20th Century Fox’s modern Planets of the Ape series is not just a series of four incredible movies. While the release may have gone under the radar, the modern series also included multiple canon video games, the abysmal VR game Crisis on the Planet of the Apes, and the woefully underrated Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.
Unfortunately, nine years after its release, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier has been removed from sale on Steam, the largest marketplace for PC gamers. Removed alongside a small list of other Disney titles—including Star Wars: Rebellion and the original version of Dark Forces—the game is a bizarre outlier in the company’s recent delistings.
Just after PC gamers celebrated the long-awaited return of classic Warhammer games as a success for games preservation, Disney seemingly removed Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier from sale on Steam. For now, you should still be able to download the game if you’ve already purchased it. Additionally, the game is currently still available for sale on PlayStation and Xbox consoles at the time of publication, although it’s continued sale can not be guaranteed.
Released in 2017, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is a solid entry in the series set between the events of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and focuses on an exiled faction of apes that were loyal to Koba, the greatest movie villain of this generation. As that renegade group scavenge for supplies and come face to face with humans, your choice based gameplay helps determine how their story plays out.
While reviews for the game were middling, it was a pretty strong entry in the Planet of the Apes franchise, and was developed with the help of Andy Serkis’ motion capture studio. It’s essentially a fairly unknown entry in the film franchise, although the events of the story have little-to-no bearing on the series’ wider events.
It’s a shame that Last Frontier has been hit with the delisting stick, especially as the game is so unique. While it may exist within the same formula as Telltale games, or last year’s Dispatch, the quality of motion capture and performances within the game is almost as strong—but not quite as strong—as the recent Apes flicks.
Additionally, Last Frontier only saw a very small physical release on PlayStation, and copies of the game on-disc already go for a pretty high price right now. While the game is currently still available on console, it may soon be unavailable on those platforms as well.
As much as I can remember, there’s never been a truly remarkable Planet of the Apes video game, but Last Frontier is by far the best one we’ve got. As a huge fan of the series, it’s a game worth playing, and if you’re a fan of the films, you should probably grab it before it’s removed from other platforms as well.
