After playing through a slew of generic comedic point and clicks inspired by the “classics”, The Abandoned Planet was the breath of fresh air I needed. Its incredibly unique design is full of imagination, polish and amazing puzzle design. I’ve not played any game quite like it.

As advertised, it’s got really nice chunky pixel art with excellent animation (seemingly often rotoscoped). You crash land on an alien planet and have to explore its many locales to find your way home. It’s got the exact type of puzzling you would hope from this type of game, including a game manual in another language, ancient puzzle sculptures and contraptions, and dusty ruins to explore.

It’s just oozing with personality and has some of the best puzzles I’ve played all year. I loved its presentation and structure, it’s really just a perfect little unique experience. Besides a couple of frustrating points, I mostly got through it guide-free and the answers were always logical and creative. If you enjoy point and click exploration games with a more somber atmosphere, do not skip this one.

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 pixeled 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...