We’ve had many great side-scrolling adventures that offer emotional narratives and engaging mechanics. The likes of Play Dead’s Limbo and INSIDE, a simple framework can indeed bring about a compelling and thoroughly emotional journey that goes beyond most AAA games. Planet of Lana is the latest in this subgenre of adventure games, taking us to a wholesome new world that lives in peace and beauty until an army of ungodly machines invades and takes over. It’s up to a young girl to save the day with a newly acquired companion and use all their resources and wits to outsmart the machine menace.
Does Planet of Lana manage to match up to the likes of INSIDE? Read on and find out.
What is Planet of Lana? 
Planet of Lana takes players onto another world, one that’s incredibly beautiful, lush and where its inhabitants live in utter peace and harmony. We take on the role of a young girl named Lana who’s enjoying her carefree day-to-day life and hanging out with her older sister. On a bright and fresh new day, Lana and her sister explore a nearby valley taking in the beauty of the world before them. That is until visitors come to the planet and begin a hostile invasion, where everyone is captured. Lana is lucky and flees before being captured, and soon after begins her quest to rescue her family, and friends and drive the invaders away from the planet.
Along the way, Lana makes friends with one of the many denizens of the planet, a mix between a cat and monkey from the look of it, and together they form a powerful bond that will serve them well together ridding the planet of the mechanical menace. Players can expect plenty of beautiful scenery on this stunning planet, and a lot of situations which mix quick wits, good timing and lateral thinking. But Planet of Lana also proclaims itself as a more chilled experienced compared to the likes of Limbo and Stela. Which works in its favour, but admittedly against it.
As wide and beautiful as an ocean, but as deep as a puddle?
These types of slightly abstract adventure games often infuse many interesting components for the world-building, giving you a sense of reason and logic. There is indeed a plot, but it never amounts to that of God of War, Killer7, or GTA levels of complexity, character development and dramatic conclusions. It’s more a simple tale of moving through the world, reaching an important, singular goal and conquering the troubles ahead.
Planet of Lana follows the same path as many other titles such as Limbo, but you understand the end goal and aren’t left in the dark of the mystery. You must get rid of the robots, save your friends and family and do so with a trusty companion. That’s really the heart of the story and that’s all really fine at the end of the day, so long as you have exciting events, good pacing and a conclusion that will satisfy whether it’s a happy or sad end.
Thankfully, Planet of Lana offers a lot regarding it’s world-building, which sees a vast number of biomes throughout the planet, plenty of mystery with small details revealing a much grander sense of lore and purpose to the world, and of course, there are plenty of exciting moments to break up the journey. It’s a setup we’ve all seen before and while it does nothing new with the formula, the journey is still quite memorable for the reasons above.
The machine menace is quite threatening, the little details are neat as they add more to the world-building, and Lana is a nice protagonist, despite not having the most complex progression. It would have been nice to see a little more implemented into the story, including thematic elements which ask big questions and give could a philosophical edge to the narrative (something akin to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which has themes of death, family and war and executed all in a meaningful manner). Planet of Lana is very chill about its themes and is much easier to take in emotionally, which is great if you do want something less heavy than other games of the same nature (i.e. Stela, INSIDE).
That’s not to say there isn’t any heart or soul in Planet of Lana, as there really is. But on the surface, it's everything we’ve seen before and done so a decade ago. But I can’t deny this is a visual treat, with the use of rich colours, immense world design and excellent sound design. It really does make you feel like you’re on an epic journey and one that will make you gasp from time to time.
A pleasant stroll, filled with mechanics monsters and lateral thinking 
There is a sense of anguish thinking about how these types of games will push the medium, or what kind of gameplay features they will have to entertain us. To many, it’s a difficult task to think of exciting mechanics to implement into a 2D game, but plenty of games in the 2D format have overcome this limitation and brought about some of the best mechanics in gaming altogether. INSIDE and Limbo focused on simple mechanics, but engaging and complex set pieces to enthral gamers. Even some like Paper Mario has cool ideas mechanically and offers a much more meaningful experience than some massive AAA games.
Does Planet of Lana offer anything new, exciting, or daring to the table? Not really. But instead gives us a variety of cool ideas, and gameplay elements which are enjoyable, if not a little too safe and a tat underwhelming.
Lana and her monkey/cat companion are unable to take threats head-on, being a small child and a monkey/cat aren’t the DOOM Slayer now. So, it’s all about using their wits, cunning and what’s around them to evade and in some instances trap or destroy any incoming threats. Lana can hide in tall grass, interact with switches, push medium or small items, and use her companion to drop down items such as climbing ropes to progress forward.
Much of the encounters Lana will face will be either accessing an exit which is out of reach or evading a patrolling enemy. These encounters usually pan out in the same manner throughout the campaign, with Lana hiding in tall grass, her companion being used to reach something Lana cannot, or distracting or attracting enemies to a certain point, allowing Lana to sneak past. And that’s a fair chunk of what you’ll be dealing with, aside from taking in the scenery and finding the odd collectable.
It's not bad at all, but it’s quite the same most of the time. And with many of the challenges lacking the lateral depth that requires time and multiple actions for it to come together, there is a strong sense of repetition at hand.
What does save Lana is a couple of things. There are instances where a new dynamic is thrown in, adding a layer of suspense or tension to the task. Your companion can not swim, so dealing with water, finding a safe route, and making sure other threats don’t get in the way, was a nice addition to the simple formula. There is also a mechanic later in the game where you can control some of the robots, which while not fully utilised in my opinion again does add something new and lends itself to a cool set piece here and there.
Lastly, the third act is where everything comes together and there is a clear moment which tells you things will be more interesting. We get bigger puzzles, and big encounters with massive enemies and some of the neat mechanics mentioned earlier are played out more effectively. It’s a shame that everything in Planet of Lana excels really in the third act, but it’s a great series of final chapters nonetheless.
There were also a couple of scenes which had some good puzzles, making use of the environment, adding in some light detective work, and scavenging for clues on the resolution which was really fun. Although the moments you ask the monkey/cat to drop a rope down to Lana did remind me of the immensely repetitive nature of The Last of Us, where Ellie would keep pushing down the ladder for Joel. I feel this sums up my feelings overall for Planet of Lana, which is ultimately very gorgeous, and has some great moments, yet does nothing truly new and innovative.
But it’s still an enjoyable venture to embark on.
Overall?
Planet of Lana is a nice enough game, and a beautiful venture dotted with some neat ideas and gameplay elements. However, it doesn’t fully explore or expand the basics to create compelling gameplay moments. Stray is a game which many people kind of groan at yet has plenty going for it. Yes, it is a cat game, but you move like a cat, use cat-like elements to interact with the world and new dynamics are added in, making the adventure grander. INSIDE to me, is one of the best games ever made, and while mechanically simple, has a great atmosphere, interesting puzzles, great set pieces and heart-wrenching emotional pulls that will leave you breathless.
Planet of Lana is a very nice game, whether you be playing or watching it, and I would recommend it if something like INSIDE is off-putting. It’s visually beautiful, has great world-building, is mechanically simple to understand and has some good moments. Will it stand the test of time? Who knows, but I will say it’s worth checking out nonetheless.
++ Visually stunning and lovely to venture through
+ Neat world-building elements and cool environments
+ Mechanically simple and fun
- A little too simple and never pushes dynamic mechanics
- Lacking interesting thematic elements to keep the story engaging
- Little repetitive
A Steam review key of Planet of Lana was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
