Summary:
* It is free. Not free to play... FREE FREE FREE^
* It is awesome.
>Ok stop the sales pitch what exactly is it?
It is a First/Third Person Shooter + World of Warcraft + Minecraft + Civilization, all in one game, done well. :O
The game was originally intended to have a sandbox (on your computer only) mode and a online MMORPG mode. The server code was lost so the game makers made it a FREE sandbox game. No networking at all.
The game does not limit you to play the game a certain way. You can follow quests or run away and go native. The core of the game is gathering resources to build technology. This is not WoW style grinding, it is easy to get resources. You'll find yourself wandering, killing animals for meat and animal fat etc, stopping to pluck plants and chop trees and then mining iron, copper, gold, sand, petroleum, etc. This is natural and not a chore, it is a natural part of exploration, fighting and gathering. The resources are used to feed your Replicator which can make low tech to sci-fi high tech items but needs a script to do so.
The currency is meat. Urgg! But actually makes sense, when you hunt animals you get a lot of meat. Animals don't drop gold, which would be silly. With meat you can buy from other humans at colonies. (Cooked meat is eatable.) Human colonies allow buying an endless array of primitive to high tech items, including scripts. With your resources + scripts + replicator you can make anything from wood bows to aircraft using the world's resources... yes you can make land vehicles, boats, submarines, aircraft, weapons low to high tech. You can make engines, computers, whole colonies. You can design items in the in-built 3d creator: http://planet-explorers-isos.com/ still for no cost. The limit is, does your character have the resources in your inventory to construct it? If not, off harvesting and mining you go!
The world looks beautiful and it comparable to WoW. But less cartoonish. It has bright sunny days, cloudy days, rain, thunderstorms with lightning flashes. Sun sets can be lovely with shadows that are long and dark. Night is very dark, but you can speed up time by sleeping. Animals may plonk down by your camp over night and snore loudly which is both annoying and amusing. Animals act mostly logically and are well made. It is claimed about 150 types of creatures exist, for example lake monsters. Wolves will hunt in packs against other animals and even you. Wolves might attack you in your vehicle and tip it over. Forcing you to exit and fight them off. And I get the impression they will ambush you. Birds from the air will dive-bomb you. About 1/3 of the creatures are carnivores and will attack you. Running is effective, but animals aren't limited to zones like WoW and may relentlessly come after you. Run, spin, shoot, run!
Dying is not too bad, IF you have a resurrector, a high tech device that you can make with the right resources and script, or buy with meat. Urg! But you might need to wait for your attackers to leave because you re-spawn with low health. There is no punishment for dying but it is tricky to respawn safely at low health which gives an incentive to not die. You can buy or make health kits.
You can design and build craft and also weapons and armour: http://planet-explorers-isos.com/ all still for free. You can reshape all of the land, by mining it. You can strip mine the land. You can burrow into a mountain to make a home base. You can place blocks of a multitude of materials (marble, dirt, sand, iron, steel, copper, gold, glass, etc) and build buildings, roads, runways... The blocks have a selection of shapes, so you can be artistic. These might be damageable (not tested by me yet).
I hope you can see that the game is surprising diverse in playability and fun. The game has three modes, Story Mode (this is best for beginners because the quests are also education and reward you with free items and scripts. The start of the game also has a recommended tutorial.), Adventure mode which has a random map and quests each time, and Builder Mode for safe easy building only.
I hope you'll try it out because it is fun no matter what type of game you like because it encompasses most types of games, AND FREE. I plan on living rogue (free) and medium tech (iron bow, low maintenance) and exploring and camping. This is a great casual or intense game, go fight big monsters with your high tech or stay home and plant crops.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/237870/Planet_Explorers/ Ignore the Mixed reviews they are upset about the server code getting lost turning the game to free after they paid.
^ https://steamcommunity.com/app/237870/discussions/0/1750142242511335607/
^ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/planet-explorers-goes-free-as-pathea-games-lose-the-multiplayer-code.14494
^ https://github.com/patheagames2019/planetexplorers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Explorers
http://planet-explorers-isos.com/
If you try it out post pics!