Reviews: Planet of Lana

Spoiler free review of the game Planet of Lana played on the steam deck OLED.

About the game

A young girl and her loyal friend embark on a rescue mission through a colorful world full of cold machines and unfamiliar creatures. Planet of Lana is a cinematic puzzle adventure framed by an epic sci-fi saga that stretches across centuries and galaxies..

Steam page

Margot’s stats

• Device: Steam Deck OLED

• Difficulty: One setting

• Completed: yes

• Time: ~5 hours

• Summary: A beautiful side scrolling puzzle game. I just kept gasping at how beautiful it is. Each area is exceptionally well designed. There were a few moments where the controls seemed a little clunky, but the puzzles were hardly ever stressful so this didn’t take away from the fun. The sound design helps tell the story and while there are no words as such, the story is told well through the images and interactions and the music and sound design.

• Score: 9/10

  

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Narrative and Gameplay

The story follows Lana, who during an event loses her friend and tries to find her. On her journey she makes another friend in a little creature, with whom you solve puzzles along the way. As it mentions in the description, this is a sci-fi saga, with a bit of a Star Wars feel in places, although all baddies are robots and there is no fighting / combat.

The world is beautifully designed and each larger area has its own charm and sound. I loved discovering the different areas, so will not talk about more of them for show the other chapters. In essence you navigate through each chapter, with a combination of puzzles and avoiding enemies. There is no combat as such.

The controls can feel a bit clunky, especially when controlling your little creature friend, but luckily hardly any of the puzzles require fast timing, so this did not matter too much.

You can jump, climb up ropes and open/remove hatches, there is also some swimming and the abilities your little friend brings along. The design of the puzzles is clever, despite a few solutions being kind of repeated, the new areas are beautiful in their own way and often the smaller puzzles lead to a bigger ones where you need to combine ideas you may have seen before.

I enjoyed the variety and it never was it too hard to figure out. Ok I admit it … I looked up two puzzles. :)

Sound

I am not an expert or anything on sound (I actually have a dodgy left ear and really struggle with surround sound and loud noises), but wanted to call out the sound design in this game.

There is no modern language being spoken or text, the story is told through the images and sound. Sound plays a huge role in the storytelling and it was done so well. The background music sets the scene, the sound changing lets you know about enemies, and also attacks. I was really impressed at how quickly I could recognise certain sounds and how much I enjoyed the wider soundscape. I would suggest wearing headphones. It is really worth it.

Verdict 9/10

I really enjoyed this game. I didn't want it to end. I wanted to find out more. The world is beautiful while also a bit scary. The sound is captivating and I binge played this game. It had a nice pace and was never too tricky. I loved the friendship element and having the little creature help with the puzzles. It was such a delight, I am struggling to put it into words. While I am a bit of a side scrolling hack and slash player, I enjoyed the slightly sneakier and slower game play of this a lot. If you ever have or wanted to play Inside, Limbo or Little Nightmares, this is a beautiful, colourful version of those types of games with a lovely storytelling.

Have you played Planet of Lana or similar side scrolling puzzle games?