Recent reviews by dom

The dev is simply too good for the game. I wish all gaming devs would be as generous with the game updates.

Also a great, relaxing game that I keep coming back to. I could write a more in-depth review, but honestly, others have said it better. If I had more platforms than my PC I would 100% buy it again.

Ooh, wow. Okay. Yeah, this sort of was an unexpected purchase for me, where I went into the whole game blind.

I can't explain the plot exactly because your actions have consequences. However, the plot in layman's terms, you're a witch who got exiled for a millenium (1000 years!) from their community and about 200 years in lose their mind to summon a behemoth (very big no-no). From there, your actions (or reather, card readings) determine the outcome of things, and well, yeah.

Reading between the lines this game has a lot of stuff that just hits harder than anticipated - and all-together this game became a much more beautiful piece than I anticipated. The music, the gorgeous pixel art - it all flows just so well together. Rarely have I been moved by the visuals or story of a character, yet alone several - the character's responses all felt like it was something I would have replied, there's not a lot more I could add to it.

In particular for some reason the quote it gave me at the end hot me harder, perhaps from a methaprhorical perspective, but still.
"Everything that is about to happen.
Everything that will occur.
None of it is your fault.
But all of it is your responsibility.
And that is true for every given moment of your life.
And that is true for every single Witch in this cosmos.
That is fate."

10/10 will sob again over Hotline Miami 3 not being in my universe and the peppermancer."

So.. I'm an avid fan of Subnautica and has been since the game was in beta developement; so when I heard of The Planet Crafter I immidiately got curious and interested in the game. I ended up buying the TPC on the Steam Summer sale some years and.. Well, to be honest, It's not a good feeling.

I got the hand when it was still in beta developement and, now when it's published, it still feels unpolished, janky and worst of all - extremely buggy.

When I initially wrote this review, I thought that the game had a lot of potential, but still felt "hollow" and half of the time playing I was wondering if there was a point, or an end-goal, other than the achievements. I still feel like the game has lots of potential, but with the DLC announced, it's a bit of a slap in the face and I'm not optimistic.

I wasn't able to write as long of a review as I wanted due to word limit.


You play as a character with one multipurpouse tool in their arsenal. The goal of the game is to just rehabilitate the barren planet and upgrade your own gear. It's very much a tiered system - when you reach the first goal, you'll have to upgrade your machinery to keep pumping out resources at a stable rate to reach the next goal. And when you reach the next goal, you'll unlock better machinery. Every tier gets substantially more expensive - but also consumes more energy, and produces more of the needed resource for rehabilitation. It's a lot of waiting, so you can use the free time to explore the planet and find hidden gems, treasures and lore.

The story... It felt quite hollow and predictable. There weren't many "organically found" pieces of lore, everything was orchestrated from point A to point B and it wasn't a lot of exploring it yourself - just explore what the game told you to. And even when you were able to find something interesting yourself, it often lacked lore, explanation or was somewhat confusing out of context.

Which leads me to a very negative point/criticism of the gameplay: The exploration is limited, and broken. The game claims to be open world survival craft, but it's very clear it's a set map created by the developers, and there's a clear idea of where you should go and where you shouldn't go. A bit like Subnautica.

But, the map was designed by someone who only walked everywhere or used the rover. The moment I was able to craft a jetpack, you bet I was only flying around with it all this time. This lead me to no-clip through walls, mountains and fall through the map like a lot. I like exploring, so this was a hard blow to me. Just flying around sometimes dropped me off the face of the earth. And, I promise - half of the time I didn't even try to no-clip myself through walls. As much as I like Let's Game It Out, I enjoy not breaking my games, so it was a surprise for me to be able to fly on top of the iridium cave near spawn and see plants on a barren planet.

In a later patch, this was fixed and it looks like invisible walls were placed, and some entryways were opened up so I didn't need to use my technique to escape my containment.

The map is... better than what it was. There's some clear "Hot spots" where you have a lot of items, then a lot of barren, then some "interesting spots". I do think it'll be smoothed out at a later stage, but at this stage it's quite boring/predictable exploration on top of the broken exploration. Not anything to write home about.

The jetpack is great, though. It had a lot of issues when it first launched, but it was clearly fixed in a later patch and felt a lot smoother to use in the latest version.

Anyway, during your rehabilitation of the planet, the game wants you to build a habitats or machines in the game. I like this, but it also is very clear that more things you build in a certain spot, the more it affects your FPS. I have a decent PC, and the moment my base got too "big", even if I had my FPS locked ot 60, it dropped to 30 so I had to go and scatter everything to not make my game feeze. I later found out this is because the save is one .json file in my %appdata% folder, in which each individual item it finds is saved/rendered separately; this method of fetching data has caused me lag issues in several games, and I'm sure there could be a better way than this. It also has other important data in it, which seems to be updated on the go when the game is running. Very suboptimal for performance.

