We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Planet Nomads had my interest for a long time, as I sat hoping it would blossom into something special. Sadly, it released today and it has not. Disclosure: Key provided by the developer.

For starters, they went back on doing multiplayer so now it's a (rather lonely) single-player only experience. I could handle that, if they truly made Planet Nomads interesting enough with the story but it's just not. On top of that, they originally promised space-flight to go to other planets, that also didn't make it into the game. Basically, the game never actually got any of the really interesting ideas that were used to fund it in the first place on Kickstarter.

Honestly, at this point I don't know why anyone would pick up Planet Nomads, considering how dull it is overall. If you want a sci-fi sandbox survival themed game, No Man's Sky does almost everything better. At this point, I'm sure people who've played it are desperate to point out Planet Nomads has a block-based building system which is quite different. Yes, very true! But that doesn't actually make Planet Nomads interesting when there's many more games that also do this across different settings. Even on Linux, if you refuse to use Steam Play for No Man's Sky I still won't recommend Planet Nomads.

For those who would point out that I've previously said a few nice words about the game, that would be quite true. Some of that though, was in the hopes that it would continue to progress and not just leave Early Access like this.

Performance in the Linux version is also not good, at all! With model quality, shadow quality, texture quality all to low and basically everything else on low or turned off, it struggles badly to even remain at 40FPS often dipping well below.

The game is also very unstable. The first time I tried to save with the released version it just sat there. The entire game just got stuck, I tried to send an in-game bug report as the UI was still responsive and that also just got stuck and seemed to not do anything. I gave it long enough to finish doing both, making sure in case it was being slow and not a bug but 20 minutes later…yeah that's a problem. Naturally, I don't give up at the first sign of trouble, so I tried again. This time, the game spawned me in and I was stuck, I couldn't move my legs at all. Okay, fine, save and quit to menu…didn't work again. Now it won't even load a new game at all, which sounds much like this issue which I tracked down in the game before.

If you like playing by yourself, in a sci-fi setting and playing with a few blocks, making a vehicle or two you might enjoy a couple of hours on it. However, it gets stale very quickly and seems to be extremely unpolished and buggy on Linux. What a waste of potential.

Find it on GOG and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
12 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
30 comments
Page: «2/3»
  Go to:

Purple Library Guy May 3, 2019
Sounds like their craftsmanship wasn't up to supporting their artistic vision. Pity. Just goes to show cool ideas aren't enough, you need to be skilled at the actual craft--the coding, the blacksmithing, the laying down of brushstrokes.
(Mind you, sometimes people's artistic vision isn't up to supporting their artistic vision. I think there's been a fair number of games where the developers spun all these cool ideas that sounded really awesome, and then when it came time to actually do it they realized they didn't exactly know what the cool ideas meant in terms of gameplay or how it would turn out to be fun)
Liam Dawe May 3, 2019
Quoting: gurvI strongly disagree about recommending NMS instead of Planet Nomads.

Having played both, I can tell you Planet Nomads is way more interesting than NMS.
NMS gets dull very quickly because every planet and every solar system feels so generic (the exactly identical space station interior doesn't really help with that).
I will respectfully disagree strongly. I won't get into a long debate about it but this is an incredibly inferior product when compared with NMS which continues to evolve with huge updates. NMS has incredibly different planets, I've never not even once visited a planet that was the same in it. Planet Nomads is the same every time and it's an unpolished mess.

Considering how they just pushed this out the door, I think they're aware of how far they strayed from the vision and made a lacklustre game.

Quoting: Dunc
QuotePerformance in the Linux version is also not good, at all! With model quality, shadow quality, texture quality all to low and basically everything else on low or turned off, it struggles badly to even remain at 40FPS often dipping well below.
I recently started a new game. In the tutorial, the framerate dropped to around one frame per second at some points. A couple of years ago, I had no trouble at all running it on an older graphics card and CPU, with less memory. It's simply not ready for release.

