Planet of Lana: Review

Every time you see a game similar to Limbo and Inside, you wonder why these industry masterpieces became sources of inspiration for the authors? Did the authors of the new product want to repeat the success? Playdead or they simply think that this genre is the best way for them to realize their ideas? It’s hard not to compare Planet of Lana with the above-mentioned projects: it also looks wonderful, the story here is also told without words, and the gameplay mechanics are similar. However, if it’s difficult to find fault with the visuals, the gameplay does not reach the same heights.

Last hope

As in classic platformers, we run from left to right and overcome obstacles. Or rather, in the introduction you need to run from right to left – before the village is attacked by either revived mechanisms or aliens. They kidnap residents, imprison them in cages, and also take the main character’s sister. Where exactly we are running is unclear; It is also unclear why the protagonist named Lana is so confident in her abilities and knows how to save her fellow villagers.

Coming up with an interesting story in such games is not so easy, especially when the characters speak in a fictitious language, and you only see the words in the main menu and tooltips. However, if other games manage to evoke at least some emotions, then with Planet of Lana this doesn’t happen – I didn’t care at all whether my sister would be saved or not, and the details about the universe are told too vaguely. During the journey, the heroine finds some mysterious mechanisms and hidden tablets, but their purpose is not explained in any way, so you just interact with them and move on.

But look at Planet of Lana – a pleasure. The locations are similar to watercolor drawings, from which it is difficult to take your eyes off: they are three-dimensional, despite the two-dimensionality of the drawn objects, and not too many colors are used. Trees, for example, are painted in three colors, but are animated so well that they don’t need meticulous detailing. At times, the developers seem to be engaged in narcissism, forcing the player to slowly walk through a beautiful location or zoom out the camera too much, but it’s hard to blame them for this – the game really looks amazing.

Easy and simple

However, luxurious graphics cannot hide the shortcomings https://everumcasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ of the gameplay. Even if you don’t take into account the puzzles, the platforming sequences are not very impressive – here you are running, now you have to bend down to crawl under a large stone, now you need to jump somewhere. The obstacles seem to be placed just for the sake of variety – since the player has been running for a long time, in the next scene we will force him to press a couple of buttons. At some points the game disappoints expectations and does not offer to solve riddles at all, although there are a lot of objects on the screen – you just move to the right.

Quite quickly, Lana meets a companion – a creature that looks like both a monkey and a carrion from Kena: Bridge of Spirits . You can give him commands – sit in a specified place, run after the heroine, and also interact with objects there. Lana and her partner have advantages and disadvantages: if Lana can swim, then the creature does not touch the water at all, but the heroine is not capable of jumping as high as her companion.

Many puzzles are built on these distinctive features. Sometimes Lana must look for logs and lower them into the water to help the creature reach the opposite shore. Sometimes your partner climbs higher and presses a button there, thanks to which a platform appears below. However, the further you progress through the game, the more often the same situations begin to repeat themselves, requiring the same decisions. The fingers of both hands are not enough to count how often you need to ask your companion to climb onto a high ledge and drop the rope – with all the animations and aiming, it takes so long, as if the developers deliberately stretched out these moments.

The rest of the puzzles are not much better – even if puzzles are not your thing, you will never encounter a puzzle that you need to think about for a long time. Many of them can be solved without hesitation – you just press the button if there is one, jump onto the platform if you can jump to it, and everything is solved by itself. Perhaps this was intended, but due to the simplicity of the puzzles, you often get the feeling that you are wasting time.

At the same time, there are some good puzzles with unique mechanics. In one episode you need to explore a small location and look for drawings on the walls that allow you to correctly place several objects. In others, you encounter animals and must use them as helpers, even though they are ready to tear you to pieces at the first opportunity. There are also some funny stealth episodes where you distract the robot guards with the help of a companion, and you yourself get to the next area on the other side. But then again you come across a puzzle, very similar to the one you solved half an hour ago, and you instantly find a solution.

Despite the simplicity of the gameplay, I don’t want to give Planet of Lana a low rating. Yes, there are no new ideas here, and the gameplay turned out to be the weakest part of the new product, but this did not make the game a failure. As a bright and beautiful adventure for one evening, it is worthy of attention: there are many spectacular moments, including those related to aliens, and the music is excellent – it was written by the composer of The Last Guardian, who knows a lot about soundtracks for games with animal partners. The project is reminiscent of a charming interactive postcard: it looks great, is not annoying in any way, but after viewing it is unlikely to sink into your soul. But it’s still worth a look – the postcard turned out to be too beautiful.

Pros: fantastic graphics – you can’t take your eyes off the locations; beautiful soundtrack from the composer The Last Guardian; convenient control; some puzzles are original and fun to solve.

Cons: simple puzzles that sometimes have repetitive mechanics; the narrative fades into the background.