T w e n t y S i d e d

In late 2017, the (then, and now formerly) celebrated independent game publisher Fullbright released its second game, Tacoma. Riding high from the incredible success of their first game Gone Home, Tacoma was a well-received second effort. While Gone Home is set in a large, barely-understood house that tells many underlying stories in addition to the main narrative driven by notes left by the protagonist’s younger sister, Tacoma evolved into a somewhat simpler tale about a future in space with misbehaving companies and AI, and some minor underlying portraits of the characters involved, rather than stories; set on an Earth Lagrange Point space station recently abandoned due to a mysterious accident. Only a few months later a “small group of developers” called “The Station” published the game “The Station.” About a mystery on a satellite orbiting the Earth at some point in the future. There was some accident that caused the staff of the satellite station to shut down and possibly abandon ship. Both games advertised use of an “augmented reality” system to explore the environment and figure out what happened.

Other than that, neither title actually has anything to do with the other. No, really; they tell entirely different stories from different points-of-view. The augmented reality systems are different. In fact, The Station‘s AR is…kind of pointless, honestly? You could have done the entire game without even mentioning it was a feature, as it doesn’t use the “augmented reality” functionality for anything important. By contrast, exploring the augmented reality records of Tacoma is central to the gameplay.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Two Space Station Games of Christmas 2017”

Paige Francis He/him

Ok, I guess I answered the big question I posed previously. I want to talk about the story and compare it to the story of Lifeless Planet, but I should let you know what I found out after I finished the game. While Lifeless Moon was released a decade after Lifeless Planet, and by a different studio, it was written by the same creator. A short FAQ on the game’s website (that I could have looked at before I played the game, to be fair) made it clear that the story of Lifeless Moon is essentially the original idea for Lifeless Planet. It was that first game that was modified in the creation process. Unfortunately, *in my opinion*; Lifeless Planet is much better for those changes, and is a better game overall. I’m not going to claim Lifeless Planet is unique; everything is derivative in some way. The point at which a product differs enough from its collective inputs to make it sufficiently “new” is obviously a point of contention more often than not. So, Lifeless Moon is *not* a sequel *or* a prequel…it just takes some of the same elements of Lifeless Planet and uses them for something different. If you *want* the two games to be related, space is left for that, even if the nature of “portals” is different.

Lifeless Moon is not only shorter and easier, showing much closer adhesion to the “walking simulator” idea than Lifeless Planet; but the story is quite frankly something we see a lot in especially action movies that are trying to have a story underneath the action. Lifeless Planet is pretty good sci-fi; Lifeless Moon is a bare-bones melodrama used to flesh out a very simple game mechanic. It’s also poorly constructed (the story, that is, not the game) leaving one entire subplot effectively abandoned (not technically, but effectively) and basic questions with unclear answers.

TO BE CLEAR: this is a perfectly adequate walking simulator that only takes a few hours to experience. Price is subjective, but I would describe Lifeless Planet as giving you more than you pay for at its normal price of $9.99; while Lifeless Moon is worth half that at most. There just isn’t the same quality *or abundance* of content. But just to complete the circle…yes, Lifeless Moon has fantastic visuals. Very dramatic environments.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Finished Lifeless Moon: The Not-Sequel”

Paige Francis He/him

I have written before about Lifeless Planet, one of my favorite games. It’s short, not difficult (although I still haven’t tried to get the achievement with no lives lost; I really don’t think I can do it. Likewise the speedrun, although I’m more optimistic about that one) and has a fantastic sci-fi story. A crew of three American astronauts in a post-Apollo pre-end-of-the-Cold-War alternative timeline travel at twice the speed of light for 15 years (i.e. 30 Light Years away) to a newly-discovered green and oxygen-rich planet. This is a one-way mission (as far as you, the main character knows) to verify a habitable planet reachable by Earthlings. However on arrival your capsule crash-lands and you discover a barren, lifeless world. Having been left for dead by your colleagues, you follow their footsteps and soon discover that this world appears to have been *already settled* (barely) by the Soviet Union! You learn as you explore the planet and the Soviet structures present that the U.S.S.R. discovered a “portal” in Siberia in 1974 that transported them instantly to this lush green planet. The Soviets immediately began quietly establishing themselves here before announcing the discovery to the world. They also discovered that the green moss or algae that covered EVERYTHING was actually a power source! They learned to tap into this substance for UNLIMITED POWER! They discovered artifacts from the alien race that created the portals, including the remnants of other portals and many other devices, and a portal that let them return to Earth. Unfortunately soon after switching over to the “green” substance as their power source, all life on the planet began to die. The portal from Earth became unstable, destroying anything sent through it. Yes, including people. The portal that returned the Soviets to Earth suddenly changed to show an alien city full of tall skyscrapers and round portals. Also the Soviet scientists realized that time passed on this planet much more quickly than on Earth. Minutes on this new planet equaled months on Earth. As the Soviets died off, one scientists expounds that the alien city visible through the “return” portal isn’t an alien city at all; it *is* the Earth…the Earth as it would appear hundreds if not thousands of years in the future. You, the American astronaut, having been guided through all this by a Soviet woman who somehow hybridized with the native life energy and sacrificed herself to bring life back to this world, knowing the final portal is the only way forward to save his life, steps through the portal to a lush world and an unfamiliar city. The End. (there’s also a sub-plot about letting go and living your life to the fullest, but honestly it’s not that important)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Lifeless Moon: A Worthy Sequel?”

Paige Francis He/him