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The Planet Crafter: Prologue

95%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
grinding, stability
95% User Score Based on 5,766 reviews

Platforms

PCWindowsCloud

About

This is a prologue for the full game "Planet Crafter".From Hostile to Habitable You are sent on an hostile planet with one mission: Make it habitable for Humans. You'll have to survive, collect resources, build your base and machines in order to heat the planet, create an atmosphere with enough oxygen and eventually geo-engineer an entire planet! Survive, Collect, CraftGather minerals an…

The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot
The Planet Crafter: Prologue screenshot

95%
Audience ScoreBased on 5,766 reviews
gameplay128 positive mentions
grinding88 negative mentions

  • The game offers a satisfying progression system that allows players to terraform a planet and see visible changes over time.
  • The crafting and building mechanics are intuitive and engaging, making it easy for players to get immersed in the gameplay.
  • The demo provides a substantial amount of content for a free game, keeping players entertained for several hours.
  • The game lacks a clear tutorial or guidance, which can make it difficult for new players to understand the mechanics.
  • Resource gathering can become tedious, as materials are scattered across the landscape and can lead to repetitive gameplay.
  • There are currently no hostile elements or challenges beyond managing oxygen, food, and water, which may reduce the overall excitement and tension.
  • gameplay
    386 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of this title has been described as addictive and engaging, with mechanics reminiscent of popular games like Subnautica, focusing on resource gathering, base building, and terraforming. While many players appreciate the straightforward and intuitive mechanics, some have noted a lack of depth and challenge, particularly in the early stages, as well as a need for more comprehensive tutorials. Overall, the game shows promise with its unique features and potential for expansion, making it appealing for fans of the survival and crafting genres.

    • “The gameplay is simple but very easy to learn and get the hang of, and this is just a demo and it almost feels like a full game already!”
    • “This game is so addicting, the gameplay is fluid, and they do everything right with survival, base building, terraforming, and resource gathering.”
    • “Great mechanics and a realistic progression keep you motivated to reach the next goals.”
    • “The construction mechanics are banal; 'mining' involves walking around and picking up resources scattered hideously across the map, and the progression system is so easy to game it's not even worth my time.”
    • “I am not looking for simple, dead-brain gameplay, mind you, but the fact that nothing is explained at all in a demo is mystifying.”
    • “The gameplay loop itself has little playable content aside from 'search randomly spawning nodes for x material, grab what you need, run back to base, craft an item or building, repeat'.”
  • graphics
    276 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the vibrant art style and decent visuals, especially for an early access title. While some find the graphics appealing and well-suited for gameplay, others criticize them as sub-par or lacking polish, particularly on lower-end systems. Overall, the visuals are generally considered good enough to enhance the gaming experience, though there are calls for further improvements and optimization.

    • “The graphics are amazingly perfect, especially for the colors used to identify materials, objects, storms, meteor showers, etc. Really!”
    • “Graphics are amazing, gameplay is easy to learn, and there are plenty of features and functionality to keep things interesting for quite some time.”
    • “Great looking terrain, beautiful visuals, effective audio, and no messy controls make this a joy to play.”
    • “Graphics are also very sub-par.”
    • “Graphics could use some polishing, some glitching occurs here and there... but it's a demo :) to be expected.”
    • “What this game lacks in graphics it makes up for in solid game progression and functionality, and the best part about it is it's free!”
  • story
    268 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is currently minimal, primarily revolving around the premise of a convict tasked with terraforming a planet to earn freedom, which some players find intriguing but lacking depth. While there are hints of a more developed narrative and exploration elements, many reviewers express a desire for a richer storyline and more context to enhance the gameplay experience. Overall, the potential for a compelling story exists, but it remains underdeveloped in the current early access version.

    • “From unraveling the origins of the story through cryptic messages to exploration and base building, it's clear that this game has been impressively orchestrated.”
    • “Beautiful game, well-written story, and an endless amount of exploration and fun to be had.”
    • “The terraforming aspect is super fun, and the story of you being a criminal just adds a little hint of immersion.”
    • “Building is clunky, there is no story or anything that introduces you to the game, not even controls.”
    • “This game seems like it was inspired by Subnautica, but they forgot to put a purpose or a story behind terraforming this Mars-like planet.”
    • “Now, unlike Subnautica, which was a very story-driven survival game, there doesn't really seem to be a story in Planet Crafter beyond the fact you're a convict and to gain your freedom you have to fully terraform a planet.”
  • grinding
    94 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Reviews indicate that the grinding aspect of the game is a mixed bag; while some players find it tedious and time-consuming, others appreciate the satisfying progression and resource management it offers. Many note that the early game has less grinding, but it becomes more pronounced later on, with some players enjoying the grind as a relaxing and addictive part of the experience. Overall, the game balances grinding with exploration and crafting, though opinions vary on whether it feels rewarding or overly tedious.

    • “Great game if you want to kill time; it's not very grindy and it's not very boring. It's pretty much in the spot a game needs to be in.”
    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “A game needs to give the player a reason for everything they are doing or it just gets grindy and tedious, and there is no real reward for your time and effort.”
    • “It is boring, grindy, and empty.”
  • atmosphere
    90 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and eerie qualities, enhanced by atmospheric music and distinct biomes that create a sense of exploration and tension. Players appreciate the visual transformation of the environment as they terraform the planet, although some critique the linearity and simplification of the terraforming mechanics. Overall, the atmosphere effectively keeps players engaged and curious, contributing significantly to the game's appeal.

