Planet Nomads - Review


Planet Nomads is a Steam early access, open world, survival game on a planet which has varying biomes for the player to explore. In the game, you crash land on this planet and have to survive in the wilderness by yourself. As a lone scientist, you, the player, have to use your wit and knowledge to create whatever basic needs you require in this sci-fi sandbox. The is constantly being updated and is never boring.

When starting a new save in Planet Nomads the player is presented with a sleek looking menu which prompts them if they want to play a survival game, or a creative game. The feature is something fairly small, but it proves that the developers have thoughts quite deeply about who they might want to target for their audience. For an early access survival game, it is very good that they have already considered that not many people will want to do the “survival” element of the game and just want to build a cool base or a cool car. After all, not everybody is into resource collection.


However, for those that love a bit of survival essence, water, energy and food are all vital resources in Planet Nomads, and there are numerous ways to acquire them. Don’t worry, there are plenty more resources, however, those three are the main ones required to keep your character alive and kicking. The game is amazing for resource collection and resource management. The player has a tool/weapon which allows them to harvest various resources such as biomass, seeds, carbon and iron! As of yet, I haven’t found the tool to have many limitations as you can adjust the terrain on which you stand.

Talking about the terrain; It is huge. Simply massive. I have travelled for ages by car and by foot and still found no end to the vast, randomly generated world. As there is so much terrain to traverse, vehicles are quite important. The game has an amazing set of vehicle wheel physics which works astonishingly well! It looks and feels quite amazing! All the biomes that I have been in have been so different. Different temperatures, humidity, colours, animals and more minor changes are in the biomes. Overall, I personally never got bored of the world and the creatures in it.


So, the game is amazingly fun so far, however, as stated previously, no game is perfect. This game is no exception. I find the lack of multiplayer so be such a huge tragedy for Planet Nomads, as coop could really benefit the game. With the current survival mechanics and world generation, coop would pretty much complete the game. Sadly, it will be insanely difficult for the developers to implement this, as multiplayer has to be planned from the start for it to be implemented easily into a game.

The building could also do with some work. Ceilings just don’t work and are insanely difficult to place. Other methods should be brought into place to allow blocks to be placed in a smoother manner, especially ceiling tiles. The stairs are a bit odd, as they do not go up the height of the walls. From what I’ve read, others barely use stairs either, and prefer to use their jetpacks to go between floors. This game is early access though, so things such as the building can improve!



So would I recommend this game? It is insanely fun. It has heaps of potential and the development process has been quite well done. The community are kept up to date and in the loop about quite a lot of things. This game could prove to be the sci-fi survival game that does everything right, if the team continue to listen closely to the community and their needs.

Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with my views!

-X_Pilot

As this is a review filled with my personal opinions, if you want more information on the game, please visit their website, or the Steam store page

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