Niko is an abstract and minimalist game that starts out looking like a walking sim with occasional puzzles. Exploration however is rewarded with hidden items, at least early on. But as you progress the puzzles overtake the walking, and then further in the platforming overtakes the puzzles. But first, the good points. There is a lot of variety in the environments; it doesn't stay a stark white landscape the whole time. The early levels are individualist and beautiful, and the music that goes with them is perfectly crafted. Likewise the puzzles are clever and never too difficult if you take the time to fully explore your surroundings. Unfortunately, the game reaches what should be its climax, but then keeps going on. The levels after this point largely cease to be interesting or fun (apart from a graveyard and a dark forest). Annoying jumping puzzles become the norm, and the smart respawn points you get accustomed to early in the game disappear, leaving you to replay whole difficult sections over and over. By the time you get to the "remote control the glowing orb" section you'll be ready for the game to end, but instead it continues further with even worse levels. The interesting landscapes vanish, as does the evocative music, and you are left churning through level after level of a tedious platform puzzler with no payoff, the compelling parts of the story having ended a while back. When I started playing this game I was ready to give it five stars. By the time I quit that evening it was down to four. Resuming it the next day and encountering what is probably the worst jumping sequence yet, with terrible controls and being only the first sequence of many, I have removed another star. While I'm all for a game that gives you a lot of content, this is one case where judicious pruning would have made this a better game. Instead you have a lovely dream that turns into frustrating slog long after you should have woken.
Lifeless Planet is one of the new breed of psychological exploration games, along the lines of MIND: Path to Thalamus and Proteus. You are never quite sure what is real and what is part of the protagonist's subjective state of mind. At times the game seems to be leading to a now-cliched resolution, but thankfully has a better outcome. The gameplay is adequate, being mostly linear exploration with a few things hidden along the side ways such as mineral samples to discover, though these do not add to the game in any other way other than rewarding your "find stuff" instinct. The challenges come from jump puzzles, push puzzles, and the occasion use of a robotic arm to manipulate things. The arm mechanism is the least satisfying, and actually glitched out on me late in the game, placing me at a previous arm puzzle when I activated it, though I finally found another glitch around that. The jump puzzles are the best challenges, especially when you get the jump boost. Speaking of the jump boost, you will obtain and lose it again several times during the game, in what is like a very obvious attempt to control the game flow. There are other ham-fisted elements, the worst being the "running out of oxygen" one, which never happens unless you are within walking distance of the next oxygen source. This artificial attempt to create drama is ultimately meaningless, though superior to constantly requiring you to find oxygen. Better if it were omitted entirely though. The other main flaw of the game is that the areas really don't connect. Each environment seems detached and separate, with no transition between them. You will struggle through a nighttime area towards a building, only reaching it to have the scene fade and find yourself now in a desert. In many ways this symbolises the game as a whole - it is not a sum of its parts, but a series of setpieces. Worth playing if you like the genre, and occasionally beautiful with good music, but doesn't quite come together as a whole.
This is really a 3.5 star rating. It would have been 4 stars for the excellent visuals, but the overblown narration takes a half-star off. As for the game, while it shares the wandering exploration aspect of "walking simulator" games, strictly speaking it is not one. You are not hunting out the story elements, those unfold in a linear fashion as you complete each area. Instead you are trying to make your way to the exit of the level by working out how to affect the environment in order to open the way. So in that way it's less Dear Esther and more InFlux. Puzzles center on carrying nodes to various spots on the landscape, where they will do things like change day to night or cause it to rain, which in turn causes further changes to the landscape. Placement and timing of nodes are key. The visuals are quite good, ranging from dreamy surrealist art to almost natural terrain. Every locale has metaphorical elements as well. The music consists of spare orchestrations that act as emotional notes more than soundtrack. They are well done, fitting the mood and not jarring. The environment sound effects are just as good, with a broad palette of sounds. The voice acting is not dreadful, but not professional either. The writing is overwrought, trying too hard to convey gravitas and significance.. Others have pointed out that the game is sorely lacking in configuration options, and this is true. Apart from being able to turn captions on and a few other things, there is precious little you can change about the way the game works. As for the finale, no spoilers but it fits in with the rest of the game. There is an excess of narration, again of the overblown variety that plagues the rest of the game, but it is largely contained in the final sequence and the denouement. Overall a worthwhile game, and with more play value than most of the "art" games I have played of late. I enjoyed myself quite a bit on this one, and can recommend it if you are a fan of the aesthetic.