    • “A very chill game regardless of the eerie atmosphere (great work creating the vibe with the audio and keeping the tensions up, really feeling like I am completely alone yet still like someone's lurking outside).”
    • “Exploration is rewarding and the atmosphere is great, which makes exploring more fun than the mining, which can be quite tedious.”
    • “The atmosphere is mostly incredible, particularly the different areas like the caves.”
    • “The way the terraforming works in the game is not exactly credible, but who cares - it's a future where a few potted plants can generate atmosphere for an entire planet and a few heaters placed in a building can heat up the planet.”
    • “Even though there are 3 values you make go up to terraform the planet (heat, O2, and atmosphere), they don't matter individually since they all just make one big number go up, which is the one that actually matters. This is extremely reductive and makes terraforming a completely linear, simplified process.”
    • “This is no surprise considering just how simplified the terraforming is, but there are several important elements missing like soil composition, atmosphere composition, and radiation protection.”
  • music
    88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is generally praised for its atmospheric qualities, effectively enhancing the sense of exploration and solitude, though some players find it repetitive and suggest a need for more variety in the soundtrack. While many enjoy the eerie and peaceful vibes it creates, there are calls for additional tracks and more frequent background music to enrich the experience. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's ambiance, but improvements in variety and frequency could elevate it further.

    • “I love the vibe, the music, simple learning curve with an interesting intrigue.”
    • “The music is a good mix of peaceful with a little bit of a foreboding feel, which I feel fits perfectly given the nature of some of the transmissions you see/find.”
    • “Very satisfying to explore, unlock blueprints and build :) atmospheric music is great and the changing world around you as you terraform is really cool.”
    • “The music is too creepy.”
    • “But the music can be repetitive.”
    • “There's also not much background music yet, but again I think more will be available in the future full game.”
  • stability
    60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with many players noting a variety of bugs and glitches, particularly related to map navigation and item interactions. While some users report minimal issues and a generally enjoyable experience, others highlight significant problems that can impact gameplay, especially in an early access context. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further refinement to address its stability concerns.

    • “The prologue was really stable, no glitches, bugs, or random crashes.”
    • “Its a prologue (demo)... almost bug free and fun to play.”
    • “Runs great on my 5-year-old system.”
    • “Very buggy and cumbersome gameplay.”
    • “Buggy as all hell since I died and the storage chest that is supposed to appear in the place you died just up and disappeared, making me lose a number of important items.”
    • “Huge number of bugs, mainly map glitches, random severe lags, and objects randomly moving out of space.”
  • optimization
    44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while some players report smooth performance and high framerates, others experience significant drops, particularly during rain or with certain graphical effects. Many reviewers note that the game still requires further optimization, especially for low-spec systems, and suggest improvements in rendering distance and performance consistency. Despite these issues, some players find it well-optimized for a demo, indicating potential for future enhancements.

    • “The game does have a ways to go, but this is one of the first demos I've played in a long time that felt more polished and optimized than most EA games.”
    • “Even as a demo, this game produced buttery smooth framerates on my rig and seems very well optimized.”
    • “It's basically a mixture of Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Satisfactory, and maybe a few others, and it's all around well-optimized.”
    • “No optimization for low spec iGPUs = no positive review.”
    • “The problems I most often encountered are the lack of optimization of the game, which is manifested in sometimes a drop in framerate and in some cases terrain bugs when you cannot gather a certain resource or you cannot climb somewhere.”
    • “The performance is pretty bad for how it looks; rain in particular makes FPS crash and it leads to the character just doing 180°s while you try to slowly rotate.”
  • replayability
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The reviews indicate a mixed outlook on replayability, with some users expressing optimism for infinite replay value through potential story integration and varied scenarios, while others highlight concerns about limited replayability due to small maps and lack of randomization. Overall, there is a strong desire for features like random events and diverse planet types to enhance replayability, with some players already finding significant value in the game's current state.

    • “I see similar possibilities with Planet Crafter, where a whole backstory and mythos could be created and a story woven that incorporates the terraforming mechanics that could elevate this game from fun to epic, with infinite replayability.”
    • “Already has huge replay value even in the demo, and I'm ultimately impressed with the relatively smooth building system.”
    • “Replayability is a definite yes.”
    • “Replayability... it won't have any unless random generated worlds or random events/disasters are added to the game.”
    • “- small map and low replay value.”
    • “I hope the developers keep replayability in mind by changing start scenes and different scenarios.”
  • humor
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, players find the game to be very funny and enjoyable, often highlighting its humorous elements and quirky bugs as a source of amusement. Despite some frustrations regarding gameplay mechanics, the humor remains a standout feature that enhances the overall experience.

    • “Very funny... cool game.”
    • “Looks to be a funny game.”
    • “I think it is a really funny game.”
  • monetization
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with some users initially skeptical about its quality, likening it to low-effort mobile games. However, many have found it enjoyable enough to return to, suggesting that the monetization strategy may not detract significantly from the overall experience.

  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users consistently find the game to be emotionally satisfying, highlighting its ability to evoke strong feelings and provide a fulfilling experience.

    • “Either way, it is emotionally satisfying.”

Buy The Planet Crafter: Prologue

6h Median play time
7h Average play time
5-8h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 40 analyzed playthroughs

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