I also feel quite frustrated over the crafting system. Every time you craft something, you have to open the menu, go to the item and when you craft the item it closes the menu so you have to open it again. Compared to Subnautica, when you craft something the menu stays open and it shows which items you can craft as it grays out the other ones; especially late-game, before drones, this could be a nice feature to add to TPC.


The music is decent. It's repetitive, but in a good way, and it doesn't bother me: it's actually quite atmospheric. I have no complaints about that.

However, I absolutely hate the sound of the tool and I absolutely hate the sound when crafting. I don't know if it's a personal thing, but it feels like glass shattering in my ear and I actually had to remove my headset (Beyerdynamic DT770 80Ohm) physically from my head every time I wanted to use the drill tool. The sound is so high pitched it absolutely makes me sick. The same issue when crafting; the base murmuring is fine, but the high pitched feels like glass scraping my eardrum. I would propose making the tone less high pitched or tweaking it in some way it sounds "High pitched" but actually isn't; but I'm not a sound engineer, unfortunately, so I can't give a comment on that. It feels like it was toned down in a later patch, but still nails on the chalkboard.

I also hate the nuclear reactor's sound. I installed some nuclear recactors on top of my base's roof when I was building things as I thought the energy source must be connected to the base, and I kept getting nauseous until I stopped and listened for a second. The nuclear reactors sounds like a falling shepherd's tone, which has been proven to cause psychological distress when listened to a long time; most people wouldn't even realize this phenomenon, but I'm a bit of an audio nerd. I don't know if it sounds like a realistic nuclear reactor, but the low-pitched ever-falling whirring was such a disorientating sound I ended up just using solar power until I unlocked the (currently) best reactor.

The visual design... The moment I opened up the game I got reminded of Subnautica. It just gave off the same color scheme vibes. The multipurpouse tool is so similar to the scanner tool in Subnautica I kept thinking about Subnautica throughout the entire game. And, of course - the habitats incl. furniture are very similar. The biggest difference is that in Subnauitca you could use the furniture; here they are purely visual (what I could tell). I could go in depth with the similarities, but word count will limit me from it.

The visuals were updated in a later patch and got nicer. I think they're kinda decent now. 6/10

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I did see a lot of potential in the gameplay, but it just falls flat. It still has many of the issues that made the game unenjoyable for me in the first place, and while I was hopeful this would be ironed out at a later update (especially the performance issues), it seems like it did not. On the contrary, it feels like the game is even laggier than before, while still as grindy as before. So I'm inclined to be slightly negative to it; it's tolerable to play & finish once, but no more than that.

(Rating updated from Mixed/Neutral-Positive)

Do you like micromanaging colonies? Do you like unpredictability, chaos and life? And do you like running games with 1000+ mods and in general a large customizability? And most of all, are you a masochist with an intense urge to cause yourself pain and headache over a questionable choice you made years ago which now are biting you in the butt?

Well good, becasuse Rimworld is then for you.

In all seriousness, I could write a long-winded review on this game and why it's my all-time favorite game, but in the end, it all boils down to the same thing: it's a simple game but with so much to give. Every playthrough is different; every playthrough I learn something new of this game. And despite all my hours in the game, I've maybe finished the game... Once. Or twice. And then right away gone back into the game again.

So I finally finished this game after only playing it in Alpha (pre-story change) and, hmm. I'll try to summarize my thoughts coherently in this one. My review will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.
In this review, I'll refer to Below Zero as SBZ while Subnautica 1 is SN.

First off, the story change: I recall very vividly the first story vs this one. From that story, it's a massive upgrade. From being already stationed at the outpost zero, you end up dropping down to the planet and starting your journey there. I actually liked the change of vision; it's great. However, as much as I like it, the game story still falls flat in comparsion to SN and in the end, SBZ end up feeling like SN 1.5 or fan-made version of SN; a game I still can appreciate for what it is, but which always will be overshadowed by SN.

So, the story: you're Robin, a lass on a vengeful mission to find out what happened to your sister who was sent to Outpost Zero. But the story gets "lost" when you stumble upon an architecht (aka SN precursor race) named AL-AN in need of help which you take on as your main mission instead. From finding out what happened to your sister, the plot becomes to help the AL-AN build his own body and to find out what happened to his people. I actually really wanted to know what & who the architechts were, so I really liked this story. But I complely forgot why I landed on the earth in the first place and the "main" story kinda became a side-story which was mid at best.

