You’ve crash landed on a strange planet, and if you walk towards your ship you’ll die. You’ll need to figure out how to leave, and along the way you’ll find out just what happened to those who came before. Welcome to Planet RIX-13.
Planet RIX-13 is a side-scrolling point-and-click puzzle game for every current major console. You play as some guy who has crash landed, didn’t think to bring radiation protection, and is apparently okay at solving puzzles. He’s also apparently the world’s slowest walker, and seeing as you’ll find yourself walking back and forth a lot… Yeah, get used to seeing him slowly walk
Most of the puzzles in Planet RIX-13 are fairly straightforward, although as I said you’ll have to go back and forth quite a bunch. I said most for a reason though – I don’t know how long I got stuck trying to find a particular item, because it wasn’t clear to me that I had to scan other areas on a radar. Not that I really had the will to, because like the movement speed that cursor was so unbelievably slow. Oh, and there was that “monster in the water” puzzle which I still don’t fully understand, but I suppose I got by it somehow so sure I guess?
The game has absolutely no music in it, and only features sound effects. The one for when you’re in/near radiation is probably the worst one, although none of them are too great.
Graphically, the game is very dulled down, but it works for the scenery. 95% of the game is in a pixel art style – the 5% that isn’t feels out of place, and that’s any time you see some sort of fire effect. I feel like they could have at last made the fire in a pixel art style as well so it didn’t feel so out of place.
Once you actually know what to do – in other words, you can figure out that radar puzzle, as it’s the only “real” block the game has if you explore all the rooms – the game is relatively short. Trophy hunters will be happy to know it’s got a quick platinum, though it requires a replay if you don’t do one thing right, or if you miss a couple things.
As a whole, I didn’t really find much interesting in Planet RIX-13 to write home about. I did find the English to be a bit shaky in some spots. I really do wish the movement speed was a bit better, especially with how much back and forth you end up having to do. The game is great for those trophy hunters, and if you’re someone who is really into point-and-click games. Otherwise I’d say give the game a pass, as you really won’t find much interesting on this planet and will just be itching to leave. Just make sure your ship doesn’t blow up first…
I was provided with a key for Planet RIX-13 via Keymailer for the purpose of coverage and reviewing. This review is based on the PS4 version.
