The game by the Czech studio Wube Software is leaving Early Access on September 25th
"Factorio is a game where you build a giant factory to produce the materials that go into building a larger factory, with the purpose of scaling up to an even larger factory, that in turn produces the components necessary to maintain that factory." (a player's short desctription)
Videogame world does not lack games about the space adventurers marooned on distant planets and trying hard either to reach home or to set a colony (Subnautica and No Man's Sky are the first ones that came into my mind but you can add more examples in the comments). The construction sim Factorio tells the story of an engineer whose ship fell on a habitable planet with plenty of water, trees and some animal species. But this time, we shall not devote our game time to wildlife exploration. We'll start building a ship to return home.
Sounds familiar?.. However, while in other games you've got some necessary details already scattered around the crash site, and the construction process might be as easy as "gather 10 units of titan, copper and lithium, make 3 plasteel bars and some wires", the character of "Factorio" will have to develop an industry from the 19-century level to the level of their time (might be far beyond our days).
To build only one spaceship and leave the planet, you will have to build and run a huge number of machines and industrial facilities, from the primitive stone furnaces to nuclear power plants, and, most importantly, find the source of energy for them. You will learn how complicated and sophisticated the industrial process is, especially as it comes to the airspace sector.
A lot of your time and efforts will be taken by the development of infrastructure: electrical grid, pipelines for water, oil and oil products. As the mineral assets may be located quite far from each other and get depleted with time, the player will need a large transportation network which includes numerous assembly lines, railways and different kinds of drones which may be upgraded. You will order drones to carry various spare parts to the assembly point or send trains with dry or liquid cargo from one location to another.
Is this boring? Not for a second! Having started the game, you'll get absorbed and be reluctant to quit. Honestly, I can't remember a shooter which would make me play from 9 PM to 2 AM. "Factorio" did. You have to think a lot and permanently keep in mind many things, but you permanently get rewarded for your success with new tech and access to new resources and stronger weapons.
To make things more complicated, the developers made our planet populated by large aggressive insects which react to the pollution caused by your plants and mining sites. Yes, yes, if even you are not the first to strike, the bugs will feel the smell and come to destroy your plant. Moreover, the enemies evolve, as pollution increases; they get bigger and more dangerous. The solution is to explore more efficient technologies, to use solar energy and to create a strong defense system for your base. And don't even hope that solar energy itself will stop the war. Luckily, you may be proactive and eliminate the nests which surround your plant, and the game gives a lot of opportunities to do it.
"Factorio" opens a huge field for creativity. The player can make their production site unique and beautiful, decorate it with lights, program drones and trains to perform various tricks or launch a "bug Apocalypse" with the help of nuclear missiles. Many players use the game as a means to express themselves. And I must admit, it's hard to fly away, having invested so much energy and fantasy into your production chain. By the way, the game has campaigns for multiplayer, so you may ask your pals to join you.
What I especially liked about the game, is that it makes you realize humanity's bad influence on the biosphere. What I regret, is the lack of opportunity to change it. For example, trees lower the pollution index. By cutting trees, we free space for machines and therefore raise the level of pollution, but the game does not allow us to plant new trees at another place that we don't currently need. We can assemble high-tech machines, but somehow we cannot strip down the unneeded object and get back the needed resources or spare parts. It highly surprised me that we can travel to other star systems but cannot recycle things. Just absurd, isn't it? But this loose end may easily be forgiven.
I would advise "Factorio" to everyone who enjoys planning, designing things and training their mind and who is not afraid of the slow-paced gameplay. I would advise playing 2 or 3 chapters of tutorial. If you are not a kid, you will hardly need more.
My evaluation: 9 of 10