The Planet Crafter: Planet Humble Review (cozmosis)
I enjoyed the base game and watching the planet evolve, learning my way around the map and discovering where things are, and it was an enjoyable experience.
The Humble DLC however really is not. I gave it until around about halfway through, and whilst I knew the progression would be basically the same, the map is not cathartic to navigate at all - it's convoluted and maze-like with entire vast cave systems, and you pretty much have little-to-no chance of ever really knowing your way around unless you use beacons all the time - it's not an enjoyable experience to navigate. You will end up finding places and think they are cool - and they are - but the chances you'll see it again or remember it are pretty slim.
On top of that, it's far less clear where particular mining areas might be for some materials, because not only do you find them in various places, but because of the ore crusher it's far easier to just grind up a base ore to make things like super alloy. It just ends up feeling like a labour task rather than being able to focus on building in the game. I didn't even build a miner with T2 unlocked because i just didn't 'need' it.
The start area is also extremely unfriendly to build a base in, and even if you roam around a bit, it isn't as impressive as the base game - the lake progression stage is very disappointing, and barely existent in many areas. It also doesn't make any geological sense in terms of a water table.
So by the time I was around halfway through, I came to a realisation that not only was I doing the same thing again and not really enjoying it for the above reasons, but there were not even any achievements to aim for and I suddenly thought what was even the point and just left it.
Maybe enjoyable if you really like the core gameplay or the terraforming, but extremely unsatisying cartography and self-immersion thanks to the convoluted terrain and other issues.