed as I expected. And although I've passed a sufficient number of similar games, this game isn't for me.

I recommend it because it is good looking and very limbo like. My main issue with it though, is that it is too short, only 3 episodes, and it feels incomplete, like there is more story to be told that you can't get to. The story is also very singular in what can happen, no alternate ending or divergant paths. There was one point with a giant frog, but it went no where, it was like a creative dead end, emphesis on the dead, with no other purpose, a side area that never turns into a path. The ending itself is a tear jerker, but as I already stated, it feels incomplete, like it was forced to stop right after the tear jerk moment but there was still more story to tell. So my advice is get it on sale, and hopefully more will be added to the story someday, or maybe a second game with a different character in search of the character from this game, something to actually give this first game more complete closure.

Soo... Limbo had a sister..... And strangely she dies a lot too :) It looks ok ,very similar to Limbo in looks and gameplay which is not a bad thing as that was a great small game . I'm not recommending this game just yet until the dev explains to us if and when he's gonna fix the game settings . There aren't any :) ,so you can't change the resolution or keys . Glovepie can be used to change the keyboard settings but we shouldn't have to resort to third party progs. I mean if this is it then fair enough , just tell us please . EDIT: Ok ,dev was kind enough too reply and said there's a limitation with the Fusion game engine that is making it very difficult to have adjustable resolutions. There are a few game engines that have issues with resolutions. It's something you get used to when playing a lot of point and clicks. :) Anyways game deserves a Thumbs UP from me . Is it worth the £3.99 i paid ? Most definitely imho , especially if you enjoyed the art style and gameplay of Limbo . Though gameplay is not as intricate as Limbo ,it's mainly jumping , pushing and collecting items. But hey £3.99 is the price of a Big Mac so it's priced relatively cheap. It's like the little sister or maybe a love letter to that game :)

[b]PROS:[/b] + atmosphere + children's tale feel + visual design [b]CONS:[/b] - no video/audio options - clunky controls - no gamepad support or key rebind - player & monster clipping - bad/weird ending - rather short game time [b]Comment:[/b] I was not sure what to expect from this game. I saw it on sale so I took a chance with it. What I got felt like a cool concept that was unpolished and felt like it had stuff missing. Like for example there are no menu options, except for languages. The art style and visuals are nice, nothing too fantastic, but sweet and cute. There was even voice over for the little girl protagonist but sadly only between episodes. And because there are only 3 episodes it feels not enough. Having 3 episodes also affects the game time and considering the pretty unsatisfying ending I guess they either plan to update the game in the future or they just simply ran out of funds/time. The gameplay needs a lot of polish because the controls feels heavy and unresponsive. This, coupled with no gamepad support and no key rebinding, takes a lot from the experience. Overall a good concept and art but both are dragged down by the gameplay and the bad ending. I am under the 2 hour mark so I could potentially refund but I will support the devs to update the game or make a better one next time. However the current state of the game cannot be recommended for the full price. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [b]If you liked this review you can find more on the [/b][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28638055-Subjective-Reviews-Corner/][u]Curator page[/u][/url][b] or in my [/b][url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/srcorner][u]Review Corner[/u][/url][b].[/b]

PRO: music, atmosphere, graphics, story (i got emotional) CON: gameplay mechanic, stiff controls, story (a bit too enigmatic, undecisive ending), the fact that many things aren't that intuitive and you need too much patience to discover them which alongside the stiff movement it can get annoying af, and last but not least, no audio level controls ingame Conclusion: I had my portion of fun, but I got annoyed most of the time. Go play Limbo. I don't recommend this game unless on sale (how i got it) or in a bundle.

Can't recommend when there are many more and better sidescrolling adventures out there. The game does a very poor job of signposting anything to the player. What can be interacted with, will this enemy see me if I just stay still or do I need to be hidden, when can a carried item be used or not, etc. And for a game that overrelies on you trying to sneak by the same spider creatures over and over, not communicating what will cause you to be caught and what won't, and not keeping that consistent, is the absolute opposite of fun. There was once I had to consult the walkthrough as it looked just like the game had bugged out but actually I had just not completed the next step in the puzzle ([spoiler]The snail would not move when I pushed him, my character started with the pushing movement and appeared to be walking, but instead of the snail moving, both my character and the snail just vaguely vibrated with a glitchy sound[/spoiler]). And again at the very end puzzle, the game wouldn't let me use the item where I tried to use it. Instead I had to walk a little bit further to trigger some speech and return and it will automatically activate. Whereas I kept pushing further right after the speech and kept dying. Again had to google to find my walk through. Again everything comes back to how poorly things are signposted. The art is nice and all, but it just seems like the gameplay was implemented by someone who isn't actually a gamer themself as nothing is intuitive. It is mercifully brief though so it doesn't outstay it's welcome. So if you want to enjoy the nice environments go right ahead, but don't expect a satisfying puzzle-platformer experience.

