Before we begin, I should point out that I’m writing this article because I love Factorio, the game. This isn’t a review, more an article documenting my impression of the game.
I’m a huge fan of base building and management sim games. They occupy a lot of my ever-constricting gaming time, especially games like Rust, Conan Exiles, Minecraft, and such. The problem is while I enjoy a peppering of PvP for some spicy gameplay moments, I’m always enthralled with the tech trees of these games, building them up, and finding the ‘best way’ to do things to survive and thrive in these sometimes harsh games.
24 hours of gameplay time in the space of 3 days, this game has its crane claws sunk deep into me… I see conveyer belts when I close my eyes!
Enter stage – Factorio. I’ve actually seen a number of people on my Steam Friends list enjoy this game for many many hours, and yet I never thought to take a look, until Dan (the “Wee Scotsman”) from my Final Fantasy XIV Guild pointed it out to me.
The game starts with a top-down view, of your little engineeer, and a simple premise. Build a factory to produce enough technology, and components to launch a space shuttle to get you off the planet; while surviving waves of hostile aliens. This game is complex despite its overarching goal.
Factorio’s gamplay, is deep. The technology tree is huge, it’s nuanced in how each step affects gameplay, and there’s so much to discover, research and learn that it can extend the lifetime of a single play-through exponentially. For example, Inserters (Cranes which move things from point A to point B) are customisable, they have their own set timings, different models have different movement speeds and create different “rhythms” of items on conveyor belts. A true master of automation could get the timing right between their orchestra of inserters to create a symphony of whirring and dancing to move items at the perfect speed for their production facilities, and maximise that item output.
For a game that does away with the AAA graphics, and ‘polish’ of those titles, it’s incredibly functional and the game’s mechanics, design and artistic direction don’t hold back with letting you control the flow of information you receive.
Factorio also supports the operation of a headless dedicated server, a huge bonus in my book, and in fact, I operate a private server for myself and close friends to connect to and play with. It’s been the most fun I’ve had with a building based game since… well, ever.
You can get Factorio on Steam and despite the $30 USD price tag, it’s well worth the price of admission. I can’t recommend this game enough to anyone who prefers technical, puzzle-like games, with a casual element of PvE.