Planet Crafter
Miju Games · Simulation, Survival, Adventure
Overview
You are sent on an hostile planet with one mission: Make it habitable for Humans. You'll have to survive, collect ressources, build your base and machines in order to heat the planet, create an atmosphere with oxygen and eventually geo-engineer an entire planet.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT10,000 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players love watching a dead, orange planet turn blue, wet, green and finally alive because of what they built. Around that, they praise a survival game with no enemies, a world whose ice melts and plants spread to open new caves and passages, a steady run of unlocks, easy co-op, and a developer that kept adding planets and moons, some of them free. 12% of the longer reviews compare it to Subnautica, usually as Subnautica without the monsters, and a quarter call it relaxing or cozy.
In the middle and late game, players say, the loop slows into building more of the same machines and waiting for numbers to climb; 36% of the longer negative reviews make that complaint. Other complaints are about rough edges: terrain clipping, a building system that snaps to the wrong things, items that don't stack, the rover, crashes and the occasional lost save. Players disagree about the story and about the expansions and moons. Some negative reviewers like the terraforming idea itself and then say the game around it feels unfinished, or that the Overwhelmingly Positive label oversells it.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Watching the planet come aliveHigh
15% of the longer reviews describe the transformation directly (the sky turning blue, the first rain, lakes forming, moss, trees, butterflies, fish, then animals), and 8% call the game beautiful, gorgeous or stunning. Players like that the change is gradual and physical: ice melts to reveal caves, vines grow into ladders, and places explored early look completely different hours later. One reviewer summed it up as "peaceful, lonely, a tad bit eerie, and fun." The few who are unmoved say the stages pop in abruptly or that large parts of the map stay desert even after terraforming.
Relaxing survival with nothing trying to kill youHigh
A quarter of the longer reviews (25%) call the game relaxing, chill, cozy or peaceful, and 6% single out the lack of combat or enemies. Oxygen, food and water are the only threats, and they ease off as upgrades arrive. Players describe it as a game to unwind with after work, to play with kids, or to run beside a podcast, and some write about losing track of time. A minority finds the same calm too easy (see the difficulty item below).
Exploration that keeps paying offHigh
Exploration comes up in about a third of the longer reviews (35%). Players enjoy looting wrecks, finding hidden caves and underground bases, and going back to "finished" areas once terraforming has changed them. Several advise new players not to read guides so they can discover things themselves. Complaints about exploration come later in a playthrough: once the map is known, exploration loses its purpose, and randomly generated portal wrecks are a weak substitute.
Co-op with friends and partnersHigh
Couples, siblings and parents playing with their children describe splitting the work naturally, with one person running the base while another scavenges. One reviewer wrote that "it's nice to have everyone doing whatever they want in the moment and still feel like you're all working on the same thing together." 14% of the longer reviews mention playing with friends, a partner, kids or family, while complaints about co-op itself turn up in about 1% (see Co-op limits below).
A progression curve that keeps handing you new goalsMedium
Players praise how unlocks arrive: just as something starts to feel like a grind, a new tier, tool or area appears. Each machine tier being far stronger than the last makes upgrading feel big, and "number go up" turns up often as a compliment. One reviewer wrote that the game's "restrictions feel more like new objectives than restrictions". Other players say the pacing breaks down later in a run (see the frustrations below).
A developer that keeps adding contentMedium
Returning players describe coming back after a break to find what feels like a new game, and 8% of the longer reviews thank the developers for free updates, new moons and steady support. Several praise the DLC approach in particular: "This game's DLC model gets it right," one wrote, explaining that each paid planet keeps its own mechanics while useful items go into the base game for everyone.
Plenty of game for the moneyMedium
Players report finishing the first planet only to find more moons and planets waiting, and 8% of the longer reviews say the game is worth its price, often after buying on sale. A smaller group says to buy it only on sale or calls it overpriced for how unpolished it feels.
