Developer: Planet Alpha Game Studio
Publisher: Team17
Reviewed on: Xbox One X
Code Received.
Planet Alpha may look good on a postcard, but I wouldn’t want to vacation here. Gorgeous views and gigantic creatures abound on this idealistic planet that holds a deep secret. However, you’re not the only one looking to solve the mysteries hidden within. Planet Alpha may bite off a bit more than it can chew, but I did enjoy the time I spent with it.
Planet Alpha follows a formula well established by PlayDead with their games LIMBO and INSIDE. This is a linear puzzle-platformer that’s just as much about its setting as it is the puzzles and the platforms. You’ll be making harrowing jumps, pushing blocks, and manipulating the environment to get through the compact, dense levels. All this is framed with an intentionally ambiguous story taking place in a unique, visually striking setting. Planet Alpha deviates from this formula slightly by emphasizing the platform puzzles and providing you with ever-evolving powers.
Planet Alpha doesn’t take long to get going. After a short interactive credit sequence, you are thrown into it. As a small space man, you have to jump, climb, and crawl your way to ancient, ruined temples to unlock the power hidden within the planet. As you progress you absorb some of this power, which gives you the ability to manipulate the flow of time. At first you can only do this at specific points in the game, but by the end you learn how to use it whenever you want.
This ability is key to solving many of the game’s puzzles. As you change the time of day, certain plant life will behave differently. For instance, when the sun is out giant yellow mushrooms will bloom, providing you with platforms to jump on. Changing to night can cause tall grass and plants to grow, providing you cover from patrolling enemies. By the end, you will be forced to dynamically change the time of day as you run from danger; jumping and sliding while activating elements of the environment. These are the best parts of Planet Alpha providing exciting, adrenaline filled set pieces.
These set pieces work mostly because they are on rails, requiring you to jump only a few times, with a generous margin of error. Unfortunately, when more precise platforming is required, some of the game’s shortcomings rear their head. There are a handful of zones that up the challenge while also mixing up the game’s physics. They can turn into frustrating cycles of trial and error, mostly because of your inability to know what’s coming. Blocks will float, spin, and throw you into the darkness, and all you can do is cross your fingers that you’ll land safely on the other side. Also, the game isn’t consistent with the ledges you can grab onto. All of this is exasperated by the sometimes flaky collision detection. Many times I jumped and simply slid off a ledge that I should have landed on or at least grabbed onto. For a game focused on platforming as much as Planet Alpha is, I would have liked to see this handled better.
In addition to the platforming, Planet Alpha features stealth puzzles. Many areas will be full of dangerous enemies that can kill you in just a couple of hits. In order to pass these areas you must use the environment and your abilities. Hiding in tall grass and waiting for a patrol to go by is the most common scenario, but there are a handful of clever puzzles. In one instance I had to sneak up to a malfunctioning turret and turn it on its makers. The game will also make you closely investigate the environment to find alternate routes when you’re presented with a seemingly impossible obstacle. These moments prove to be challenging while also providing you with a sense of accomplishment when you discover the solution. I never ran into a puzzle I couldn’t solve without a little exploration and analysis.
I did run into a few AI pathfinding issues with these puzzles, however. In one instance, I had to move a block in order to reach a high ledge. I placed the block in the path of a patrolling enemy and it got stuck and couldn’t complete its patrol. I had to restart from a checkpoint in order to fix the issue. Thankfully the checkpointing system is generous, if a little unreliable.
I had a few checkpoints that loaded me after a challenge that I died on, which may be a little too generous in my opinion. It should also be noted that most of the checkpoints do not save the state of the world, just your location. This can lead to odd instances where enemy patrols are in very inopportune locations or you may be forced to cycle the time of day more frequently than you may want to. Typically you want to immediately reset the challenge to a consistent “neutral state” in games like this to perfect timing and execution, so this is an odd way to handle checkpoints.
The bright, colorful backdrop to the environments adds life and wonder to the game’s setting. You’ll see locations and creatures you’ll come across later in the game. Events will also unfold in the background. For insurance, you will see ships engaged with indigenous life as well as structures being built over time. It’s even more impressive when you consider the fact that you can manipulate the time of day, completely changing the way everything looks. Plants glow bright in the pale moonlight, and many of them completely change their form as time progresses. As previously mentioned, these transformations often tie into the puzzle solving, making them both visually pleasing as well as gameplay relevant.
Some of my favorite moments in Planet Alpha occurred near the beginning, when the story was revving up and the plot was being established. It begins with a literal bang as a race of militaristic automatons crash down around you. Their goal seems to be planetary annihilation, targeting both you and the ingenious species. But the planet is just as hazardous to them as it to you. The first time these robots engage with the vicious local lifeforms I was reminded of the first time I played Half-Life. These types of engagements are just as novel in this genre as they were with first person shooters back then. Some of the larger encounters also lead to reoccurring boss enemies you slowly pick apart throughout the game. These moments are what make Planet Alpha special, even if the overall story doesn’t wrap up as nicely as you would probably like.
Planet Alpha is an ambitious attempt at a narrative-focused puzzle-platformer. It’s successful in the areas it tries to innovate: Setting, visual style, and environmental puzzles. It’s a mixed bag when we talk about the actual feel and responsiveness of the platforming. It doesn’t overstay its welcome either, clocking in at about five hours. Planet Alpha’s strengths definitely outweigh its weaknesses, and it’s an easy recommendation if you’re looking for fun romp through a beautiful sci-fi story.
