Plan B: Terraform is a building game where you have to colonize a planet while also terraforming it. Now the game has left Early Access. MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann has followed the game through Early Access and finds: It has become a real insider tip.
What kind of game is this? In Plan B: Terraform, you get a randomly generated barren planet. Your goal: You should not only colonize the planet but also terraform it at the same time.
I purchased the game at the start of Early Access and played for about 30 hours. And at the official release, I can say that you should definitely give Plan B: Terraform on Steam a chance. About 2,500 people who rate the game 91% positively seem to feel the same.
The world is constantly evolving, but the water often ruins my plans
What makes the game so good? I start in Plan B: Terraform with almost nothing. There are only three city centers scattered across the planet. I slowly begin to set up my first production, lay roads, and build my first trucks for transportation. Meanwhile, I eventually start producing greenhouse gases to warm the world, because I want the ice to melt and the planet to become habitable.
In fact, you do almost nothing else in the game other than produce, transport, process, and then transport resources again. But the more you terraform the world, the stronger you feel it: suddenly, entire areas are flooded with water, and the resources are gone. And water can be really unpredictable. This has sometimes led to me having to relocate entire industries and railways.
While you can counter this with dams, the water relentlessly finds its way. And if your industry is too low, the water will eventually overflow even your dam, no matter how many pumps you have trying to keep the water at bay.
Are there things that are not so successful? You almost always do the same thing in the game: produce resources, transport them, process them, and then transport them again while supplying the cities that then grow. Yes, additional resources and buildings are added later, but the basic principle always remains the same. And that can become very monotonous over time. There is no exciting story, and there are no extensive researches or a proper endgame where you can unlock things for the next game.
Another thing that bothers me personally: at certain points, the balancing does not seem as perfect as it could be. While you can eventually recycle resources, I have always had the problem of having way too much of certain resources and too little of others. However, with recycling alone, you cannot autonomously supply an industry.
The random generator can sometimes throw a wrench in the works for you as well. Sometimes resources are placed so poorly that certain cities are hardly reachable or the paths are very long. Or the later space elevator, which is also randomly placed, is located in the middle of a mountain range and is hardly reachable.
A real insider tip if you engage with it
After about 30 hours, I have now started numerous worlds, but have also abandoned several playthroughs. Due to the randomness, you get to see a different planet each time, which is pleasantly refreshing.
Where we would be back to the water: because that is also different on every planet and can definitely ruin plans. A lucrative deposit can quickly become unreachable.
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