Planetary Dustoff

Developer: Rymdfall AB | Publisher: Rymdfall AB | Release Date: 20 February 2019 | Genre: Action / Roguelite / Top-Down Shooter | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Roguelite shooters tend to live or die by how quickly they can persuade players to start another run after losing everything. Planetary Dustoff certainly understands this principle. It drops players onto hostile alien planets, arms them with whatever weapons can be scavenged, and then fills the screen with creatures and projectiles while slowly dangling new suits, items, station upgrades, and equipment in front of them. The game is built around a revived Planetary Survey Program tasked with finding a new home for humanity, with each expedition sending another unfortunate explorer into environments where almost everything wants them dead.

The basic setup is little more than an excuse for the roguelite structure, but it works. Players begin aboard a space station that functions as the hub between attempts. As progress is made, new allies can be recruited to the station, and additional suits with unique powers become available. The game advertises more than 100 weapons and items spread across its alien environments, which ensures that runs can develop in very different directions depending on what turns up.

Once an expedition begins, Planetary Dustoff plays as a fast top-down shooter. Movement and aiming are handled independently, leaving players free to circle enemies, retreat while firing, or weave through projectile patterns. Procedurally assembled environments are filled with enemies, loot, shops, and whatever other opportunities the current run provides before culminating in boss encounters. The overall structure immediately brings games such as Nuclear Throne and Enter the Gungeon to mind, although Planetary Dustoff has its own stranger sci-fi personality and puts a little more emphasis on returning to and developing the station between runs. 

The shooting itself is straightforward but demanding. Enemy groups can grow very quickly, and the game is fond of filling the screen with incoming fire while forcing players to monitor their ammunition supply. Running out of ammo is a genuine possibility, which means the best weapon in the inventory is not necessarily something that can be fired indiscriminately at every small creature.

This adds a useful layer of resource management to the action. A powerful firearm might make short work of a dangerous enemy but leave the player with nothing useful for more challenging encounters. Switching between weapons and making use of whatever ammunition appears is therefore important, particularly during longer expeditions.

Health is even less forgiving. Recovery can be difficult to come by, so taking a few careless hits early in a run can have consequences much later. This is one of the reasons Planetary Dustoff becomes quite challenging. There is rarely much room for sloppy play, and the combination of scarce healing, limited ammunition, and unpredictable items means a run can collapse remarkably quickly.

Items provide much of the game’s personality. Some are straightforward improvements, increasing firing speed, adding shields, or offering temporary invulnerability after a dodge. Others deliberately come with bizarre or harmful effects. For example, items that increase ammunition consumption or even make spending money cause damage, turning what appears to be a useful pickup into something that can undermine the entire run.

This creates an interesting risk-versus-reward element because blindly grabbing everything is not always wise. Learning which items complement a build and which should be left alone becomes part of mastering the game. It also prevents runs from becoming a simple process of stacking every bonus available. There is a use for these negative items, but it requires skill to get the most out of them. 

Unfortunately, randomness can sometimes feel more cruel than entertaining. A run with strong weapons, useful defensive items, and enough ammunition can feel dramatically easier than one where the available equipment actively works against the player. That unpredictability is part of the roguelite appeal, but Planetary Dustoff occasionally crosses the line into frustration. Losing because of a poor dodge or bad tactical decision is easy to accept. Watching a promising run deteriorate because the available resources refuse to cooperate is less satisfying.

Enemy design provides plenty of variety in behaviour, but readability can also become a problem. Some creatures and their projectiles blend into the backgrounds, particularly when the environment uses similar colours. During hectic encounters, it can be surprisingly difficult to distinguish a dangerous projectile from harmless scenery until it has already connected.

For a game built around avoiding damage, this is a significant issue. Bullet-hell-style combat works best when threats are immediately readable, and Planetary Dustoff does not always provide enough contrast. Deaths caused by poor positioning feel fair; deaths caused by losing sight of a projectile against the terrain feel considerably less so.

Bosses provide the most obvious tests of a build. These encounters generally combine larger attack patterns, summoned enemies, and enough health to expose whether the player has been conserving ammunition properly. A strong setup can make them manageable, but reaching one with low health or depleted weapons can turn the fight into a desperate exercise in survival.