Where players are split
How it compares to Subnautica and SatisfactoryHigh
Subnautica comes up in 12% of the longer reviews, and Satisfactory or Factorio in 5%. Fans call it "Subnautica on land" without the horror, or a gentler factory game for people put off by complex logistics. Detractors use the same comparisons against it: a lesser Subnautica with less atmosphere, or an automation game with no power lines, conveyors or logistics puzzles. One positive reviewer landed in between: "plays like Subnautica, explores like Satisfactory, worse writing than either." Some players who came expecting a deep factory builder say they felt misled.
The story and the endingsMedium
The story and lore come up in 18% of the longer reviews, and opinion on them is split. Fans like the lore told through messages and wrecks on the starting planet, which one reviewer called "a very mild (but very good!!) horror story." Critics say it amounts to a collection of emails, that the moons have little or no story, and that the endings are abrupt; one negative reviewer described the finale as "essentially a dialog box and 20-second animation".
The paid planets, including Planet HumbleMedium
Expansions come up in 22% of the longer reviews, mostly in passing as part of a recommendation. Several reviewers call Toxicity their favourite planet, though others found its slow early food supply and constant goo cleaning painful. Planet Humble splits players more. Some love its caves and coral, while others found it "a bit annoying with the RNG ore crushing" or short on minerals, and a returning player reported that a 2.0 change put a structure where many people had built their bases. A separate group of negative reviews objects to paid DLC arriving while basic polish is still missing.
The moons and the long tail of contentMedium
Finishing the first planet unlocks travel to moons, and players disagree about whether that is a bonus or more of the same. Fans are delighted to keep their tech and find new places to terraform, and Skeo in particular earns praise for being free and beautiful. Others say the moons are too easy because you can ship resources from your main base, that interplanetary trade feels pointless, and that Aqualis is "wildly different mechanically, but half baked." Some players who found the last stage of the first planet slow say the moons stretch that feeling out further.
Is it too easy?Low
Some players are glad that death barely matters and that hardcore mode exists for anyone who wants tension. A smaller group says there is no real challenge once food and water are automated, and that meteors and other hazards are cosmetic. A few go the other way and find the oxygen, food and water meters drain too fast.
What frustrates players
The mid and late game turns into waitingHigh
Grind, repetition or waiting comes up in 16% of the longer reviews and in 36% of the longer negative ones. Reviewers describe the opening survival hours as tense and fun; once food and water are stable, the game becomes building more of the same machines, waiting for the index to reach the next unlock, and sometimes leaving the game running. One negative reviewer wrote: "The first 10 hours are like a starvation simulator, but once you stabilize food and water, the game turns into an idle clicker". Fans raise it too: 14% of the longer positive reviews include a grind caveat. Some players enjoy the incremental loop and say so, while others call it a 3D cookie clicker.
Jank, clipping and missing polishHigh
Players describe falling through terrain, seeing through walls, stiff animations and menus that feel unfinished, and several negative reviewers say the full release still feels like early access. Jank, clipping, invisible walls, the unstuck button or a general lack of polish come up in 8% of the longer reviews and 23% of the longer negative ones. Some fans accept it as part of the charm of a small studio's game while still listing it as a flaw.
Bugs, crashes and lost progressHigh
Bugs, glitches or crashes come up in 11% of the longer reviews. Some are small annoyances, but others cost players a lot: corrupted saves after a crash, progress lost by quitting to the menu without a confirmation prompt, a respawn "death loop" outside with no oxygen, and resources from meteor showers vanishing. One negative reviewer noted that "You get one save, and one save only within the game itself." A handful of reviews say a 2.0 update broke their saves or hurt performance.
Inventory management and missing QoLMedium
Items don't stack, you can't craft from nearby chests, and recipe pinning has to be unlocked with a chip. These inventory and quality-of-life gaps come up in 5% of the longer reviews and 11% of the longer negative ones. One reviewer asked: "have we learned nothing in the last 20 years? quickstack, autosort, craft from nearby". Several players say a stacking mod made the game better, and another negative reviewer gave a flat "No craft from containers or auto-store from inventory is an automatic thumbs down from me."
