Lander 23 is the latest production by Immersive Theatre giant Punchdrunk… and it’s a bit of a departure from their usual form. Punchdrunk are known for putting on massive, mysterious, exploratory shows where you wander through huge and highly-detailed sets peopled by dozens of actors, listening in on scenes or occasionally being pulled into one-to-one interactions with individual characters.
Their shows are known for being huge and complicated, mysterious and obtuse and artistic.
But Lander 23 is something altogether different; Lander 23 is billed as a Live Action Video Game. And that’s pretty much exactly what it is.
What actually is Lander 23?
Lander 23 is an immersive live experience where you take on the role of sci-fi explorers hopping down to an alien planet teeming with hostiles in order to sneakily gather up a valuable resource known as “radiance”.
You are divided into teams of four, and then further subdivided into pairs. One pair of players ventures out onto the “planet” (a large, heavily themed arena). Their job is to avoid being spotted by roaming hostiles and locate as much Radiance as possible.
Meanwhile, the other pair of players remains at a computer console on board the “landing vessel”. They have a live minimap which shows the location of their two fellow players in the arena, as well as where Radiance can be found, and where hostiles are patrolling.
The pair that go down to the planet are called “fielders” and the pair that remain behind are called “drivers”.
The drivers use the minimap and a two-way radio to direct the fielders towards Radiance and away from hostiles.
Fielders can also spot hostiles and evade them all by themselves. They can evade hostiles either by moving away from them, or by hiding behind pretty much any piece of scenery.
Fielders cannot, however, see Radiance. Only the Drivers can see where this resource is. When the Fielders get close enough to a cache of Radiance, the Drivers can play a minigame using their control console to remotely vacuum it up. Drivers can see a running total of the amount of Radiance they have collected, which is – in effect – the team’s score.
At the halfway point (about 30 minutes in) the Fielders and the Drivers switch places, so that everyone has a chance to do some running and hiding and everyone has a chance to do some shouting into a headset.
Is Lander 23 a theatre show or a game?
Many online reviews of Lander 23 express a degree of disappointment, saying that it doesn’t measure up to previous Punchdrunk shows, and wasn’t what they were expecting.
This may be because Lander 23, unlike previous Punchdrunk productions, is very much a game rather than a theatrical show. There are no scenes, no actors and no story to follow, and instead the focus is on having a fun and atmospheric experience, and competing with other teams of players.
It is also a much smaller production than previous Punchdrunk shows. If you’ve been to previous shows, Lander 23 might feel disappointingly cheap and simple by comparison.
Some people have criticised the production values. The set is a repurposed one from a previous show, some elements are broken or poorly-executed, and the hostiles are minimally costumed. Some reviewers say this made it feel cheap, and compared the experience unfavourably to a game of lazertag.
That said, the gameplay is completely unique. It’s fun and has some intense and scary moments. It’s important, though, to adjust your expectations and know that you’re stepping into a very different experience from other Punchdrunk shows.
Is Lander 23 fun?
The gameplay in Lander 23 is a lot of fun – but it’s noticeably more fun for the Fielders. The Fielders are moving around and hiding in an interesting environment, with a voice in their ear telling them which way to go. It’s exciting, intense and sometimes scary – especially when hostiles are close!
The gameplay experience is less exciting for the Drivers. Providing directions is not a two person job, and actually works a lot better if just one Driver focuses on it, but there’s nothing else for the other Driver to do. Being a Driver is still an interesting experience, but doesn’t compare to being a Fielder.
Is there a story to Lander 23?
There is the vague sense of a narrative underpinning the game… but it feels nonspecific and secondary to the gameplay. You never really know why you’re gathering Radiance, who the hostiles are, or what organisation you work for.
There’s not really much more to Lander 23 than the simple premise of sneaking around stealing resources on an alien planet.
That simple story, though, is brought to life pretty well. The arena is rich with detail and has a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore. The Lander (where the Drivers sit) is extremely well-themed.
Does everything work well in Lander 23?
The minimap and radios work extremely well. There are a lot of players running around in the arena, and multiple hostiles, but the map always remains up to date without any noticeable delay. There were no technical glitches at all when we played.
At the same time, the instructions provided to players were very confusing. You are given instructions by pre-recorded announcements, by human ushers, and via a printed manual you’re presented with before you enter the game.
Despite this a lot of players were still left very uncertain about what they were supposed to do at key points: particularly the start, the end and during the handover (when Fielders and Drivers switch places). The handover in particular was extremely chaotic, with lots of people milling about and trying to work out where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to do.
The instructions were also confusing because they focussed a lot on some of the “extra” game elements, like the tape players, the artefact and the ink stamps (more on these below). We learned very quickly just to ignore these game elements, but they were given a lot of weight in the initial briefing, and this was a source of much confusion.
What are the tape players/drones/the artefact in Lander 23?
Lander 23 includes some extra content beyond the core game of finding Radiance and avoiding hostiles. Here’s what that extra content is supposed to look like:
The Drivers can launch “drones” from their console in the Lander. When a drone is launched a small screen plays a pre-rendered flythrough of the arena, ending in a particular area. There’s no indication of what’s to be found there… but if the Drivers take a chance and send the Fielders to the locations indicated by the drones, the Fielders will find a cassette tape player and an ink stamp at each location.
The Fielders can play the tapes and listen to a pre-recorded bit of background lore that adds some story to the game. They then need to use the adjacent ink stamps to stamp four quadrants of a map onto a piece of paper. Once they’ve fully assembled the map, they can follow it to a secret door hidden in the arena.
Using a code hidden in the map, the Fielders can open up the door, and find the Artefact in the room on the other side. They physically pick up the Artefact and take it with them out of the arena… where it can be traded for a drink in the bar after the game is over.
That’s how the extra content should work, in theory. Many reviewers, however, note that this extra content is only partially implemented.
The tape players are mostly broken and are too quiet to hear in the noisy arena even if they do work. In the dark and confusion of the area it’s impossible to correctly orient the ink stamps in the correct order on a piece of paper to assemble a meaningful map.
Additionally, a briefing at the start of the game suggests that the artefact is just a crumpled sheet of paper. There are many crumpled pieces of paper in the arena. Many players may assume they have found the artefact the first time they come across one, pocket the paper, and stop looking.
Nobody ever checked to see if we had the artefact, and it was never mentioned or seen again after the initial briefing.
The extra content felt tacked on, and as though implementing it was an idea that had been abandoned midway through. It was almost universally ignored by other players.
Things to know before playing Lander 23
The drones, the Artefact, the tape players and the ink stamps are not important parts of the game, and can be safely ignored. There’s no reward for pursuing these extra game elements, but you might wish to if you’re making a return visit.
If you come with a group you’ll usually be able to be in a team with the people you came with. There are four people in each team, so you might be split up if you have an odd number of people in your group.
They warn you before the start of the game that you’ll be warm in the arena. They’re not kidding. You’ll get very hot running around as a Fielder, and similarly when crowded in the landing vessel as a Driver – it’s best to leave all but a single layer in the cloakroom.
You’re advised to arrive thirty minutes early… but you really don’t need to. If you’re not in a group of four already, you’ll be matched up with strangers to make up a team of four. When playing with strangers it’s good to have some time to get to know your fellow players before the game begins. But there’s already fifteen minutes built in so you can sit in the bar and do this at the start. Therefore, unless you want to spend 45 minutes sitting with strangers, just arrive a few minutes early.
What’s the status of Lander 23 now?
Lander 23 existed for a short run in late 2025 and early 2026. It was received fairly well, and may be something that Punchdrunk experiments with more down the road.
