PROs:
✅ Fairly clean, vibrant visuals
✅ Unique concept of planet-development progression
✅ Solid idler-style game rather than a survival-crafting game: build/grind materials while the planet slowly develops and changes
✅ Good way to pass time with friends
✅ Exploration and the scenic world are fairly solid for the most part
✅ Considering it is a Unity engine game, it runs fairly well for the most part
? If you are into logistics/management, that is another big PRO
CONs:
❌ Lots of logistics annoyances: 0 stacking, no proximity crafting (you have to keep everything in your inventory), and a crazy amount of manual labour and storage management/sorting
❌ Filter system is lacking; it does not include all discovered items, such as cocoa or wheat
❌ Barebones drone system: no grouping/channeling or supply priorities, such as round-robin, fill-in-order, or random order
❌ Worlds feel odd at times, with lots of visually “out of bounds” areas and plenty of spots where you can fall through the world or get stuck
❌ Stiff vehicle handling
❌ The gameplay loop gets exhausting after a few planets
❌ Lacklustre loot while exploring; it is mostly just materials based on your progression stage, with no unique-reward loot
❌ Some endgame additions would be nice: better drones, a higher-tier autocrafter with a much bigger range to make better use of the Megadome, and equipment that slows thirst/food drain significantly
❌ Bugs in co-op
• Vehicles and elevators can interact strangely; starting an elevator with a nearby parked vehicle can drag it along, causing it to clip under the world
• Changing planets can reset FOV to a low value; you have to open the options menu and click Apply to restore it
• The toxicity-ending cutscene clips through the world
• Your inventory can close when another player interacts with chests
• Something can trigger repeated autosaves when a co-op player messes around in their inventory
• Sometimes an emote triggers whenever you close the inventory; restarting the game fixes it
Comments:
Most of it is already mentioned in the pros and cons, but long story short: it’s an enjoyable idler/progression-style game, especially when playing with friends to chat with while playing. The idea of the world visually developing and changing as you boost planetary progression with different machines is pretty cool. As you keep grinding materials and building your base, the barren world slowly becomes green and lush, eventually giving life to the planet as well.
Considering it is a Unity engine game, it runs fairly well for the most part, while the visuals still look clean and colourful.
Now… it does have its fair share of issues, at least for me. The main issue is item management/logistics. The amount of manual labour needed because of the 0 stacking functionality is unreal. A lot of time is spent creating new storage units just to make enough buffer space for items. Once you unlock drones, they become a game changer for logistics and make things much easier. However, setting everything up still takes time because of the limited drone functionality. Nevertheless, they help immensely, and I hope they get developed further.
The gameplay loop itself is straightforward, with each planet having its own caveats. But after the third planet/moon, I got rather burnt out on the loop. Exploration was fun, especially with the world changing, but the rewards were not that exciting. Most of the loot was just materials based on your progression stage, so there was no real unique-reward loot to look forward to.
For endgame improvements, I would like better drones and a better autocrafter with a bigger range, so the Megadome can be used more effectively—for example, with a central autocrafter surrounded by storage units. Equipment that greatly lowers thirst and food drain would also be nice.
Proximity crafting would be a great addition too. If you are building a base and already have the required items in nearby storage, they should be used automatically instead of forcing you to constantly move them into your inventory.
The bugs are mentioned in the cons. I likely forgot a bunch, but yeah, this game has quite a lot of them, especially in co-op.
I also feel like the developers stopped caring about world design at some point. There are a lot of oddities in both quality and functionality: water assets stacking underwater, holes in the world, and easily accessible areas that feel like “you aren’t supposed to be here.”
Nevertheless, it is a charming game made by a small team and is fun to play. I will probably return to it in the future once there is enough new content and the existing content is more polished.
🟢Total score: 7/10 👍
Game status:
✅ Finished
Reviewing info: How I review/rate & other info is on my website, linked through my profile (“desozone”).