After having played quite some bit since owning this game for almost a year, I must say it is indeed worth the price. Satisfactory is a game based on production and logistics. You advance to higher tiers as you acquire more resources and expand production.

Within the game, there are a plethora of different resources, each have at least one use unless it is labeled "WIP" or work in progress. This simply means that, while the resource is there, it hasn't been assigned a use yet. That being said, most resources you discover, such as copper, iron, coal, caterium, water, oil, organics and biofuel, etc. all are used heavily as the building blocks of a factory.

Maintaining power at first is always a thought in the back of my mind. Since leaves and wood can be turned into biofuel, power generators that use this as a fuel require a constant stock. That being said, using biofuel itself is the most efficient, however, getting to coal as soon as possible is ideal. This is because you can run water and coal into the power plant and let it be a hand-off approach as opposed to biofuel which requires manual refilling. While this may sound like a complete pain in the butt, it isn't and works quite well.

I know I went on a tangent about power but I feel a review should at least reveal some game details out side of the typical 1-10 scale based on criteria like graphics, sound, etc. All resources are ultimately transported via belt and sent into whatever building necessary. Some are stored, some are used for production, some are stored and used for production to create a buffer so that your belts don't get full, and so on. Building the factory logically does have its benefits, but I always recommend the spaghetti mess at first. It helps you learn what needs specific resources, how long it takes, and if you need to overclock the building to go faster.

All in all, people like to compare this to factorio. I don't think this is a fair comparison. Sure, there are logistics and production involved but that is where the differences end. You are not trying to get off the planet, you are not stuck with aliens constantly attacking (there are aliens and they will attack, but only if you encroach on their domain), and being a first person view game, you get a more hands on approach. Other things that set it apart is the unlimited resources. If you find iron, there will always be iron in that spot. That may sound lame but once you start stretching out the resources, you will need more miners.

I like the research tree, I like the different utilities and weapons, and I like the shop you can build and use tickets to purchase things like catwalks. Those tickets are generated from resources that you send in to be destroyed/recycled which spits out a ticket. After so many tickets, you can use the shop to get different items. Again, the shop isn't real money, its a game shop that takes tickets created from resources sent into the recycler.

Overall, I love the game. Coffee Stain Studios did a great job with Deep Rock Galactic and they have done a fantastic job with Satisfactory. Updates are fairly often but major updates are less so but usually at least twice a year if not more. If you are a logical minded person and love to create streamlined designs and see the results of your work, this game is for you.