This game should be the face of everything I hate- blind production in the name of "research" so that you can produce more things at a faster rate. And exterminating the aliens of the planet you're invading because they have an issue with your rape of their landscape. That being said, it is extremely compelling. The game forever shows you that you can always do better. You can always build more efficient routes. You can be more elegant, faster, more productive. Suppose you wanted to make an inserter- a crane-like arm that can move an object from an adjacent belt and move it to either another belt, or a chest, or an "assembly machine"- a factory. To make an inserter, you need one iron plate, one iron gear and one electric circuit. The plate is the product of a forge, where raw iron is cooked into workable plates. Gears cost one plate to make. A circuit is a plate, and three pieces of copper wire, themselves made from copper plate. So to make an inserter you need one gear assembly machine, one copper wire assembly machine, one circuit assembly machine and one inserter assembly machine, plus the forges and coal to make the metal plates in the first place, and some sort of electrical power so that the inserters and assembly machines run. If this itself sounds dull, it is. What is fascinating is how to make it perfectly efficient and maximally productive. Playing this game is how I imagine how and engineer or someone who feels compelled to build pac-man in minecraft feels on a daily basis, seeing everything as abstraction, attempting to make everything perfect. It's a hellish feeling. I hate this game. But you should buy it if only for the experience and joy of doing it right.

The game does have a substiantial issue with pacing. In a campaign mission, there's usually at least half an hour of just plain waiting. The music is bad. Some of the recipes are unnecessarily obscure. The game isn't extremely keen on hand-holding, and likes a lot to trick you and point and laugh at your errors. Like failing to kill all the aliens before you start Big Industry. I would have appreciated a slightly more close focus to chemistry. Additionally, like in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, I'd have loved to be able to befriend the aliens.

In short, Factorio is a big playbox just perfect for someone who looked at Minecraft and thought, "This game needs to have all its charisma sucked out of it, and replaced by AUTOMATION. BLEEP BLOOP I HAVE NO SOUL."

This game should be the face of everything I hate- blind production in the name of "research" so that you can produce more things at a faster rate. And exterminating the aliens of the planet you're invading because they have an issue with your rape of their landscape. That being said, it is extremely compelling. The game forever shows you that you can always do better. You can always build more efficient routes. You can be more elegant, faster, more productive. Suppose you wanted to make an inserter- a crane-like arm that can move an object from an adjacent belt and move it to either another belt, or a chest, or an "assembly machine"- a factory. To make an inserter, you need one iron plate, one iron gear and one electric circuit. The plate is the product of a forge, where raw iron is cooked into workable plates. Gears cost one plate to make. A circuit is a plate, and three pieces of copper wire, themselves made from copper plate. So to make an inserter you need one gear assembly machine, one copper wire assembly machine, one circuit assembly machine and one inserter assembly machine, plus the forges and coal to make the metal plates in the first place, and some sort of electrical power so that the inserters and assembly machines run. If this itself sounds dull, it is. What is fascinating is how to make it perfectly efficient and maximally productive. Playing this game is how I imagine how and engineer or someone who feels compelled to build pac-man in minecraft feels on a daily basis, seeing everything as abstraction, attempting to make everything perfect. It's a hellish feeling. I hate this game. But you should buy it if only for the experience and joy of doing it right. The game does have a substiantial issue with pacing. In a campaign mission, there's usually at least half an hour of just plain waiting. The music is bad. Some of the recipes are unnecessarily obscure. The game isn't extremely keen on hand-holding, and likes a lot to trick you and point and laugh at your errors. Like failing to kill all the aliens before you start Big Industry. I would have appreciated a slightly more close focus to chemistry. Additionally, like in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, I'd have loved to be able to befriend the aliens. In short, Factorio is a big playbox just perfect for someone who looked at Minecraft and thought, "This game needs to have all its charisma sucked out of it, and replaced by AUTOMATION. BLEEP BLOOP I HAVE NO SOUL."