Building that won't line upMedium
Base building gets praise for its freedom, but 10% of the longer negative reviews complain about it. Foundations and living compartments sit on different grids, pieces snap to the wrong neighbour or float, rotation works only in 90-degree steps, and moving a building means tearing it down. "There is a snap.. you just can't effing turn it off," one negative reviewer wrote, and a positive one asked: "PLEASE just let us move structures and machines rather than having to deconstruct."
Little guidance on what to do nextMedium
Players turn to the wiki or YouTube to find iridium or work out how unlocks work, and 5% of the longer reviews say the game explains too little. Some fans like figuring it out themselves.
Performance late in a playthroughMedium
Lag or poor optimization comes up in 3% of the longer reviews, usually once a base fills with drones and machines; one fan wrote that "the game will start lagging badly in the endgame stage". Steam Deck players report crashes and frame drops at the drone stage, and one Deck player complained that "the D-pad only registered 1 out of every 5 presses" in menus. Other players say it runs well even on weak laptops and Linux.
Floods and trees taking over your baseLow
Some reviews mention a base being flooded as lakes rise, often as a funny warning to new players to build on high ground, while a few negative reviewers say there was no clear warning. Others report trees and vines growing through their base: "It's quite beautiful, until you discover they've sprouted up INSIDE your base."
The roverLow
The rover gets mixed comments. Some find its physics funny, but others report it refusing to reverse or stopping for no reason, getting stuck, and an engine sound that one reviewer called "a very short loop with an obvious rest point."
Co-op limitsLow
A small number of reviews ask for cross-play with console versions, the ability to play a shared world when the host is offline, and fixes for joining players who disconnect, get teleported out of buildings or find autocrafters missing.
Resources scattered on the groundLow
A few players who quit early find that picking up ore lying all over the surface feels arbitrary and immersion-breaking, and some call the opening hour boring for that reason.
3. The player conversation
The tone is warm and often personal. Players write about playing with a spouse, a child or a late partner, about senior gamers enjoying the gentle pace, and about coming back to the game for years. Short reviews are almost all one-line praise, and the longer ones read like advice from a community that wants newcomers to stick around: build on high ground, don't quit in the first few hours, try the demo.
Negative reviews are few, and they tend to tell the same story. Some open by saying they don't understand the Overwhelmingly Positive rating, then describe a game they liked for a while before the grind or the jank wore them down. Negative reviews from players with under five hours more often say the opening bored them or that ore lying all over the ground felt arbitrary. Those from players with 20 or more hours more often raise jank, bugs and crashes, the rover and the paid planets. Positive reviews raise the same late-game and QoL issues as caveats. The positive share held steady from week to week across the slice, and the edited older reviews show players revising their verdicts after updates in both directions.
4. What the developers could do
- Add item stacking and crafting from nearby storage. Inventory limits run through both positive and negative reviews, players install mods to fix them, and some leave negative reviews over it alone.
- Give the mid and late game more to do than wait. The waiting and grind complaint appears in 36% of the longer negative reviews, centred on the stages after plants and animals and on moons where imported resources make new mechanics optional.
- Fix terrain collision and the worst clipping. Falling through the map, invisible walls and reliance on the unstuck button are what lead players to call the full release unfinished.
- Protect saves. Players lost long runs to corruption after crashes, to quitting to the menu without a save prompt, and to a respawn loop with no oxygen; a confirmation dialog, extra save slots or automatic backups would answer most of these.
- Rework building placement. Players ask for a snap toggle, finer rotation, one grid for foundations and rooms, and a way to move structures without deconstructing them.
- Warn new players about flooding and explain the unlock system. Some players cite unclear direction, and flooded bases catch some first-time players out; a height warning and clearer goals would help.
- Improve late-game and Steam Deck performance. Drone-heavy bases lag, and Deck players report crashes and menu inputs that drop presses.
- Polish the rover and co-op. Players ask for reliable rover controls, a longer engine sound loop, fixes for guest-side bugs, and cross-play or offline access to shared worlds.
