The Abandoned Planet

I have a soft spot for games built by one person in a room, and The Abandoned Planet wears that origin with quiet confidence. Solo developer Jeremy Fryc has constructed a first-person point-and-click adventure that channels the isolated, screen-by-screen exploration of Myst and Riven, filtered through chunky hand-painted pixel art that looks genuinely handcrafted rather than procedurally assembled. The setup is compact: your unnamed astronaut shoots through a wormhole, crashes hard, and wakes up on a world that used to be busy but no longer is. The game is divided into distinct acts covering a crash site, scattered jungle islands, a towering structure, and a subterranean complex, and each area carries its own color palette and visual personality. The pixel art backgrounds are dense with subtle animation - wind through leaves, light shifting on water - and those small touches do real work to prevent the depopulated world from feeling inert. The electronic soundtrack reinforces that low-frequency loneliness without ever becoming oppressive, which is a harder tonal balance to strike than it sounds. Puzzle design is where the game shows both its charm and its ceiling. You get inventory puzzles that range from satisfying (deciphering an alien book that is intentionally out of chronological order to match symbols to on-world mechanisms) to very simple (find the hook for the fishing line). A scanner tool issued early on lets you analyze the environment for clues, though reviewers and players alike have noted it feels underused given its potential. The protagonist narrates generously, sometimes too generously, nudging you toward solutions before you have fully sat with a problem. If you play Myst expecting to feel genuinely stuck and triumphant, the hand-holding here will register. If you play adventure games primarily for atmosphere and world-piecing, the lighter puzzle pressure actually keeps the pacing clean. Completion time lands somewhere between two and five hours depending on how methodically you explore, and the game sensibly avoids overstaying its welcome. One genuine caveat: the ending is abrupt, bittersweet, and quietly reveals this to be a stealth prequel to Fryc's earlier Dexter Stardust series. Players who know that game will get an additional layer; everyone else may feel slightly wrong-footed in the final minutes. It is not a deal-breaker, but it is worth knowing going in. The voice acting in English is a welcome touch for a game this size, and the Steam reception sits at Very Positive from players who found exactly what they were looking for. For the right player - someone who wants a calm, visually deliberate adventure they can complete in a single evening - The Abandoned Planet delivers its mood with real craft. It is not a puzzle-box that will test you, and it is not a sprawling narrative. It is a small, handmade thing that knows what it is. Kai, Scout Team