Recent reviews by Xeteth

As someone who has spent somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3000 hours in Factorio I cannot give this game enough praise. Factorio is one of those unique 'early access' games that is feature rich and can cater for both casual and hardcore gamers alike. I will be breaking this review down into sections to give you an idea of the scope and overall Factorio product.



The game

Whilst Factorio is listed as being in early access it is full of content and provides many hours of gameplay to enjoy whilst working toward the current endgame goal. To new players this game provides an interesting and complex set of engineering challenges whereby you have to turn various machines, conveyor belts, robots, trains and power generators into a fully automated factory which ultimately launches a rocket into space. This is all done in a sandbox environment which allows you to explore and try new solutions for your factory.

However you are not alone; the native alien 'biters' are a hostile force who are not fond of you and your factory. They will mount attacks on you which you need to defend with the use of turrets and walls; of course you can also mount your own attack on them with a whole range of weaponry from tanks to shotguns or even be a 'combat robot wielding exoskeleton maniac' tearing through their bases. Although combat is not the main focus of Factorio it provides more depth to the gameplay and purpose to what you are trying to achieve.

Although the first play through is an exciting and awesome experience, I believe Factorio's success lies in its replay value. Finding new configurations of factory design, setting goals and achievements for yourself in game as well as playing with the various complex systems such as trains and the circuit and logistic networks provide more than enough content to be enjoyed for (literally) hundreds or thousands of hours. Many players can attest to tearing down old factories to build better and more efficient designs but also expanding to the stages of 'megabases'; huge factories with extreme production capabilities.

If the game seems a little daunting or you want to share the experience with a friend you are able to do this through the multiplayer feature within the game. This opens up a whole new level of fun as you work with others to achieve goals throughout the game.

Factorio takes inspiration from many games, notably; Minecraft modpacks with a heavy focus on production and automation; Transport style games such as Open TTD; and many base building style games.



The Community

The Factorio community is perhaps one of the best gaming communitites that I have been a part of. Most highly knowledgable players are more than willing to share gameplay tips, factory designs, provide assistance and answer questions as well as share interesting and complex combinator contraptions. In particular the Factorio Twitch community is particularly strong with a wide range of dedicated Factorio players with extensive knowledge on the game who are willing to help new players.



The Development Team

This is one of the key things that I look into before purchasing an indie game these days. It isn't possible for me to give enough praise to the team behind Factorio. Regular updates (every single Friday) are given on the situation with regards to development and all things Factorio. The team participates in various levels throughout the Factorio community (such as reddit, Twitch, the forums, etc.) and actively listen to both player suggestions and feedback on development proposals. These factors (as well as all that has been achieved already) give me the confidence in the team’s ability to produce further content and perfect the awesome game they have created.



Final Words

Factorio has taken the place as my all-time favourite game. When purchasing Factorio you will be receiving a polished product which has enormous amounts to offer to gamers of all ages. The game will challenge and test you; but the feeling of seeing that particular factory design or contraption 'work' is one of the most rewarding of any game I have ever played. The combination of an already awesome game, fantastic community and a passionate and dedicated development team ensures that Factorio will be one of the best indie games ever made. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this brilliant game.

Note: This is an Early Access review and may not reflect the finished product.

After spending aproximately 170 hours in FC:E I feel that I am able to give a fairly accurate review of the current state of the game.

FC:E basically has two modes to play in; Creative and Survival.

Creative
The game looks and feels very similar to many other voxel based games out there - notably Minecraft. However, FC:E stands out from the crowd due to the rather powerful tools that are available to the player. The various tools that you are able to use allow you to make very large and very intricate creations. Copy/Pasting sections of the world can be done very quickly and the ability to create your own blocks using the ingame workshop function allow a level of creativity that has not really been seen in such voxel games previously. I myself have not spent a huge amount of time in creative, however from the limited hours I have put in it became clear rather quick that those who enjoy the freedom of making anything they want will really benefit from these tools and this level of freedom.

Survival
Here's the mode that has stolen a huge amount of my time. In basic terms the survival aspect draws many of the gameplay aspects of those in Minecraft - mining, resource management etc. but here's where FC:E does it differently. A huge focus of FC:E's survival mode is based upon automation and logistics, creating large transport, mining and power networks to build a base and gather resources.

The blocks that exist in the game all have useful functions and although can be a bit daunting at first, are quite easy to use and options for creativity open up once you get the hang of things. If you've played anything like the Feed the Beast modpacks for Minecraft or Factorio then this is the game for you.

Current state of the game
As far as I am aware the engine for this game was built by the developers themselves, allowing them to tailor it to suit the needs of a game like this. It's definately not perfectly optimised, but I have certainly seen worse and the development team are constantly working to improve on this as well as fix bugs, this is to be expected in an Early Access game.

There's a decent amount of content in the game to allow you to spend quite a few hours building and creating what you want. The development cycle is quite fluid and the creators are quite active on the forums, responding to questions, asking for feedback, addressing issues etc.

Mobs and combat are the next big thing to come, which will add quite a bit in terms of gameplay as you will need to defend your base and resources.

Multiplayer in Creative is complete and as far as I'm aware pretty free of bugs. Survival Multiplayer is currently in a working condition although there are some bugs still to be ironed out, but as mentioned previously the devs are quite open and transparent about this and work on this is constant.

Overall I believe this game is a steal at it's current price. Judging from what is already in the game and what has been discussed as the future of FC:E on the forums I really think this game sets itself apart from all the Minecraft clones on the market.

I cannot honesly believe I paid my hard earned cash for this load of tripe. A ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with a pencil could've made something better.

Content 1/10
Storyline -5/10 (THERE WASN'T ONE)
Playability - wrists/10

Seriously this game is worth about $2 to have a mess around with. Save your money for pretty much any other game on steam that at least has some replay value.

Honestly I am speechless at how poor this is.