One small step for walking sims?
During an expedition to the Moon, two astronauts find themselves in a familiar town back on Earth. They soon discover the town is the beginning of a strange and mysterious journey… Lifeless Moon is a spiritual successor to our previous title Lifeless Planet. Lifeless Moon takes players on a fantastic journey through the eyes of Apollo-era astronauts. There will be light platforming and a deeper focus on puzzles than in Lifeless Planet. The core game-play experience is one of exploration and discovery, complementing the mysterious and psychological themes of the story.
I have to confess that I hadn’t heard of Lifeless Planet before, so I didn’t know what to expect when I heard this was a spiritual successor to it. Upon looking it up, I can see the connection and even though the setting is different, the core gameplay has transferred across in its walking simulator form.
It’s not the longest game out there, I beat it in roughly 2-3 hours and there’s not really any reason to come back unless you have missed an item to unlock a specific trophy. The puzzles are a bit of a mixed bag and the platforming has moments that can be very unforgiving.
The visuals are fairly good and the framerate held up throughout. There were a couple of glitchy moments here and there, but nothing game-breaking. I did enjoy the story and was impressed with the voice-acting.
The Verdict
Lifeless Moon tells a decent story and it handles well for the most part, though a few missteps with platforming difficulty and puzzles set it back a bit. An interesting one in any case, but maybe best picking up when it’s on sale.