No Man’s Sky is too big for you? Then why not stay on a single planet in the new survival hit and turn it into a green oasis thanks to terraforming.
We wake up in a crashed mini spaceship. In our backpack we find only rations for a few days and the necessities to build a new home. Outside, an inhospitable alien planet is waiting for us to explore. If we are ever to survive here, we must venture outside and brave the elements.
No, we’re not playing Subnautica again. But the two-person project The Planet Crafter seems quite similar at first glance. Given Subnautica’s success, that’s not a bad idea in itself and it’s easy for us to get involved in this scenario again. The basic principles are almost identical: we collect raw materials, build better and better equipment, have to supply ourselves with food and water and control the oxygen supply so that we don’t suffocate.
As with the big role model, the survival game is entirely focused on the single-player mode. The Steam community appreciates this: At the release of the Early Access version, over 14,000 people were playing The Planet Crafter simultaneously. Of the more than 3,000 (Steam-Reviews), 95 percent are positive, a top value. Our test shows: This is no coincidence!
We are crafting a more beautiful world
Now the world of The Planet Crafter is not under water and also otherwise the game quickly sets a completely different focus than Subnautica. Namely, we are supposed to transform the planet, which looks rather hostile and dry when we arrive, into a green paradise. This sentence already sums up the story of The Planet Crafter.
From a purely narrative point of view, The Planet Crafter so far resembles our barren planet before we make it – quite uncharacteristically for the human species – climatically habitable. On the one hand, The Planet Crafter would do well with a little more story, but on the other hand, our task is so obvious that we rarely lack motivation and are happy to work on our Tine-Wittler-esque planet renovation.
This is also due to the simple but effective methods we use to irrigate and green our planet. We diligently collect metals, which we then use to craft new equipment, which we in turn use to find better metals, which we then use to craft even better equipment (and so on and so forth).
The developers have made the smart decision to keep the menus clear and the animations short; crafting always seems fluid and never gets out of hand. In addition, we build ourselves a small base in which we then place lots of monitors with which we monitor the planetary metamorphosis.
In the beginning we have to heat our planet, provide pressure equalisation and grow first plants in test tubes for oxygen production. Each of these aspects is linked to a technology tree, and enough pressure balance unlocks better heaters, for example, and vice versa.
This is one of the great strengths of The Planet Crafter: the technology chains are skilfully interlocked and result in a sophisticated system in which we work on many construction sites at the same time without losing sight of the big picture. Especially in the first hours, new technologies always come at the right pace and keep us on our toes without overwhelming us with too much choice.
In addition, there are always goodies that make our work easier: bigger backpacks, faster shoes or our personal favourite, a jetpack, with which we jet wonderfully fast through our still-desert. Slowly, we are also beginning to reap the literal fruits of our labour and our planet is coming to life. At the latest when it rains for the first time, we are convinced that we can make a difference on this planet.
An exciting planet – buffeted by game graphics
When we’re not stuck in that wonderful crafting infinite loop, we’re exploring our new home planet. In a small but fine open world, we encounter deep canyons, colourful glowing caves and a variety of lucrative spaceship wrecks where we can find rare raw materials and construction plans. Regular meteorite storms replenish our planet’s resources.
Because The Planet Crafter has no combat system and our world has no inhabitants except us, exploration is pleasantly stress-free. At the most, when we get lost in a cave or a wreck and run out of oxygen, there are brief adrenaline rushes, but in general The Planet Crafter is quite comfortable.
The whole thing would be even nicer if The Planet Crafter had more to offer visually. Unfortunately, the game is rather ugly. Up close, most objects have little detail and the biomes, while varied, are still not pretty enough to encourage us to do more than just search for resources. Especially at the edge of the map and near larger rock formations we encounter bugs several times and sometimes we find ourselves inside rocks that shouldn’t have an interior.
There’s still room for improvement towards the end
Like the technology trees, the game world engages us wonderfully in the first hours. In the later game, unfortunately, the whole thing becomes a bit tough. The time interval between new unlocks becomes longer; they are less varied and quite expensive. Meanwhile, we have largely drained our world and it becomes increasingly tedious to procure the necessary resources.
It is only with difficulty that we resist the urge to just let the game run in the background, because our machines work without our help. This is a pity, because we want to watch our planet blossom and not switch off bored after the first grasses. The developers need to do a bit more here to keep up the great pace of the first ten hours of the game.
Unfortunately, this also depresses the already mediocre replay value. Because the game tends to fizzle out towards the end instead of a green miracle, we don’t want to start again from the beginning. But if something happens and maybe even more maps are added, The Planet Crafter could inspire many more hours. Because the basic principle of eco-terraforming through complex crafting systems is really fun.
The roadmap to release
The Planet Crafter is expected to be in Early Access for between one and two years, according to the developers, and a release in 2024 is likely. The following new features are to be added by then:
- More terraforming sections (mainly small life forms)
- More story elements
- More environmental hazards
- A larger game world with many secrets
- At least one vehicle
What definitely won’t be coming: Monsters, aliens, fighting or any kind of violence
Preliminary rating box
Editorial conclusion
The Planet Crafter surprised me in a positive way. Due to the mediocre graphics, screenshots don’t really convey how fluid the gameplay experience is and how much fun it is to make our planet pretty. The same goes for the name of the game: The Planet Crafter describes exactly what we do, but it seems a bit dry to me. I think our planet deserves a nice name, which the game could then also adopt. During the test, however, it quickly became clear to me that behind the modest and visually bland façade lies a game that captivates me with exciting technology trees and a well thought-out terraforming system. If the developers improve on this, especially in the late game, and perhaps treat us to a little more story, I see great chances of success for The Planet Crafter.
