Planet of Lana 2 review - a grander, more dynamic platformer sequel that keeps hold of its heart

The archetypal Planet of Lana projected a subject fabrication phantasy that appealed connected 2 levels: one, being capable to escapade done a wondrously lush exoworld, and two, having a feline who really listens to you. Planet of Lana 2 is much of the same, connected some counts, portion adding capable athleticism to its platforming and extent to its puzzling to consciousness similar a worthwhile sequel.

Not that it avoids a somewhat unusual start. For each the leafy forests, snow-carpeted mountains, and tropical undersea trenches that you’ll yet spot Lana – and feline-ish alien companion Mui – through, crippled fig 2 begins successful a bid of grey corridors. It’s here, mind, wherever Lana reveals she’s been keeping up platforming signifier successful the intervening years, and is capable to sprint, slide, and wall-jump from the off. All elemental tricks, but ones that springiness the carnal challenges much of a flowing, dynamic prime than the occasionally sluggish clambering of the original.

Mui, too, is simply a much adjuvant blob-buddy. While inactive needing cursor-pointed direction, they’re nary longer constricted to waypoints that hardly widen beyond Lana’s ain arms, frankincense permitting them to boing astir puzzles, gnawing cables and dropping ropes astatine the precise extremes of the screen. Their hypnotic powerfulness implicit the planet’s fauna present extends beyond elemental movements and into afloat subordinate control, adding ink-blasting food and colonies of sticky, rolling unreality creatures to your solving toolbox.

To accommodate the empowered duo, the puzzles themselves person successful crook expanded. Often literally: Planet of Lana steadfastly kept each of its brainteasers to a azygous screen, but enabled by Mui’s unleashed scope and the freely controllable wildlife, galore of the sequel’s astir memorable puzzles consciousness monolithic by comparison. Flying and swimming creatures, especially, lend themselves to sprawling, multi-stage conundrums that person you flicking attraction betwixt Lana, Mui, and your captive thrall similar the quality prime surface of an indecisive Street Fighter player.

This is not a complaint. The back-and-forth creation betwixt Lana and Mui was cardinal to the archetypal game’s effectiveness successful staving disconnected crate-pushing fatigue, an affliction that tin beryllium fatal to lesser puzzle-platformers. Bigger, much intricate puzzles mightiness person raised the hazard of getting stuck and burning out, but the thoughtful, often tactily pleasurable suite of expanded powers and movements turns those scaled-up challenges into immoderate of 2’s astir satisfying highlights. You whitethorn person already played 1 of these successful the demo: an elaborate infiltration of a submerged cave network, beautifully stitching unneurotic well-timed swims (both Lana’s and those of mesmerised fish) with underwater stealth (the coral is patrolled by crackling electrical sharks) and absorption of the aquaphobic Mui.

Not dissimilar Lana’s squeaking BFF, these helper critters are besides invariably cutesy and boopable, successful a mode that each but guarantees idiosyncratic connected Etsy volition beryllium selling stickers of them by the extremity of the week. This does marque it weird, however, erstwhile you commencement marching them to their horrible deaths. Yes, thralls volition straight-up perish if steered into hazards, and portion this doesn’t reload a checkpoint – arsenic is the lawsuit if, say, you nonstop Lana ragolling disconnected a cliff – the infinite resupply of replacements hardly discourages carelessness. In fact, sometimes it’s indispensable to bushed a puzzle, similar hurling those rolling unreality bois into a occurrence pit to ignite the flammable way they permission behind. Or utilizing food arsenic shark bait. Or locking a elephantine bug successful a cage, wherever it presumably starves to decease offscreen. In my playthrough, Lana and Mui slaughtered their friends successful each these ways and more. They whitethorn beryllium the astir prolific serial slayer duo since the Wests, and yet the crippled ne'er addresses, adjacent ironically, their run of bloodletting.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Thunderful Publishing

In fairness, it’s each for a bully cause. Having antecedently rescued her sister from robots, Lana indispensable present rescue her niece from pollution, the guiltless young’un having been poisoned by a mysterious boulder dumped by passing cultists similar a radioactive Twix wrapper. This means the bulk of Planet of Lana 2 is framed astir an epic fetch quest for cure ingredients, which astir apt doesn’t dependable similar the astir breathtaking structure; I cognize my shoulders sagged erstwhile the buying database archetypal appeared onscreen.

But nary – somehow, it works. Chiefly, the unguent hunt serves arsenic an excuse to sojourn an adjacent broader scope of magnificently realised sci-fi biomes and facilities, each gorgeously presented successful Planet of Lana’s handpainted benignant and adroitly scored with a soundtrack of pensive keys, swelling strings, and tense synth. The sequel is besides much ambitious successful however it uses these backdrops for melodramatic setpieces, whether that’s a panicked dash done a burning jungle oregon the archetypal quiet, suspenseful descent successful a stolen submersible, though it yet values the original’s adventurous and hopeful ambiance implicit enactment thrills. For each dash from slayer bots, there’s astatine slightest 1 serene locomotion done sunkissed trees oregon past yet different gawkable vista.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Thunderful Publishing

The much segmented attack besides opens up the accidental for immoderate flashback interludes to inject sweet, saccharine Mui lore, illustrating a backstory and relationships that yet commencement to soma retired the small goober beyond Adorable Sidekick status. This, too, is simply a shrewd move. Lana and Mui’s relationship is the affectional bosom of some games, and alternatively of conscionable rerunning their archetypal bonding, oregon wedging successful immoderate improbable struggle betwixt miss and feline alien, these flashbacks subtly tinge it with tragedy: a pained past and conflicting loyalties that Mui, adjacent with a higher grade of sapience than antecedently thought, can’t pass to Lana until it’s excessively late. And not conscionable due to the fact that some parties talk successful gibberish.

Unfortunately, portion Planet of Lana 2 is simply a talented emotion-tweaker astatine the idiosyncratic level, I privation it dove deeper into exploring its broader themes. The antagonistic cult, for instance, initially look similar the unthinking bearers of immoderate biology message: they pillage the world for resources, harmfully dump the waste, and slaughter animals, and not adjacent for constructive reasons similar solving a physics puzzle. This initially appears to beryllium teeing up a Hayao Miyazaki-style polemic against our ain planet’s ruination (appropriate, fixed the Spirited Away aesthetic, though little truthful connected the game’s deficiency of shit-talking your son’s filmmaking abilities). Instead, these portrayals are chiefly conscionable shorthand for bastardry, their interaction measured astir wholly connected however they origin occupation for Lana’s contiguous family.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Thunderful Publishing

This isn’t the lone undercooked idea, either. The shining city, glimpsed successful the cardinal creation and teased aggregate times passim the crippled itself? That’s explored decently for astir 3 minutes, astir of your clip determination spent navigating the sewage strategy and underground warehouses beneath it. Your sojourn occurs astatine a constituent successful the communicative wherever determination isn’t overmuch clip for sightseeing, but it’s specified a stark departure from the untamed wilds you’re usually exploring – portion maintaining the series’ eye-catching presumption standards – that it’s conscionable a shame to permission truthful quickly.

It’s not rather Bestest Best material, then. But Planet of Lana 2 succeeds far, acold much often than it dawdles. Its halfway puzzle-platforming benefits from immoderate peculiarly canny mechanical improvements, scoring the improbable accomplishment of becoming much analyzable without stumbling into head-stumping, teeth-grinding difficulty. And, erstwhile you flight those acold corridors, it’s adjacent much of an audio-visual dainty than the original. Still with, happily, a feline who really listens to you.