Planet Explorers was just approved by Steam, and it's now downloadable and purchasable. The game is currently in early access, and it is still working through a number of bugs, but what's available within it right now is absolutely stunning.
Planet Explorers is a sandbox RPG, shooter, crafting, simulation, and just-about-everything-else-ish game of massive proportions. As the name suggests, your goal is to explore a planet. Here's how the developing company, Pathea, describes it:
Planet Explorers is an open world voxel based sandbox adventure rpg game set on a distant planet. The game uses a new OpenCL system based on the Unity 3D engine to allow players to change the terrain in anyway, create new objects in any form, and do it anywhere.
They had me at sandbox adventure rpg game. But there's literally no end to what you can do in this game, thanks to the ability to craft pretty much any item.
I live for games that let me stretch my creative juices while still keeping me challenged, so it certainly sounds like Planet Explorers is going to fill both of those requirements.
I am getting this game in the next day or two, so I wanted to open up a dialogue with a look at the media available for the game so far. Once the game is in my possession, I'll be adding more information in the form of new articles. A guide, maybe, in-game screenshots of the Alpha to Beta process...new addition updates, etc. For anyone who loves adventure on the high...uh, planets, you really should check this game out. Although the price point is $24.99 as of 3/12/2014, it certainly looks to be worth it.
Alright, let's go. First the trailer.
Alpha Adventure Trailer
It may be the musical effect, but this just got me so completely excited. I can't wait to run on mountains, chase dinosaurs, and fight giant monsters! It's incredibly epic feeling. And what blows me away the most is that it's still technically in alpha. I really feel this sense of wonder with this game...there's incredible potential here IF it doesn't go the way of most sandbox, open-world games (i.e. a cluster of chaos). This is the adventure trailer. A second action trailer is available at the next slide.
Pathea's Official Action Trailer
This is the action trailer--here's where things get crazy intense. To be honest, when I saw the adventure side of the game in the first trailer, I thought that was all there was to the game. And I was entirely fine with it! That in and of itself is pretty amazing...but then you have hand gliding, cliff jumping, bazooka-wielding, and a bevvy of other death-defying actions. Squee--my excitement level is suddenly "over 9000." So that's got to be it, right? I mean, that's a pretty mutli-layered game....
Let's Play Planet Explorers (#1) - BUILDING OUR BASE :D
But that's totally not where the fun ends. In the interest of simplicity, I'm sharing Tunglekrok YouTube video with you. I feel like it does a good job, with commentary, of showing how starting the game feels. It illustrates both character creation and actual crafting and building.
Just like in Minecraft, the game will see you making a shelter for the nighttime. And there is an endless amount of items that you can craft. This also shows the start of questing within the game.
Note that he has a number of glitches in the game; keep in mind that it is still being developed, and the sheer size of the world may pose those kinds of issues for some time yet. Worth it.
That's what's beautiful about Planet Explorers. There's the potential to go just about anywhere with it. Note that this video is a bit long, but it's worth it.
Tunglekrok's occasional Bruce from Family Guy accent is also slightly to moderately hilarious. Check out more of his videos here.
Planet Explorers, Alpha Let's Play, Episode 10 (Gun Crafting Guide/Tutorial)
Earlier I mentioned that you can craft your own items. That includes guns, cars, houses--you name it. So that you can get a good, close look at how the crafting works, I'm including a number of videos that act as a guide to the crafting process. Note that all of these are somewhat long, because the crafting process itself is long. Feel free to skip around.
You'll notice that almost all crafting occurs on a grid. While this does take you out of the game's environment, it allows for finer tuning and more flexible building.
Planet Explorers, Alpha Let's Play, Episode 14 (Vehicle Crafting Guide/Tutorial)
Gone are the days when you need to grind the same dungeons 1000 times just to get that great mechanical mount. Instead, Planet Explorers lets you build the vehicle itself.
Planet Explorers Creation Showcase #1
This video comes straight from Pathea. It's entire purpose is to show you all of the crazy stuff you can build. You'll notice a vehicle from the television show Arrested Development, one from Jurassic Park, a giant sword, a giant beer mug--just a really awesome assortment of stuff. I see huge potential in this game for just about every kind of gamer because of its flexibility. You can be killy-stabby, you can role-play, you can quest, you can build, heck it's even a simulation of sorts.
From here, I'm going to deliver a number of screenshots I've found in various places online. Each of these does an awesome job of identifying how extensively creative this game is.
Here we have...well, I think we have a dinosaur!
Image from RockPaperShotgun.com
This is just a secondary shot of the dinosaur so that you can see the sheer size of them compared to your character.
Image also from RockPaperShotgun.com
General female character creation, and...
Image from Examiner.com
General male character creation. So the character creation itself isn't exactly sensational, but it's enough for me. It really doesn't look all that bad either, when you consider the scope of the entire game and how much hyper-realistic graphics creation would have stuck out like a sore thumb.
Image from PensiveHarpy.com
Just as there is in Minecraft, there's caves and holes in Planet Explorers.
You can even head under to go spelunking. There's stuff to be found and adventures to be had!
Scary monsters driving you crazy? Jet pack on out of there quickly.
It's not all cliffs and meadows and forest. Planet Explorers does also have (player or development built) cities sprinkled without it. Not satisfied with the cities they have? That's the beauty of the game. Simply make your own city however you'd like it.
Get away from it all for a bit; climb some mountains and watch the sun rise or set.
Although it hasn't been fully exploited yet, underwater areas are also scheduled for development.
People literally create almost anything in the game. Including this real race track, upon which you can zoom around against your friends or just for fun.
This picture is self-explanatory, but for the sake of being descriptive, missiles, and giant alien creatures; be still, my heart.
Man, I leave Earth...fly millions of miles away, eventually crash-land on some mysterious planet where I have the ability to craft anything--and I still can't escape damned spiders. They've clearly stepped up their creep game here, too.
According to Pathea, the water's still being worked on. I personally think it looks pretty decent already.
That concludes our tour of Planet Explorers. As far as I'm concerned, this game hasn't gotten nearly enough recognition. If you'd like to pre-order it, you can do so from Steam . It's $2 cheaper on Panthea, but some people may prefer having it within their Steam game folder.
Personally, I chose Steam because it will be easier to get updates. A demo is available if you aren't sure about pre-ordering, but keep in mind that there are likely to still be bugs as it isn't yet out of alpha.
So what do you think? Does the game interest you? Will you be joining me in exploration?
Hey...psst. If you notice images without credits in this slideshow, it means that they came from pathea.com.
Published: Mar 13, 2014 04:17 pm