Even in its current state though, with some optimization it would be decent enough. Not a “must play”, but interesting if it's the sort of thing you like. Maybe it didn't live up to the crowdfunding hype (and I can understand backers' frustration at that), but performance issues aside it's not a bad game. I've had a lot of fun with it. But right now... no. It shouldn't be leaving Early Access in this state.
Down to one FPS?! Holy cow and I thought it performed badly on my end.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 3 May 2019 at 4:49 pm UTC
phalen May 3, 2019
physics is garbage in this. you cant have 2 hinges on a moving part to stabilize it, and if you don't you suddenly arrive at a drawbridge with the top pulled up to the static part of the hinge flopping away against the supports. trying to hack a hinge does not work as well as it pulls the hinge pieces apart and eventually flies off in to the sunset. using physics bugs in wheels or winches to make a space elevator since wheels just don't work on any plane except virticle with the wheel touching only the ground.

i really enjoyed it while it was in the 8.x series and they were making improve ments but halting dev on it for a bit killed it for me. also them finally releasing steam workshop support long after the fact made me quite mad i got it on gog. if they would have gotten mod.io working on it or something it would be tollerable.
marcelomendes May 3, 2019
I have played Planed Nomads a bunch of times, trying to like it, with no joy at all, and I do play NMS in XBOX quite often, enough to say that I strongly disagree with your statement. Since the latest patches with vehicles and base building it is far better than PN. It's not even fair to compare both, NMS is way better in almost every aspect. Maybe the only thing that PN has better is the building which gives you more freedom, but this happines quickly fade out due to insane performance issues. VR is comming to NMS and also a trully online mode (not just coop which it has now).

Quoting: gurvI strongly disagree about recommending NMS instead of Planet Nomads.

Having played both, I can tell you Planet Nomads is way more interesting than NMS.
NMS gets dull very quickly because every planet and every solar system feels so generic (the exactly identical space station interior doesn't really help with that).

The building and discovery is much better in Planet Nomads, provided you have some creativity and like building and optimizing things.

Unfortunately, I must admit that Planet Nomads is plagued by performance problems that probably stem from their database storage (sqlite). This is what made me stop playing, but I still got 140hours out of it so can't complain.
And I will probably try to revisit it and check if performance is better (especially when I'll have my shiny new Ryzen 3000 series cpu :P)


Last edited by marcelomendes on 3 May 2019 at 6:26 pm UTC
gurv May 3, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: gurvI strongly disagree about recommending NMS instead of Planet Nomads.
Having played both, I can tell you Planet Nomads is way more interesting than NMS.
NMS gets dull very quickly because every planet and every solar system feels so generic (the exactly identical space station interior doesn't really help with that).
I will respectfully disagree strongly. I won't get into a long debate about it but this is an incredibly inferior product when compared with NMS which continues to evolve with huge updates. NMS has incredibly different planets, I've never not even once visited a planet that was the same in it. Planet Nomads is the same every time and it's an unpolished mess.

In NMS, the planets all differ in some regard but the general feel of planets within the same biome is identical.
And it's really bland.
I've been thoroughly disappointed by NMS: sure it's infinite but it's infinite blandness.
And the building part is really lackluster.

I know it's a pet peeve of mine but I also can't stand that the space stations are always the same (interior wise). That's immersion-breaking level for me.

Edit: in a nutshell what I'm trying to say is that the grind in NMS is all too obvious while I have the feeling to actually construct something, make progress in Planet Nomads. And that makes all the difference for me.


Last edited by gurv on 3 May 2019 at 6:29 pm UTC
Liam Dawe May 3, 2019
To each their own. NMS fills me wonder, Planet Nomads does not and looks like it never will. Such a let down.
Shmerl May 3, 2019
It promised more than it delivered.
phalen May 3, 2019
is there a linux builder that allows vehicle construction that would be some what comprible to PN or SE ? NMS does not have the vehicle building part which i rather enjoy.
Luke_Nukem May 3, 2019
Since finding out that NMS works amazingly well with Proton I've put in 83 hours.
My time with PN? Bursts of 5 minuute plays, less than an hour. I gave up because it performs absolutely awful.
Dunc May 3, 2019
Quoting: liamdaweDown to one FPS?! Holy cow and I thought it performed badly on my end.
In the tutorial, yes, although it varied wildly and that was absolutely the worst case. On the planet it's okay. Not great, but okay.

I assume it's because the tutorial is basically built entirely from construction parts. They seem to be where the problem lies (a Ehvis says, it doesn't seem to be culling properly, so what you're actually looking at bears no relation to what framerate you might expect).
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.