Lifeless Planet Mixes Barren Sci-fi with Soviet Russia

"Lifeless Planet" teases a mid-driff baring 'alien' with green eyes and glowing footprints and a barren planet that's just begging to be explored. Our nameless astronaut is alone and running out of oxygen on this new world that might happen to be a brand new planet, or just a very sandy Siberia. What happens when he finds power lines leading to an abandoned town and Russian factory? And just who is the humanoid companion Aelita? 

"Planet" works as an exploration game, showcased when the astronaut gets gradually farther and farther from his shrinking capsule in the distance. Funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, David Board, a partner at Stage 2 games, wrote about the game's intent:

"The goal of Lifeless Planet is to put the 'adventure' back in 'action-adventure.' I grew up loving games like Out of this World, The Dig, and ICO, and I want to create a gaming experience in the spirit of those classic adventure games."

All the pre-alpha footage looks impressive, but it's bound to improve over the next few months until a harder release date is set. Even the models of Aelita are kept far from our astronaut, so it could be a while till she can be shown "saving" him from the big bad that happens to be floating around the possible planet, or Siberia. For now it seems they're projecting fourth quarter of 2012, so we'll sit back and wait.

"Lifeless Planet" will be for PC only.