Planet Alpha is a game that wasn’t on our radar before Team 17 made us aware of it. More fool us as what we have here is probably one of the more refreshing takes on the 2.5D platformer in a sumptuously realised world.

Besides the obvious appeal of the beautiful graphics, you have tight controls and an interesting time bending mechanic. More on that later.

Planet Alpha's opening moments don't provide much in the way of gameplay innovation, but they sure are pretty. In this episode of NGT, Reiner pushes some boxes, climbs up some vegetation, and does his best to stay out of enemy vision cones. Sep 04, 2018  Planet Alpha focuses on platforming puzzles-you'll frequently have to move climbable boxes and figure out how to avoid the hostile creatures and robots that inhabit the planet.

You wake to a prone figure lying on the ground, that turns out to be your player character. You turn out to be injured and limp your way across several screens. You’ll be immediately struck by how beautiful Planet Alpha is. There’s verdant landscapes, barren desert and dark catacombs to name but a few biomes. That’s just in the opening scenes.

After a little scene setting, the game introduces a key mechanic that will prove essential to your progress through the game. The aforementioned time bending manifests as your spindly spaceman being able to rotate the planet you’re marooned on. Holding will wind time backwards and conversely, holding winds time forwards. In addition, you can interact with occasional objects by tapping . These are generally few and far between.

The production itself was a race, with Frankenheimer competing against Steve McQueen and director John Sturges, who were making a rival F1 epic that ultimately never came to fruition. Frankenheimer hired real-life Grand Prix champion Phil Hill to drive the camera car, and much of the footage was shot on real Formula One tracks with real racers like Jackie Stewart sitting in for the actors.In the editing room, Frankenheimer made vivid use of split screens and the ultra-wide Cinerama format; the movie earned Oscars for Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects. Director John Frankenheimer, himself an amateur racer, certainly knew his way around fast cars; much of the high-speed action here looks like a dry run for the acclaimed car chases in his 1998 spy thriller Ronin. Director: John FrankenheimerYear Released: 1966Studio: MGMCast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves MontandThe plot of the film — a year in the life of four international Formula One (F1) rivals and the nervous women who wait for them on the sidelines — isn’t much, but the film set the standard for presenting racing footage. Grand prix movie steve mcqueen.

Besides the natural world, you’ll come upon the ruins of a once wondrous civilisation. For this reviewer at least, it brings to mind the glorious architectural vistas Fumito Ueda gave us in his masterpiece Ico. They’re gorgeous.

This is no paradise though. Eventually you’ll realise that besides various fauna; most of it benign; you’re not alone. A hostile alien robot race soon crash the party in dramatic fashion.

From a giant claw wielding behemoth through a tripod with an instakill death ray culminating in small robots that you can generally outsmart, all of these will kill you repeatedly. We really hope there’s not a trophy for playing through the game with less than five deaths as we’re probably closer to a hundred.

Thankfully the platforming is fantastic so evading your robotic foes and the occasional hostile creature never feels like a chore. Your only stumbling blocks will generally be down to your forgetting the tools at your disposal. The platforming itself brings to mind the likes of Flashback in terms of setting and Limbo and the Oddworld series with regards the control you have over your avatar. No flat shaded polygons, monochrome austerity or industrial meat processing here though.

One notable set piece has you baiting enemies in range of a doorway, one swift time manipulation later, you’ll have dispatched the threat. It’s a great moment when you realise you’re pretty powerful after all. It makes up for the fact you have no weapons to speak of.

Some puzzles are a little oblique sometimes, but as you go further into the game, you’ll get more of a feel for how to tackle a situation be the obstacle due to enemies or the environment.

One of Planet Alpha‘s greatest strengths is that once it has introduced a gameplay concept to you, there’s very little handholding involved. Occasionally though you’ll be at a complete loss as to what to do next. Though in our case, the fact it was one in the morning and we’d been playing for hours might’ve been a contributory factor.

Sometimes though, the fact the 2.5D view doesn’t allow for any real depth perception means you’ll die by walking into the back of an enemy when to all intents and purposes you think they’re on a different layer to you. It’s a slightly frustrating problem, not unique to this game either. More the genre.

Finally a word on the trophies, the descriptions are pretty cryptic and don’t really give you any impetus to go off the beaten track. Instead during our playthrough, we unlocked a handful and we’re just fine with that. Maybe once more people have clocked the game we’ll go back to mop up. Anything for an excuse to go back through this luscious landscape once again.

In conclusion, this is one of the most beautiful platformers you’re ever likely to play. Great intuitive controls and you genuinely feel like you’re on the run from a persistent antagonist. Wonderfully implemented set-pieces just add to the delightful package we have here.

Pursued by relentless enemies, you must harness the power of night and day as you struggle to survive.Key Features:Marooned upon an alien world.You have awoken on a strange alien world. Injured, alone and stranded you venture across this foreign land, navigating beautiful and varied terrain as you try to stay alive.Power over Day and NightThe world of PLANET ALPHA is affected by the solar cycle, and as you progress you’ll discover a unique gift – you can manipulate the time of day and use it to your advantage.Unlock the Mysteries of PLANET ALPHAExplore a unique world and piece together your story.

What will you discover on PLANET ALPHA?