I originally played this many moons ago (10 yrs?) way back when it was an app on an iPod. Back then, when it first came out, it was only ever one episode. Slowly over that time it has grown into 3 small episodes and been ported to PC. The developer is really Piotr Krol (Polish I believe?) and believe me when I say this, this is his greatest showcase out of all his current products. A few moan about the controls not being super responsive at times and that the voice acting seems somewhat out of place, but these gripes seem really in consequential and easy to excuse when you admire the heavily inspired limbo world he has created and the magical score and sound effects that enrich the environment to life. Also believe me, the controls are much worse on the mobile version, plus on the mobile version you get constant advertisements that like to pop up as soon as you try and make a jump. Story is a little girl who crash lands on an extremely hostile alien world where everything wants to kill you. Living in Australia I can relate to this as everything wants to kill us here too. Like the game we too have giant spiders that are poisonous and about the size of a large dog. Also like the game, if you go out to centre of the outback, you would probably come across some primitive Neanderthals whose only language is throwing rocks at you. As for the swamp filled with frogs it was very reminiscent of the top end of Queensland during flood season. Cane toads everywhere on the roads that make a popping sound under tyres like bubble wrap which can be quite addictive. Here I am thinking she has landed on an alien world. Struth never did I realise she's probably in my backyard. Loneliness definitely gets to you out here in the 'never, never', while she made a short connection with an opossum/cat looking creature and constantly writes in her journal, it’s just not the same as having a deep and meaningful with a bottle of beer and saying amen to a porcelain bowl. Not that she's probably old enough to drink, on the other hand it would perfectly explain her parking skills. Pffft women drivers (roll eyes) ... Game abruptly ends with the girl closing her eyes while resting against a tree, probably her final thought being that there are good squish noises (spiders) and there are bad squish noises (you). In any case, Australia has trees that kill people too. Undoubtedly Piotr Krol is warning everyone, 'Visit Australia if you plan to die on an odd planet'... https://youtu.be/vf4XXMw6P5E If you enjoyed reading this review feel free to subscribe to my curator page. Thanks... http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6843548/

[b]OddPlanet[/b] is a decent little love letter to Limbo that suffers from a stunted playtime and some over-simplified puzzles. A girl has no name as she crash-lands on a strange alien world, nor does a girl have much in the way of a defence from its many hostile inhabitants except for cowering in the shadows until danger has passed. There's some great set-pieces here, the best of which involves being captured by the terrifying resident Neanderthal tribe and your subsequent escape from their cave but while much of the art direction and atmospherics are on point, the entire experience sometimes feels overly derivative. There's no real reason for your character to be a copy of the glowing-eyed silhouette boy from Limbo. His anonymity was a major point of that game's story; here, you see the girl's face and hear her voice several times. A lot of work has gone into [b]OddPlanet[/b] over the past couple of years from its original sole chapter and it arrives on Steam with another two in tow. It's not enough really; there doesn't feel like there's any real resolution at the end of the game which, for an experience that relies heavily on its plot to balance its plain platforming and puzzles, will leave some players feeling a bit short-changed. Still, I can't really not give this a recommendation based on the complaint that I really wanted to play more of it, can I? Full review below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J59PEa50p14

Funky graphics and feel. Tries very hard to be Limbo and take the creepy to the next level, doesn't always succeed. I played OddPlanet before I played Limbo, and ended up playing Limbo just because all the reviews mentioned that it was better. They were right. Whilst Limbo is a few years older it's held up better than OddPlanet has, and was executed with much more finesse. My big criticism of OddPlanet really comes down to the controls. The jump mechanic is clunky, leading several of the puzzles to be more about getting the timing of your jump absolutely dead set perfect rather than having the challenge be about solving the puzzle itself. It's often a case that you work out what you have to do, but it takes 60 tries to get it right. If I want that I'll go buy a platformer and smash my controller up when I get mad. If you loved Limbo and are looking for more this is a reasonable substitute, but don't expect it to be as good.