Compared to SN, SBZ actually has other survivors like Maida from Degasi and the main character (MC) MC talks. I don't mind the talking; it's interesting and a different flavour for sure. But what kinda ruined the game for me was the jumbled storyline which comes from the talking.

An example I can give here is how during early in the game, I'm just swimming around when I come across an SOS signal and MC directly knows it's an architecht in need of help, and says so. I had not explored any outposts - nor PDA's - so it's peculiar MC knew exactly it's an architecht in need of help and not a researcher trapped on the bottom of the ocean running out of resources. The silly part is, near where the SOS signal comes from is a habitat and a habitat builder - so it would have made more sense if MC would be like "What's this SOS? Maybe it's a researcher in need of help" and when you find the habitat, there's a PDA talking about the SOS signal and their speculations on what it is and confirming it's not the habitat. Which then changes or updates the dialogue/quest. Small things.

But small things like this kept piling up: I found some outposts faster than others. I didn't find outpost PHI until the very late in the game, and even then I didn't find the game's end goal until I googled it because the PDA's didn't point me in the right direction (or pointed too vaguely) and I kept getting lost above land. Don't get me wrong, I liked the ice theme and the biomes were beautiful, the weather was nice, but as it's Subnautica I'm more interested in exploring the ocean than above land - the above land quests were okay, but they felt long and drawn out as I didn't like above land gameplay and the ice mazes/tunnels felt more confusing than anything. Some tunnels are cool; think like in SN1, but the cramped, claustraphobic and frequent tunnels like in SBZ was more confusing.

I can't stress how much of a huge flaw that is with SBZ. In SN, the game felt like a exploraiton puzzle; everything was slowly coming together the more you played it. The story was there, but you had to get the pieces yourself; and you were a part of the puzzle with the Kharaa, too. Every piece you scanned, every data download; every time you found a new biome or fish you'd get more information about what happened to the planet and what you need to do. And if you got stuck? Well, the game pointed you in the direction (with the PDA's data downloads). It felt like I truly had to go deeper to figure out what the next puzzle piece was; and when you entered the lava zone in SN, you could feel the end-game was near. It was so tense, the dialogue sent shivers down my spine.

And that's where SBZ failed. It lacks the same "oh my god" factor. The end biome felt like just entering another biome, no big deal. The story line is jumbled, you sometimes know things before you should know them. You know your sister was killed and you talk about it; and then you talk about how you don't know what happened. You need to disable a radio tower, but the items you need to disable it is something you need to find where exploring, but where/how? PDA has no info. The story is more "linear" and vague and not a puzzle exploration which really makes it a disappointment in comparsion to SN. Like, I actually happened to build the body for the AL-AN before I figured out what happened to my sister - and he was still in my head during the milestones when I figured out what happend to my sister talking like he was in my head. Small stuff like this which kinda feels like you did it in the wrong order and played the game "wrong", where as in SN it did not feel like you did anything wrong: you could not answer your radio, cure the Kharaa and the Sunbeam would have been saved by your choices with a differen dialogue. All PDA's felt like a puzzle piece making a clearer picture rather than a misplaced journey.

So the story line/progression could definitely have been polished.

But rest assured, it still had the classic SN feel: The map, while a lot smaller than SN, was still pretty and interesting to explore. I do have to admit, I didn't like how small the map was, and I actually prefer the original SN map more as it felt like every biome was unique in terms of music, fish, flora and fauna. I also liked the original SN map more as it was more "top" biomes, and not a lot of caves and going down/deep areas. The new leviathans, in particular the Oversized Shrimp and McRibs, were a lot less scary than the Reaper and Ghost Leviathan/Sea Emperor and it felt like they had no connection to the main story (whereas in SN the Sea Emperor had connection to the lore and a reason to be there). The music felt rather boring/forgettable in comparsion to SN, I miss the Seamoth and Cyclops. The sea truck was okay at best - I didn't care to upgrade it. Snow fox was clunky and I tried it exactly once so I wasn't interested in using it. Prawn suit new sounds were a bit meh. But, SBZ was still enjoyable and I loved the visuals and whatever lore I could get from the game.

All in all it was still an enjoyable game, I really simp for AL-AN and the ending sent shivers down my spine which makes me very hyped for the next Subnautica (the devs are hiring for a SN-universe game rn!). I wonder if SBZ was mostly a tech test for the next Subnautica, which would explain why it felt more like a 1.5 or fan-made game, rather than a full game.