The game’s dodge is indispensable during these encounters. Rolling provides the mobility required to pass through dangerous situations and can be modified by certain items. Once the timing becomes familiar, slipping between enemy attacks and immediately returning fire is satisfying, although one mistake can still remove a painful chunk of health.

Progress between expeditions gives failed runs some purpose. The station gradually gains useful occupants and new options, while additional suits alter the abilities available during future attempts. This provides enough permanent progression to stop every death from feeling completely wasted without undermining the roguelite structure.

The suits are particularly important because they function almost like different character classes. Their special abilities encourage different approaches and give players reasons to revisit earlier areas with a new playstyle. This helps alleviate some of the repetition inherent in repeatedly fighting through the opening portions.

Repetition is nevertheless one of Planetary Dustoff’s weaknesses. The early game can become tedious due to limited variation, and this becomes more noticeable when several attempts end before reaching the later areas. The randomness changes the details, but familiar enemies and environments inevitably begin to blur together after enough failed runs.

This makes the difficulty something of a double-edged sword. Surviving a difficult expedition and reaching a new area feels genuinely rewarding, but repeated early deaths force players through content they have already mastered. Anyone who enjoys the process of slowly learning patterns and improving will probably find this addictive. Less patient players may simply become frustrated.

The game is also comparatively compact next to genre heavyweights. More than 100 weapons and items sounds substantial, but Planetary Dustoff does not have the enormous enemy, room, boss, and unlock variety of something like Enter the Gungeon. 

Visually, Planetary Dustoff uses chunky pixel art with colourful alien environments and exaggerated character designs. The style gives it a pleasantly old-school arcade appearance without being restricted to dull brown or grey sci-fi locations. Creatures, weapons, environmental objects, and effects all have a slightly goofy quality that suits the game’s tone.

The downside, as mentioned earlier, is visual clarity. Some enemies disappear too easily into their surroundings, and projectiles do not always stand out strongly enough from the terrain. During quieter sections, this is barely noticeable, but in crowded fights it can make the screen more difficult to read than it needs to be.

Animation is simple but effective. Weapons have clear firing effects, enemies react quickly, and the frequent explosions and projectiles give fights plenty of energy. The presentation is not technically elaborate, but the pixel-art aesthetic means it has aged well.

The soundtrack supports the arcade action without overwhelming it. Music becomes more energetic during encounters while quieter moments allow the strange planetary environments to breathe. Weapon effects and enemy noises provide useful feedback, though the visual information remains more important than audio for avoiding danger.

Controls are responsive and well suited to the genre. Keyboard and mouse provide precise aiming, while controller support is also available through Steam. The game’s challenge comes from enemy patterns and resource management rather than fighting against the controls.

Replay value depends heavily on whether the central loop clicks. Players who enjoy roguelites have plenty of reasons to return: different suits, weapon combinations, item synergies, bosses, station upgrades, and the simple desire to see what the next planet contains. The random nature of the equipment means that even familiar areas can play differently depending on what has been found.

Completionists also have a substantial achievement list to pursue, many of which encourage specific behaviours or discoveries rather than merely finishing the game. The difficulty means unlocking everything will require considerably more commitment than a single successful run.

Planetary Dustoff is therefore a game that is easy to admire but occasionally difficult to love. The core shooting is enjoyable, the item system can produce entertainingly strange builds, and the permanent station progression gives repeated attempts purpose. However, scarce health, limited ammunition, visually unclear projectiles, and occasionally cruel randomness can make failure feel more aggravating than educational.

Compared with Nuclear Throne, the combat is less immediately explosive, while Enter the Gungeon offers considerably more polish and content. Planetary Dustoff compensates with its peculiar items, space-station progression, suits, and slightly scrappier personality. It feels very much like a smaller indie interpretation of the same style rather than a direct competitor.

Overall, Planetary Dustoff is a challenging but enjoyable top-down roguelite shooter. Its alien environments, large collection of weapons and items, upgradeable space station, and different suits provide enough variety to support repeated runs, while bosses offer meaningful tests of whatever build has emerged. The game can be frustrating when healing refuses to appear, ammunition dries up, or enemy projectiles disappear against the scenery, but successful runs are satisfying precisely because survival is never guaranteed.