In “Planet C,” scientists attempt to terraform and colonize a new planet as environmental disasters and social upheaval threaten earth.

Gameplay: The game is a simulation written in an epistolary style, with the main character dispatching letters indicating his actions and receiving letters describing their effects. The simulation is a particularly simple one, though, and the only influence the player has over it is choosing about a half-dozen ships to bring resources to the new planet. The letters don’t contribute much to the game besides padding it out, and the characters they introduce don’t have much detail or resonance. 4/10.

Mechanics: The player interacts with the game simply by choosing the order of the ships that arrive on the new planet. There are relationships among them, and the walkthrough lists several winning sequences, but the game isn’t deep in terms of either mechanics or plot. 4/10.

Presentation: Although the writing in the game is fine itself, the bulk of the letters are dull. Several of them end with pictures of various characters, and it’s hard as a player to work up much interest in looking at a picture of a character I have little interest in. There are more interesting variations in the endings based on how successful the player is at managing the nascent colony. The indications about dead colonists and the notes in the letters about the precarious situation on Earth, however, fail to convey the intended sense of danger or loss. 4/10.

You might be interested in this game if: You’re interested in a simple game involving some ideas from hard sci-fi.

Score: 4