With the rise of survival games as one of the most popular new genres on the market, Planet Nomads, an upcoming game under development by Craneballs, looks to make its mark in the gaming universe. And from what I've seen of the game, including a free editor to toy with, Planet Nomads looks good.
For those of us familiar with the genre, Space Engineers or perhaps StarMade are two games that quickly come to mind. However, those focus more on the building aspects of a sci-fi survival game, while Planet Nomads looks to be an actual survival game. You must forage for resources to stay alive, rather than just to build stuff. Animals may be hostile, and will be more so during the night, when you may need to retreat into your base just to have a chance at survival. Radiation, heat, cold and other elements are planned to play a major role in challenging players to build what they need to survive. IndieDB describes the survival aspect as: "Living the nomadic life is always full of danger and adventure. But mostly danger. Surviving on an inhabited planet is no easy task, but with careful planning, caution and a healthy amount of curiosity, you can do it. As long as you overcome radiation and poisonous atmosphere, avoid being slashed to pieces, frozen to death, eaten alive, starved and generally ended, that is."
PN's graphics look fantastic. If the team manages to pull off what's been demonstrated so far, the variety of biomes will be gorgeous. No doubt there will be players interested solely for the beautiful atmosphere of the game and not just it's mechanics.
Speaking of mechanics, PN looks to take the genre to a new level. According to the developers FAQ, "Planet Nomads will have realistic physics. Light vehicles will be faster, fit for drifting fun, prone to tumble over and generally more agile than heavy transports, tanks and harvesters that will carry the mass of their weight - when you hit something with them, it will make a big bang. Your creations will need solid design to hold together. Tension will play its role and structural weaknesses will cause your creations to fall apart." That will be an interesting twist to games like Space Engineers where the physics are somewhat lacking in that department.
Planet Nomads will have a procedurally generated universe, and everything from crash sites to alien ruins will be present. In fact, if you donate enough to the Kickstarter, you can even help design some of the points of interest that will be found in the game and have them named after you. Biomes include deserts, alien forests, frozen tundras, and more, with what looks like a few hybrid types tossed in to throw you for a loop.
Multiplayer and modding support are planned for the future, and that will depend a good bit on how much support the developers can garner on their Kickstarter and if it gets the Steam Greenlight.
One thing that concerns me about PN is the sheer scope of the game. One of the problems a lot of survival games have had to face is the sheer amount of data needed for the games. Rust servers constantly reset, and what little experience I have with A.R.K.:Survival Evolved indicates the same. Space Engineers servers may not reset as much, but the problems in the coding itself create havoc for servers with multiple large ships being active at once. If Planet Nomads does not find a better way to solve the problems these games face, it will not shine as brightly as it otherwise could.
All in all, Planet Nomads looks like it will be a fine game. To learn more, visit their website or Kickstarter for additional info.
*Disclaimer: The author of this article has not received any remuneration of any sort from the developers of Planet Nomads for this review.
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