In the vast universe of sandbox games, few titles manage to capture the essence of just that, a sandbox game, while still maintaining a certain level of creativity. Developed by Miju Games, The Planet Crafter stands out by managing to wield this sense of awe and wonder as players plan out their base in a somewhat hostile environment. It never loses sight of its main genre focus: survival crafting. As an avid enjoyer of survival crafting games, I always find it thrilling when a game like The Planet Crafter comes onto the scene and manages to get the balance of exploration and survival just right.
From the moment I stepped out of the landing pod, there was a vast sense of awe, looking into the landscape and having endless possibilities at my disposal. The big call of The Planet Crafter is the ability to turn the hostile environment that you land on into something hospitable. While there may be no push for a story in any way, there is a lot to say about making your own story in its land. Although finding previous explorers’ wreckages helps build out the planet’s lore a bit, it is insignificant.
“I always find it thrilling when a game like The Planet Crafter comes onto the scene and manages to get the balance of exploration and survival just right.”
That’s also where most players will find their drop-off point. There is a final goal—sort of—with being able to live on this new planet. But that’s it; there is no returning home or getting to another planet. So players will quickly get the idea and bounce off because, as we have seen before in games like Subnautica, story progression can bolster the experience. For the sake of endless adventure, Astroneer does a great job of letting us explore other planets. There are ways to build this experience in a way that keeps things fresh constantly, but The Planet Crafter plays it safe with how far it’s willing to push the envelope.
Something that The Planet Crafter truly excels at is its aesthetics. It’s oozing with sci-fi aesthetics, creating a world that is both impressive and captivating. From building out your home base to the wreckage of other ships, there is a really cool—almost too clean—vibe that rings to the futuristic nature of the setting. It helps that everything looks good, too.
“Something that The Planet Crafter truly excels at is its aesthetics.”
Each ore deposit is nicely detailed and unique, making it easy to spot from a distance. This is a big win for The Planet Crafter because, as with all survival games, there is this inherent learning curve at the beginning that can be a chore when you can keep track of what to look for when hunting down a specific material.
There is this really cool mechanic that is almost the focal point of its crafting, and it’s tied to terraforming the planet into something livable. You get the ability early on to get drills. You’ll plant them and be able to start terraforming. While I don’t understand the measurement, it’s pretty simple: displayed on the screen as a number to the thousands, then jumps to the millions. But, as your number increases and the planet becomes more livable, you unlock new crafting items like better drills, better power management, and air canisters for your oxygen levels. It’s an interesting way to tie exploration and crafting into world progression in a way we have yet to see.
The Planet Crafter is a good survival crafting game. The core experience involves endless exploration and crafting. However, I wish there was more focus on late-game activities, like story content or the ability to leave the planet for another planet.
