The Abandoned Planet

Alright. The Abandoned Planet is done and dusted. This is a fairly complex point and click adventure featuring a fun story and some challenging puzzles. This was made using Unity and has a sort of old school PnC meets Saturday Morning Cartoons type sensibility to it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3339038678

Gameplay is very classic point and click, with numerous puzzles that will take you through each Act (of which there are five plus an epilogue to tie everything together), back and forth through the various areas looking for the correct items and hints to help you progress. Acts One and Two were pretty simple overall and fairly straightforward. Act Three is where things begin to get quite a bit more complicated, with several puzzles leading up to a seven part final puzzle. I'd say this Act is where the area opens up as well, with three distinctly different biomes you'll wander back and forth between seeking answers to the puzzles you are presented with. Act Four gets even more complicated with a seven floor facility and some even more complicated puzzles. Act Five goes back to being quite a bit more forgiving with only one puzzle that I'd characterize as difficult.

In addition to the actual volume of puzzles required to solve the main puzzle for each Act, there is another wrinkle. Everything is in an alien language, lol. Fortunately, you do find a hint book written by...somebody who is also trying to solve the same puzzles in the game. Using this hint book will make solving these puzzles quite a bit easier. Without it, good luck, lol. The puzzles all did make sense, but that doesn't mean they are easy. Which reminds me: a notepad is essential for this one. Take notes.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3338475955

The story begins with you, a lost explorer, who crash lands on, well, an Abandoned Planet. You will need to try to find your way off of the planet and back to Earth. However, along the way, you uncover an abandoned alien civilization. And, using what you find, you eventually will find your way back off the planet and...well, I'll leave that to you to find out, lol. However, as an added twist, you will also at one point play as one of the aliens. And the way the story plays out and the surprise reveals at the end leaves room for a sequel should the dev so choose, but also is quite satisfying as a way to wrap up this game. I thought it was well thought out and fun.

Visually, it is quite striking in that classic PnC meets Saturday Morning Cartoons way as mentioned earlier. Think of a very spruced up LucasArts PnC that meets something like Scooby Doo or Johnny Quest. Or some such. It definitely still manages to carry a modern look despite this, and in combination with a full color palette, the artwork is very nicely done. Now, the voice acting on the other hand...is probably the weakest part of this game. It isn't bad, but you can tell the main voice actor was trying to honor older games in the genre, and it did fall flat in many instances as a result of that more emotionless style. That said, I started to develop a familiarity with her voice acting that made it somehow comfortable by about halfway through the game. And maybe she also started to feel more comfortable with the script at that point, which seems correct based on my observations.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3339038742

This actually was a lengthier point and click for me personally, as I spent quite a bit of time trying to solve a few of the more difficult puzzles combined with the moments where I realized I'd missed something obvious, lol. So, it ended up weighing in at around seven hours, plus a bit of time afterwards checking out the script and artwork, which unlock after you finish the game and were super cool additions that explain quite a bit more about the world being crafted by the developer. And I'd say that is excellent value for the $14.99 retail price. Definitely earns that asking price in my opinion. It was a very fun if sometimes frustrating point and click and definitely one to consider playing.

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Aside from the graphics, this game is incredibly dull. Imagine Dora The Explorer had a child with Myst, then this is that game. If you like an overdose of hand-holding, trite puzzles, and annoying voice acting this is your game.

Pretty disappointed, actually. I enjoyed the demo, so I was quite excited to play the full game, but in the end I didn't really enjoy my time with The Abandoned Planet.

First of all, the voice acting is atrocious. I got so annoyed with the main character by the end, since every line is delivered so awkwardly.

The puzzles are good (mostly) and the pixelated old-school graphics are nice. My main issue with the game is all the filler; there are so many moments that slow you down just to pad the runtime: rowing a slow boat across multiple canals, unskippable cutscenes that repeat themselves, pointless back and forth between locations... Act 3 almost made me refund the game, it was so slow and uninteresting. Luckily the final 2 acts where better, but I still feel I should've skipped this game...