Lifeless Moon Review (dmitrenko.c)
As a person who loves this kind of game and Lifeless Planet in particular, I was interested in playing Lifeless Moon and I absolutely loved it. The experience is riddled with bugs and far from perfect, just like Lifeless Planet. Despite this, the atmosphere, music, and story left a deep impression on me.
I will start with stuff that I didn't like. Initially, the game looked very similar to Lifeless Planet - the same barren terrains, the same model of an astronaut, the same walk/jump mechanics, the same rings, same long jumps from rock to rock where if you miss one jump, you need to start over, etc., etc. However, after some point, the game started to transform, and it was a big surprise for me how beautiful this game looks, I definitely didn't expect such visual quality from an indie game of this budget. And I spent quite a while just looking around the locations or staring at the sky.
Same as Lifeless Planet, the game has a LOT of small bugs, but nothing critical. The character will occasionally jump after exiting the menu, and closing one menu sometimes causes the other to open, opening certain menus doesn't freeze the player properly, so he continues running in the same spot until you continue playing. And a lot of other small things that happen every now and then. While giving the game quite an unpolished vibe, it doesn't really affect the gameplay.
Now to stuff I like. The atmosphere of hidden danger, confusion, and unease is absolutely on point. This is accompanied by great music that changes depending on the context of the current scene and makes you fret about the next thing that's coming. To me, just the combination of the visual style and the atmosphere is a more than sufficient reason to try this game out.
In terms of story, I didn't like it as much as Lifeless Planet. The progression is a bit too slow and there wasn't a big plot reveal as it was in the previous game, instead the game slowly gives you all the information. But still, the whole idea of the game is very interesting and I think I will replay this game to understand the story better.
Overall, if you liked the previous game, this one is definitely worth a try, Given how short it is, you can always return it if you absolutely hate it :)
Otherwise, if you like mysterious scientific stories that happen in space, you might like it as well. But in such case, you should also give Lifeless Planet a go :)