Let me start off by saying I didn't know what to expect of the game. I had seen it before on the Steam page, it had been on and off on my wish list but I didn't really dig too deep into it. It was just a game I had seen, and what people told me, it wasn't too big of a deal. So when I opened it, I didn't expect myself to play this game for so long.

But I was wrong, and the short summary is; I do highly recommend the game. I've become highly immersed in it, and while it sometimes can be frustrating, it's still worth it. As a warning, my review might contain spoilers.

First, let's get the basics. Much like in Minecraft, there are four modes; creative, survival, hardcore and survival without hunger or thirst. Creative for people who want to explore and build, hardcore with only one life, and the sweet survival where you have to work - but are allowed to die sometimes.

So let me go through it. The game starts with you going inside a lifepod from a space ship, Aurora, which is about to crash. You just see the Aurora crash as the lifepod is ejected out of it - unfortunately, during the ejection, your character is knocked out by a raging fire extinguisher. You wake up a while later, with your life pod on fire, and you have to put it out, leavning the lifepod in a damaged state. When you finally climb out of it, the only thing you see is water. Water everywhere. And Aurora, burning and crashed down, not far away from your lifepod.

You're not given much background. You're basically jumping lifepod-first into water. The first 24 in-game hours you're exploring the surrounded area with your Personal Data Assistant (PDA). Soon the PDA tells you the Aurora is about to explode. This leaks a lot of radiation into the water and scattering parts of the Aurora all over the map.

This leaves you with only your PDA, a lifepod, and some tools. The more things you gather, the more information and more recipes you unlock. You fix up your lifepod and start getting messages from other survivors on the radio - alongside many strange messages.

You get to start building your own base when you get enough resources and blueprints for it, making your own underwater castle a reality while exploring the wast ocean.

It becomes soon apparent that the game is more than just survival - it has a storyline to it. The great thing about the game is that you don't realize there's a story since it's not served on a golden plate to you - you have to read through your files in the PDA and listen to the logs and messages which are lying around before realizing it. On the writing moment I have 41 hours on record, and I'm not sure if I'm even halfway through the game. I did the terrible mistake of googling when I had issues with something, spoiling a huge part of the story on at the same time for myself, despite the answer being right in front of my nose in the PDA.

Ranging from just basic small things to the storyline, there are so many times the game has gotten my hopes up just to shatter them in front of me. It's beatifully done with all the minor details mattering, making the scenery interesting. Seeing as the game is also Early Access and the devs have an "Report bugs" button (which I've been a fan of, I like helping!) I have very high hopes for the game when it gets finished.

The graphics and surroundings in this game are beautiful. Ranging from multiple biomes in various colors, to the beauty of the different fish swimming around is stunning. Some visual glitches here and there, but it's nothing a bug patch cannot fix. The vibrant colors that contrasts the dark caves and the sounds from the nearby fishes really makes the world immersive. It feels like you're underwater yourself, just trying to survive a day at the time while tackling the story slowly but surely. There are some slight FPS drops (from 80 to 20), and it's not caused by my computer (GTX 980 SC, i5-4430k, 16GB Ram, game installed on a 2TD HDD), but most of the time the optimization is fine. Sometimes stuff also clip through the terrain, which is unfortunate. The animations seems really stiff for most things and the main character too - but despite its flaws, I really love the beauty of the ailien ocean.

So do I recommend the game? Yes. It's still in Early Access, so expect a lot of bugs and new features being present. It doesn't put me off from writing the review or recommending it - in fact, I get higher hopes from it, and I hope to see the game when it get's published (about a month from now is according to the web page the official launch).

Update 22/11/2018:

As per the game is now officially finished and Subnautica 2 is in the making, I still stand by my review and recommend it. Hyped for Subnautica 2!

There's so much hype around the game so I thought I'd check it out and bought it on the Steam Sale.

I don't like it.

So much hype, but I feel like the game doesn't live up to it. It reminds me a bit of every pokemon-game and your choices matter, the music in the dungeon where you start is okay, the art-style of the game too. I like the fact that most monsters are black and white and even if I usually like pixelish-games it just feels meh. 8 euros for this game is a little too much in my opinion and I'd rather pay 4.

Maybe it's because I usually play story-driven, adventure or open world-games why I don't like this game. Maybe it's because I feel the hype was overrated and it didn't live up to my expectation. But after trying to do the puzzles and constantly getting interrupted by enemies who want to fight me even if I just want to clear the level, I'd say no thank you.

The looks on the game are nice, but yeah, that's about it, at least imo. The game doesn't suit for everyone and it clearly didn't suit me.