Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier Reviews

This year marked the end of the rebooted Planet of the Apes film trilogy, but fans don’t have to say goodbye quite yet. Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier offers an all-new story set between the second and third films, which shows another example of the personal toll that the Simian Flu has taken on both its human and ape survivors. Rather than take direct control over the characters, viewers cast their votes on how to proceed in A or B reactions. It’s an appealing proposition, but repeated viewings hammer home just how little impact your choices have on this out-of-control world and its unlucky inhabitants.

Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is an exciting narrative adventure that fans of the recent film trilogy will love. Its biggest drawback is perhaps how little interaction you actually have with it and that some of your choices make no difference to the game’s direction, but as a fantastic-looking, branching story in a loved world, there’s nothing else quite like it.

The Last Frontier is a visual bugfest. While models sometimes look quite realistic and impressive, these decent examples are few and far between. Textures pop in far too late, and sometimes they don’t even render. At one point in the game I could see the rig of an ape model, as there were no textures on him. There was even a moment where all the characters were T-posing as the cutscene was starting. The Last Frontier even crashed my console twice, which is never a good sign. These issues are inexcusable, and make the game look like a brutally amateur outing.

Historically, video games haven’t been the best medium to tell compelling stories to audiences, but recent titles like Uncharted 4 and The Witcher III have proved that it can be done. The rise of studios like Telltale Games and their brand of adventure game storytelling has raised the bar for what most gamers expect in the stories they experience. Imaginati, a London-based studio, has made it their mission to raise the bar of storytelling and performance capture in video games and their first attempt is with the beloved Planet of the Apes license with Andy Serkis, who plays Caesar in the films, being involved in the making of Last Frontier. While much of the game has the potential to become what the developers have strived for, there are too many shortcomings to hail Last Frontier as the next evolution in video game storytelling.

Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is set between Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes – the two most recent movies in the franchise.

A glossy though ultimately shallow use of the Planet of the Apes license, Last Frontier stands as an acceptable use of Play Link technology but little else.