Planet Miners Review — Digging Deep, But No Depth

Here at Try Hard Guides, I get a lot of requests to review new and trendy games, from highly anticipated triple-A titles to the next upcoming indie darling (I couldn’t have predicted Mouthwashing’s breakout success, for example). However, when I have time, I like to explore games we haven’t been asked to review but that catch my interest. Planet Miners was one such title, and while it caught my attention, I was disappointed and think it needs more work.

If you haven’t heard of this obscure game yet, Planet Miners has a pretty simple, albeit cool, pitch: As an autonomous mining robot, you fly to different planets in the local solar system and mine for resources. Each planet has a finite amount of each resource, with some having access to ore that others might not. The resources you need to upgrade things like your drills, inventory, jetpack, etc., require progressively rarer resources as your equipment improves.

Interesting concept though it may be, it’s not exactly original. Some savvy gamers among you readers may have already realized Planet Miners is very similar in concept to Starbound, a Chucklefish original that has maintained insane popularity since its 2016 release. Keep that comparison in mind.

While two games can be similar, it doesn’t kill my enjoyment of either. The massive genres of games inspired by Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Dark Souls (what a triumvirate, huh?) prove you can do a familiar concept differently and still have players enjoy your game. It’s all about whether you do something different than your inspirations, making a game that, while familiar, still stands on its own merit.

The issue with Planet Miners is that it not only fails to deviate from its inspirations, it doesn’t even live up to the bare bones of the formula it’s emulating.

When you boot up a new Planet Miners game, you’re brought to a galactic map with a choice of planets. Traveling to these planets gives you a new biome and a 2D flat plane of blocks to dig down in. As you dig, you discover new ore that you then mine, carry back to the surface via your jetpack, and either put into your ship or craft immediately for basic upgrades. There are about four or five upgrades for each aspect of the game’s mechanics and a handful of craftable items.

What I just described is the entirety of the Planet Miners experience. For a game all about digging, it ironically lacks depth. The repetitive gameplay loop sees you digging, grabbing resources, upgrading (so you can dig faster and carry more), and then, once you run out of ore (or get bored), traveling to a new planet to repeat the process. Once you’re out of upgrades, the game has essentially ended.

There are no quests, building mechanics, shops, trade systems, or a greater endgame. There’s also no dialogue, hardly any animations or visual flair, and no memorable music. Even simple quality-of-life features, such as quickly moving items between containers, are missing, giving Planet Miners an unfinished feel.

This unfinished feeling isn’t helped by bugs, like infinitely placing blocks after crafting one.

If Planet Miners were a free phone game or something on Roblox, it would be decent. However, the kicker is that, at full price, Planet Miners costs about $11.00—hard to justify considering the amount of content.

This is especially true compared to Starbound, a comparison you’ll no doubt make. Never mind Starbound’s campaign, side quests, dungeons, vast array of blocks, building system (that lets you build communities), and explorable surfaces; it drastically overshadows Planet Miners simply with the depth of its mining mechanics.

Considering this, it’s hard to recommend Planet Miners at $11.00 when Starbound is often less than $5.00.

Planet Miners could have been unique and fun. By ignoring the RPG and building mechanics of Starbound, it could have doubled down on mining. Instead, it feels like a tech demo—a shallow game that, frankly, I don’t recommend. I’d like to see it pulled from Steam and given more development time.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Planet Miners is available on Steam.