Back in 2014, Lifeless Planet presented players with an interesting premise. What initially started out as an exploratory mission to find a planet teeming with human-compatible life transformed into a mystery about the presence of a Soviet-style community in a previously unexplored place and the strange phenomena that surrounded it. It wasn't a lengthy adventure game, but it was an intriguing one. Roughly nine years later, the same studio has returned with a spiritual sequel in Lifeless Moon.

Lifeless Moon starts with a brief opening sequence that talks about the space race during the Cold War. It doesn't go into further detail, and you see a montage where a plane explodes before rockets are built, and man finally goes to the moon. It's the 1970s, and you're part of a two-man crew that has taken another trip to the moon. What should be a routine trip quickly takes a turn, as you find a rift that places you on a different side of the moon, where a small American town has shown up.

The setup is similar enough to Lifeless Planet that those who played that game before will feel like they're treading familiar territory with this title. Without getting into spoilers, the adventure seems to take on a different approach this time. Another astronaut periodically appears, so it makes the game feel less lonely, and some specific encounters give the game an air of mystery. The preview build ends in an interesting place, so we are curious to see if there are other surprises in the full title.

For the most part, the game feels partially like a modern light adventure title. You'll walk around the world trying to find interactive points of interest. Some green areas do something once you approach, such as making a character or item appear. Others are highlighted items, and a few have text prompts that appear when you approach. It works well enough, but the game wavers between telling you what to do and discovering things for yourself. There are moments when your notebook immediately contains an entry telling you exactly what needs to be done. There are other moments when the game won't tell you anything until you stumble across a character or a situation that seems insurmountable. You'll never get an on-screen arrow telling you where to go, and while you'll stumble upon things in due time, the lack of consistency in marking objectives might puzzle some players.

With the light adventuring comes light puzzle elements that seem to be broken down into two categories. The first is basic item placement, as you'll take objects to specific spots to activate them. Just finding the object is the challenge, as you'll eventually come across the place to put the object and watch as things happen. The other gameplay mechanic featured in the preview build is the manipulation of light, such as moving around mirrors to redirect it or messing with a device to change focus and direction. Again, it's nothing complicated, but it breaks up the exploration.

If there's anything that might give players pause, it is the first-person elements. In certain structures, the perspective changes from third-person to first-person, but being in the structures also changes up the basic mechanics. In the first-person perspective, you can move the camera, but you can't move the astronaut unless you click a hotspot that moves you to certain spaces. This is also how you can interact with the world, as you find the hotspot and click on that to either jot information in your notebook, get items for use, or look at it. The problem is that your aiming cursor is small, and unless you're willing to hover over every item that might look important, the indicator that something is interactive animates too slowly to be noticeable. It makes the experience feel sluggish, and when you consider that the interface is like Myst, the lack of speed is frustrating.

The preview build runs well on the Steam Deck. At the system's native resolution, the game hits a solid 60fps with no dips, no matter what's happening. Thanks to the features of the Deck, manipulating the menus is easy, and you can get the game to immediately recognize right analog stick support for the camera. The battery life takes a hit, as you'll hover around two hours from a full charge, but since the game doesn't require precision platforming (yet), it's perfectly fine to lock it to 30fps on the system to squeeze more battery life out of the device.

At the moment, Lifeless Moon is proving to be an adventure that's equally as intriguing as its predecessor. The story might feel similar, but the layout of the adventure makes one curious about where it's headed, and some of the puzzles that we've seen thus far make it a worthwhile experience. There's no word on when the game will finally release, but we're hoping to see the story pay off when that happens.