At 435hours of total playtime, Factorio has long since eclipsed my second highest playtime of 54 hours on a game.
I never thought I would spend so many hours playing a single game (that isn't even released yet) but there you have it.
That isn't including the hours I've spent on let's plays, wikis, and designing factories outside of the game. Which by the way is absolutely not necessary, Factorio can be played quite casually as well.

Reviewing such a masterpiece is difficult.
Suffice to say I haven't been so drawn into a game since joyous childhood games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Dungeon Keeper, or Starcraft. Factorio absolutely nails the "old school" classic feel but without looking dated. The game is absolutely gorgeous, the controls are sublime, and the gameplay loop is addictive - if you are like me and enjoy problem solving and fiddling with stuff to see what happens.

Factorio is a game about building factories and solving logistic puzzles, scaling your factory up to see how you can push yourself and the game to its limits - and you can do this entirely at your own pace. You could rush against the clock to escape the ravenous aliens that populate the world, or you can spend hours trying to figure out the optimal design for moving items off of a train, just because you can. Trust me, it is more interesting than it sounds.

Factorio provides a huge degree of player freedom whilst somehow still giving a great sense of direction and accomplishment for solving its endless puzzles. The pacing / sense of progression is absolutely spot on. I hate sandbox games, I much prefer single player games with a great campaign or story and for me the sense of progression is a critical factor in keeping my interest. I was surprised that I enjoyed Factorio as much as I did considering it is mostly free play.

When you are done with vanilla Factorio there are mods which can completely overhaul the game and can significantly extend your playtime. I have played around 30% of them, to give an idea. There is a massive amount of content here.

I will say that Factorio, like any game, is not for everyone. I've sometimes bought games that got rave reviews but turned out I thought they were pretty average. There is a free demo you can try which has several hours of content. Factorio doesn't need a high end machine to run on and the download size is small. You've got nothing to lose, except several hundred hours of your life. But if you are like me and have loved every minute then who is to judge.

Did I mention multiplayer? Multiplayer is fantastic, i sometimes play with old University friends, we are in our 30s but still have a ton of fun in this game. You can hop in, build a little bit of someone's factory whole having a chat and hop out. Once we had a few sessions to try and beat the speed run achievement together because doing that in single player seemed quite daunting. It was tons of fun.

Version 1.0 will be released in the next few weeks. Despite being in early access still the game is the most stable game I've played if you consider I found 1 trivial bug in 435 hours of playtime. The devs are stellar at bugfixing, just look at the release history. Factorio is feature complete at this point and absolutely polished and playable and worth the price ten times over.

The developers have stated that the game won't go on sale which is a welcome break from all the predatory behaviour in the gaming industry at the moment. What you see is what you pay, just like the games of old, no nonsense, no dlc, no microtransactions, no loot boxes, no subscriptions, no exclusive edition... Also, the price is really low for the quality and content and the many hours of playtime I have spent with this game.

If you still aren't convinced I guess wait for the professional reviewers to give better insight on this special game. For now I think I've said enough, and instead I could be playing.

10/10 strong recommend. Masterpiece / must play.
Try the demo for free. And if you are like me, say goodbye to your life.

At 435hours of total playtime, Factorio has long since eclipsed my second highest playtime of 54 hours on a game. I never thought I would spend so many hours playing a single game (that isn't even released yet) but there you have it. That isn't including the hours I've spent on let's plays, wikis, and designing factories outside of the game. Which by the way is absolutely not necessary, Factorio can be played quite casually as well. Reviewing such a masterpiece is difficult. Suffice to say I haven't been so drawn into a game since joyous childhood games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Dungeon Keeper, or Starcraft. Factorio absolutely nails the "old school" classic feel but without looking dated. The game is absolutely gorgeous, the controls are sublime, and the gameplay loop is addictive - if you are like me and enjoy problem solving and fiddling with stuff to see what happens. Factorio is a game about building factories and solving logistic puzzles, scaling your factory up to see how you can push yourself and the game to its limits - and you can do this entirely at your own pace. You could rush against the clock to escape the ravenous aliens that populate the world, or you can spend hours trying to figure out the optimal design for moving items off of a train, just because you can. Trust me, it is more interesting than it sounds. Factorio provides a huge degree of player freedom whilst somehow still giving a great sense of direction and accomplishment for solving its endless puzzles. The pacing / sense of progression is absolutely spot on. I hate sandbox games, I much prefer single player games with a great campaign or story and for me the sense of progression is a critical factor in keeping my interest. I was surprised that I enjoyed Factorio as much as I did considering it is mostly free play. When you are done with vanilla Factorio there are mods which can completely overhaul the game and can significantly extend your playtime. I have played around 30% of them, to give an idea. There is a massive amount of content here. I will say that Factorio, like any game, is not for everyone. I've sometimes bought games that got rave reviews but turned out I thought they were pretty average. There is a free demo you can try which has several hours of content. Factorio doesn't need a high end machine to run on and the download size is small. You've got nothing to lose, except several hundred hours of your life. But if you are like me and have loved every minute then who is to judge. Did I mention multiplayer? Multiplayer is fantastic, i sometimes play with old University friends, we are in our 30s but still have a ton of fun in this game. You can hop in, build a little bit of someone's factory whole having a chat and hop out. Once we had a few sessions to try and beat the speed run achievement together because doing that in single player seemed quite daunting. It was tons of fun. Version 1.0 will be released in the next few weeks. Despite being in early access still the game is the most stable game I've played if you consider I found 1 trivial bug in 435 hours of playtime. The devs are stellar at bugfixing, just look at the release history. Factorio is feature complete at this point and absolutely polished and playable and worth the price ten times over. The developers have stated that the game won't go on sale which is a welcome break from all the predatory behaviour in the gaming industry at the moment. What you see is what you pay, just like the games of old, no nonsense, no dlc, no microtransactions, no loot boxes, no subscriptions, no exclusive edition... Also, the price is really low for the quality and content and the many hours of playtime I have spent with this game. If you still aren't convinced I guess wait for the professional reviewers to give better insight on this special game. For now I think I've said enough, and instead I could be playing. 10/10 strong recommend. Masterpiece / must play. Try the demo for free. And if you are like me, say goodbye to your life.