My Time at Portia vs Planet Explorers
My Time at Portia
My Time at Portia is a charming fantasy-themed adventure RPG that is set on a gorgeous, revitalized world after a post-apocalyptic event wiped out the previous technologically-advanced civilization. In this game, you play as an up-and-coming Builder, a respected role in society, whose sole purpose is to help solve the town's problems by engineering a solution.With a gameplay which may fondly remind you of games like Harvest Moon, My Time at Portia may be grindy in an RPG sort of way (think repeated dungeon runs or resource-harvesting), but the game has a nice relaxing pace, where its quests (both main and side quests) are slowly revealed as you progress. Being a Builder, you can also complete a commission request daily to collect some cash. The game also features an elaborate gifting/relationship-building system, fun ruin-diving areas, tons of interesting characters to meet, and challenging dungeons. You can even romance and eventually marry an NPC (not all though) you like!
The best part of the game is definitely its in-depth crafting system. There are tons of machines you can build to help you generate a wide variety of materials to build other stuff. You can also unlock new machine technologies via the Research Center.
My Time at Portia feels a lot like an adorable MMORPG minus the MMO part. It has the grind, the dungeon runs... but of course, this game places a lot more emphasis on its resource-collecting, as well as crafting and building aspects. Sounds like a game you'd like to play? Well, despite still being in early access, the first chapter of the game is already ready and bugs-free, so if you do buy the game, know that you can at least get a good 40 hours or so out of it.
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!