Planet Laika is a weird experimental game that tackles several themes at once and sadly doesn't really do any of them particularly well. But I still forgive it because it tried.
It's very interesting and 70% of the game are surprisingly engaging, despite the gameplay being mostly running around and talking to weird people that say cryptic things, until you can transform into one of your other personalities and... play pong with energy balls. Those "battles" are ridiculously easy, you can just hold to go forward and win every time without thinking outside of the final one.
I don't think there's a way to do the "story" justice in a review without just spoiling the entire thing, so I'll just say it's... good. It's not a "secret hidden masterpiece" like people pretend it is just because it's a niche PS1 game that got a translation, but it's also not bad. I just don't like the execution of the final act.
The last 30% of the game consist of running up and down the same street for several hours to trigger 1-3 lines of dialogue, then doing that again and again and again. That's the only reason I took off two stars.
I don't mind the plot, and I appreciate the story they tried to tell. I had to take a few days to think on it and really take in all the pieces of the puzzle before writing this, and I'm fairly satisfied with what the game gave me. I just wish the last act wasn't so boring, because the ideas are good and the themes are good. It's just not good to waste three hours of my time on the same two screens because the game was determined to add more hours to its gametime.
I think the ending could've been done a bit better as well, or at least those final cutscenes, but oh well. They're still good enough.
I'd say this is definitely worth playing if you're in the mood for a weird, creepy, quirky game, but beware the last 3-5 hours of game time which will be spent running up and down the same street with not much happening at all.
It's very interesting and 70% of the game are surprisingly engaging, despite the gameplay being mostly running around and talking to weird people that say cryptic things, until you can transform into one of your other personalities and... play pong with energy balls. Those "battles" are ridiculously easy, you can just hold to go forward and win every time without thinking outside of the final one.
I don't think there's a way to do the "story" justice in a review without just spoiling the entire thing, so I'll just say it's... good. It's not a "secret hidden masterpiece" like people pretend it is just because it's a niche PS1 game that got a translation, but it's also not bad. I just don't like the execution of the final act.
The last 30% of the game consist of running up and down the same street for several hours to trigger 1-3 lines of dialogue, then doing that again and again and again. That's the only reason I took off two stars.
I don't mind the plot, and I appreciate the story they tried to tell. I had to take a few days to think on it and really take in all the pieces of the puzzle before writing this, and I'm fairly satisfied with what the game gave me. I just wish the last act wasn't so boring, because the ideas are good and the themes are good. It's just not good to waste three hours of my time on the same two screens because the game was determined to add more hours to its gametime.
I think the ending could've been done a bit better as well, or at least those final cutscenes, but oh well. They're still good enough.
I'd say this is definitely worth playing if you're in the mood for a weird, creepy, quirky game, but beware the last 3-5 hours of game time which will be spent running up and down the same street with not much happening at all.