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After spending some time with games without stories, I needed something to ease my way back into story-heavy games. I ended up selecting another title from my backlog, one that is much more like what I thought In Ruins would be: a game about wandering through a beautiful landscape, with a story that is mostly told rather than played. The game, of course, is Lifeless Planet by Stage 2 Studios. I didn’t use a hyperlink there because the game’s homepage actually contains spoilers for the game, which is unfortunate. So be warned before you click on the following link to the game’s page.

Lifeless Planet is a game about an little astronaut who lumbers around the gorgeous vistas of the titular planet with a pleasing low-gravity space waddle. As he explores, of course, spoilers happen. I will endeavor not to spoil anything about the game’s story here, because the surprises it offers are a huge part of the game’s appeal, but I will discuss how that story is told, along with all the other things the game does well.