Don't Starve vs Planet Explorers
Don't Starve
Don't Starve is a pretty dreary and dark survival game set in a rich world filled with plenty of animals/game to hunt, monsters to kill, and resources to gather. With a gothic-like theme, the game's best feature is perhaps the way it hands the reins to its players and let these players decide what sort of survival game they'd want to play and how difficult will the game be. You can literally customize everything in the world you'll be playing in, ranging from the weather, how frequent lightning strikes, how long a season lasts, how much resources are spawned and many more.The game also has a very nice selection of characters that you can gradually unlock as you play the game. Each character will even have their own specialty that you can then make use of when the situation calls for it.
Don't Starve is a survival game that's as punishing as it is vicious. Expect to die a lot in the game and turn all those deaths into useful lessons that you can then build upon. If you fancy surviving with your friends in tow, then you might want to get the multiplayer version of the game, Don't Starve Together, instead.
Planet Explorers
Planet Explorers is an exploration-driven, sci-fi-themed sandbox RPG where you play as one of the several pioneers who made it to the new planet, Maria… well, barely since you crashed landed on the planet. Here, you’ll need to work with your fellow pioneers to build a life and a colony for yourselves.This game is nothing short of amazing for a completely free-to-play title. Its crafting system is incredibly convenient for the player and despite the grind, gathering resources from the environment can be quite a relaxing endeavor, all thanks to the beautiful music and the immersive ambiance. Besides crafting and gathering materials like wood, rubber, and minerals, you can also hunt the local fauna for animal-based items like meat and animal fat which are needed to craft certain items. You can even tame these creatures and turn them into mounts!
Planet Explorers also comes with a rather nice storyline, an MMO-like questing system, sandbox features which allow you to build magnificent structures similar, in some ways, to Minecraft; and even build your own custom vehicles from scratch and take it out for a spin by driving around the massive map in this game.
Although the game seems to fall short of its potential of being a pretty darn great MMO game because the developers done messed up the codes, Planet Explorers still manages to offer a rather decent single-player experience. Plus, the game's completely free to play now and it doesn't contain any of those annoying ads or micro-transactions since the game was not built that way. Definitely worth a try!