This month, we sign up on Deadly Planet, the Game of the Month'10.

Deadly Planet staff describe the game as a Mafia/Mobsters type game, with a very active community.It is set in a world of violence, with cities that lay in ruins, and the survivors fighting for their position in the pecking order.

As a newcomer, you are a weak, insignificant little person, so it is up to you to change this: hit the gym to become strong enough to survive the many fights you'll get into, take an education course to increase your knowledge and skills, and try to make some money by getting a job, and perhaps doing some shoplifting. One problem for newcomers: the income is minimum, but the costs are huge. The education courses start from $ 1,000,000 which is quite a fortune, considering you start with $ 100 and the only job you can get pays $ 50. Not very friendly to newbies...

Under development?

When we signed up to play the game, we noticed that not everything seems to be working yet on Deadly Planet. Most notably the forums: when clicking the link to go to the forums, we find ourselves staring at a 404-page.

Needless to say: this surprised us greatly, as the forums usually play a vital role in games such as Deadly Planet. 

Not being able to check the forums also made it hard for us to find out how big and active the community in Deadly Planet is. On the other hand, the game still collected enough votes last month to finish in second place, so it is clear that it has a nice crowd of active players.

But it leaves us wondering: how on earth are you going to make new friends, without forums? Randomly spamming older players? Experience in other games indicates that such an approach only guarantees you a few ass-whoopings. Chat? The feature does exist, but at the times we logged in, there weren't many people around.

It's a shame, really, because the game has potential, potential which goes to waste because the community features are less than perfect.