Interplanetary Review Summary

Great turn-based strategy and fun multiplayer with friends are undermined by a dead online community, shallow tech tree, many crashes, bugs, and pinpoint-accurate AI.

Great Turn-Based Strategy: Many reviews praise the game as a well-designed turn-based strategy title with depth and interesting tactical choices. The strategic decision-making is a standout feature.

Fun With Friends: Players consistently say the game is most enjoyable in multiplayer, including co-op and local play. Several note it is decent alone but far better with others.

Multiplayer Options Supported: The game offers online, local, and hotseat multiplayer alongside AI opponents. Easy setup for hotseat and internet play is frequently mentioned.

Has Great Potential: Numerous players feel the game has a lot of promise and potential for future developer additions. It is seen as a solid foundation.

Easy to Learn Hard to Master: Reviewers describe the game as accessible and simple to start, yet challenging to master. This balance is widely appreciated.

Multiplayer community is dead: Players consistently report that online multiplayer is deserted, with very few or no players available, making it difficult to find matches without friends. This severely limits the game's primary multiplayer focus.

Tech tree is shallow: The technology tree is small, many options are useless or unclear, and most technologies can be researched easily without meaningful choices. This reduces strategic depth and replayability.

Game has bugs and crashes: Players encounter various bugs, crashes, and performance issues, including memory leaks, save failures, and freezes. These problems hinder gameplay and can cause loss of progress.

AI has perfect accuracy: AI opponents almost never miss shots, even on lower difficulties, and can perform complex trick shots. This makes the game frustratingly unfair, as players feel they have no chance to avoid damage.

Targeting lines are inaccurate: Trajectory predictions become incorrect as planets move, leading to missed shots and confusion. Players find aiming to be a guessing game, especially since the simulation uses current positions rather than future positions.

Strong Multiplayer Focus: The game is designed primarily for multiplayer and supports playing with friends both locally and online. It is easy to set up via hotseat or internet and is fun with three or more players.

Turn-Based Strategy Core: It is a turn-based strategy game set in space. Players take turns to plan and execute their moves.

Single Player Against AI: There is a single-player mode where you battle against AI opponents. The AI opponents have different difficulty levels.

Space Strategy with Physics: It is a strategy game set in space that incorporates orbital mechanics and physics-based weapon firing. Players build interplanetary defenses and weapons in a turn-based setting.

Interplanetary Weapon Combat: Players can fire weapons at other planets, including missiles and railguns, to destroy enemy planets. Superweapons require energy to fire.

Connection and Server Issues: Frequent server timeout errors occur about every tenth game, and online connectivity hangs on connecting. Connection problems are also reported.

Crashes During Gameplay: Players report game crashes after large battles and on certain systems. This instability disrupts the experience.

Huge Memory Leak Causes Crashes: A severe memory leak grows beyond 3GB, leading to performance degradation and eventual crashes. This affects gameplay stability significantly.

Slow Performance on High-End PC: The game runs slowly on a system with an i7 490k, 16GB RAM, and GTX 780. This suggests optimization issues.

Lag During AI Turns: Players experience lag or slowness during AI turns, which can make gameplay feel sluggish. This is a common performance complaint.

Requires friends to enjoy: Many reviewers emphasize that the game is only fun with friends and not worth buying for solo play. Having three or more friends to play with is often recommended.

Great for strategy fans: The game is recommended for fans of turn-based strategy, tactical choices, and physics-based gameplay. It appeals to those who enjoy thinking and planning.

Worth the price: Several players find the game well worth its price, often stating it's worth full price or a definite purchase. Some mention it's especially worth it at a discount.

Recommended overall: Many reviewers give a general recommendation, often with enthusiasm. Some recommend it with minor caveats.

Not recommended: Some players do not recommend the game, citing lack of reasons to buy, performance issues, or general disappointment.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 2.5h.

Session length: 2.0h.

Interplanetary is fun immediately for players who start in multiplayer with friends, supported by a clear tutorial and easy multiplayer setup. The main caveats are that solo play, empty public servers, and learning-curve or tedium friction can block that fun for some players.

Friction: Empty online multiplayer; Lackluster singleplayer; Steep learning curve; Tedious targeting and weapon management; Intimidating tutorial text; Long, slow build-up.

Unlock drivers: Playing with friends in multiplayer; Using hotseat or local multiplayer; Learning the rules via the in-game tutorial; Getting past the learning curve; Purchasing multiple copies for friends.

Social Hotseat Multiplayer Organizer: Hotseat and online multiplayer, usually PvP with friendly fire, in short social sessions. Motivation: To share turn-based artillery battles with friends in easy local or online matches. Stance: buy.

Physics-Minded Turn-Based Strategy Veteran: Optimizes tech, economy, orbital trajectories, and artillery barrages in turn-based strategy matches. Motivation: To master complex physics-based artillery strategy and outthink opponents through planning and resource management. Stance: buy.

Cautious Discount-Seeking TBS Fan: Plays turn-based strategy, often with friends, but waits for discounts before committing. Motivation: To buy a solid turn-based strategy game only when the price matches its content. Stance: deep sale.

Early access status and updates: Many reviews note the game is in early access or alpha. Players anticipate future updates and more features.

Multiplayer support and small community: The game supports online and local multiplayer, and large lobbies. However, the player base and multiplayer community are small, with low server populations and few open games.

Unique artillery gameplay similar to DEFCON: Gameplay involves planetary artillery combat, often compared to DEFCON, Worms, and Battleship. It features a three-dimensional tactical war between planets.

Enhanced Edition supersedes original: An Enhanced Edition exists and is considered better. Owners of the original received it for free, and it allows selecting old rules.

Clear in-game tutorial: The tutorial is well-received, with clear text and easy-to-understand English. Some players find it helpful for learning basic systems.