While there are quite a lot of more classically-inspired adventures on the Switch that harken back to the good old days when the genre was king, it has been nice to see ones that have a different style as well. By going with a more first-person look, rather than the traditional third-person view, it’s strange how big a difference there can be in how you experience the game. The Abandoned Planet goes in this direction, and while it may not feel terribly refined in some regards, its simplicity and presentation do make it quite approachable.

After crash landing on an unknown alien planet, you’ll need to explore and be resourceful in order to survive and make your way back home. How you’ll do this will take a number of forms, but for genre fans it will all feel quite familiar. You’ll need to carefully look around, find objects that can help out later, work through a small variety of puzzles that will sometimes require item use or some other intuitive means, and continue to be patient as you work through periodic challenges. Given that you’re somewhat by yourself, aside from a variety of alien creatures you’ll encounter, there’s a lack of the traditional character interactions to help break things up, but in general it still works well enough.

One dividing line that could make it a better match for some, but not so much for others, is its relative level of simplicity when compared with its peers. While at first I continued to get a little fouled up with some control choices and how interacting with everything works, once I was on board in general I felt like I was flying through the game. These games can typically be quite obtuse at times, expecting you to make bizarre leaps of faith or getting stuck from the developers trying to be too clever. In this case I hardly ran into that at all though. Not everything was simple, but for the most part it wasn’t hard to follow the logic of how certain puzzles and areas worked, and that was actually pretty satisfying. I could see where people in search of more of a mental challenge could be put off by this, but for genre newcomers it could actually be a great starting point. While I don’t think it’s necessarily a sure thing for anyone who enjoys a classic adventure style experience, it’s absolutely an approachable and satisfying time that’s well-constructed.