Planet Lust Review

It’s the year 2000, and you’ve been sent to Mars as part of a crew with a vague mission statement as their tech guy, Swan. In fact, you’re the only guy, as the other four crew members are women — and so is the base computer. And since you’re a last-minute substitution made against your will, they kind of hate you for no actual reason. This is the 18+ pixel art life simulator Planet Lust.

The game starts in your home town on New Year’s Eve, where you get to grips with the controls. This is essential, as the keyboard controls are an absolute nightmare, and when I started playing pre-release, Steam wouldn’t admit that I could use a controller.

You also get to try out the sex mini-game, courtesy of a lady you help out. These are best done with the mouse, as the controller also operates the mouse cursor, just slower.

When you get to Mars, you have to survive for one month by mining, farming, and crafting. And killing many beasties lurking in the nearby cave system, of course, because it turns out there is life on the Red Planet after all. Swan has both an energy and an oxygen meter, which you can expand and replenish through crafted items, but you need to keep an eye on the time of day, as he gets sleepy and will just fall asleep wherever.

If you run out of energy (or time), you wake inside the base having been rescued by a member of the team. If you fall asleep inside the base, they also act like you were rescued from the freezing planet’s surface, but who’s going to just fall asleep in the vents to see what happens? If you happen to wake in the infirmary, you only have half of your energy, and time has passed, so you don’t have a full day.

Speaking of vents, Planet Lust isn’t just about sexing your way through your teammates! It’s also about perving at them in the public shower facilities, walking in on them in compromising situations, and trying to have sex with them. More events unlock as you build up your relationship with each woman — achieved by completing daily missions — and can take place in almost any part of the base. I took to running around every single room before the end of the night, just in case I had missed something.

There are five daily missions (one per woman plus the base computer M.O.M.) which can require planting something specific, mining an amount of metals, crafting a particular item, or killing a set number of enemies. I found that they were all achievable, so long as I had the time. For instance, digging up certain materials has an element of RNG to it, so you can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to get enough nickel while killing five enemies and picking two carrots. But, it would never tell me to plant potatoes if I didn’t have potato seeds.

When you have filled a character’s relationship meter, you can have sex with them… in theory. See, I played a full month, which took me 11 hours — and I had almost filled one relationship meter. A second was a short way behind, and the other two were about three-quarters-full. I didn’t complete every single daily mission, I ran out of energy multiple times, and I had to grind elements to craft upgrades. So, there’s very little wiggle room to seduce these ladies. And since the game saves at the start of every new day, overwriting your existing save, I didn’t have it in me to go for another 11-hour session (at least not without some fluids and a banana).

Combat is another area where the game suffers a little, as there’s no way to aim guns, and it’s entirely possible to get stun-locked by multiple attacks, which quickly drain your energy. From a story perspective, it makes sense that Swan can’t fire a laser straight, but from a gameplay one, it’s frustrating as heck. There are melee weapons, but using them can be more dangerous the deeper into the caves you get.

I’m on record as liking pixel graphics, and what developer Skullgear has created here looks fantastic. Yes, sure, the sex scenes with multiple angles/positions, and how parts move under the cursor’s manipulation are surprisingly detailed and erotic, but not just those. The character sprites are emotive, the creatures are threatening, the design of the base is nice and functional… The surface of Mars changes colour throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky; it’s a great touch.

The music and sound effects suit the mood of each environment nicely, so there’s not much to say about them. The voice acting is well done, and honestly surprised me because I wasn’t expecting any. It’s in English and there’s not a lot of it, mainly sound bites and moaning, but it helps to illustrate the character personalities well.

I found that Planet Lust delivered on everything it promised, despite the combat issues and occasionally dodgy platforming. I’ll likely revisit to try and actually seduce the crew, and maybe even M.O.M., as well as unlock the provocative event scenes I’m still missing. Maybe see how much further past floor 22 that cave system goes… Okay, I’m heading back to Mars!