A little more customizability would have been welcome.įor me, Planetbase proved an addictive little time waster for around five to 10 hours before I realized that there wasn't really much more to it than what I'd experienced in the first few hours. Everything has to be placed on flat ground, quite far apart from each other. There are no curved pathways and no elevation options. Planetbase doesn't give you a huge amount of freedom over where you can position buildings and connections. Also, maintaining a flow of storage and trade also becomes critical, because surplus supplies can build up and degrade without proper storage, halting your ability to manage crisis moments. Space pirates will sometimes infiltrate your colony, meaning that if you have neglected guards and weapons, you're looking at a lot of dead colonists, very rapidly. My planet died a slow and painful death.Įvery time you master one type of problem, a new one pops up to throw a wrench in the works. I ran out of healthy biologists, which meant no more farms, which in turn, meant no more food. My second colony died after a few hours, because I started accepting immigration, and found myself with more colonists than I could prepare food for. Protip: Solar panels don't work at night.

These are the basic things you need to manage to keep your colony alive. The first thing any budding colonist should do is set up an oxygen generator, paired with electricity and a water extractor. My first colony died in mere minutes, as I forgot that they, you know, have to breathe. It's hard not to compare this game to Cities: Skylines, considering they share a launch window and similar gameplay mechanics, but it should be known that Planetbase edges a little more into the strategy column, rather than management. The controls in particular are well crafted for gamepads, and you won't find yourself frustrated once you complete its informative tutorial. Planetbase's UI, menus, visuals, and audio won't win any awards, but they all get the job done.

I played for several hours in a single session, never enduring a crash or freeze. There are times when frame rates clearly suffer, but it's never game-breaking.

Still, even as your colony grows to gargantuan sizes, complete with hundreds of individual colonists, Planetbase's engine does a good job of handling the load.

Planetbase svaegame editor