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Sometimes you don’t want to go too hard, you just want a nice little game where you transform a million hexagons of barren oblate spheroid into a lush new home for humankind with an atmosphere, plants, and animals. Is that too much to ask? It’s not, it turns out, because after a couple years in early access Plan B: Terraform has hit 1.0.
In Plan B you build up automated infrastructure to support growing new cities on your far-off world before weaning yourself off the support of earth, pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, partially melting some icecaps, and bathing in the sweet release of liquid water that eventually leads to lush, green life and animals. Unlike other games in the genre it’s a fairly chill one, with nice little production chains to put together but no desperate stress to solve the building puzzles at great speed or die.
The 1.0 release lets you explore your changed world as one of many different species of animals, including eagles, bears, boars, camels, elephants, and horses. It also includes new creative mode features that let you control minerals, water sources and drains, mountains, elevation, the size of cities, and more.
I’ve very much enjoyed Plan B the few times I’ve played over the early access period. It’s fun to plan your transit network around the growing seas, reroute highways around new rivers, and watch the weather patterns of your world grow based on how hot it’s getting. There’s also a huge, delightful moment when so much of the underground ice and gases have released that you can, finally, set up massive cargo shipping routes across the seas.
It sounds intimidating, and in other games it would be, but Plan B is calm and contemplative. You set up some pretty nice little logistics chains and learn about producing gases to increase both the atmospheric pressure and temperature, and then figure out which trees will be happiest where.
You can find Plan B: Terraform on Steam.
