🔥 💻 🕹️📋🧨☢️🌈☠️💖🦀🍔🍟🐶🦗📈 📉
♛ ♚📺🔧🛸🏰

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=788781155

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It is fun, little game. It is worth the asking price and represents fine value for what developer asks for its product. However, game fails in being anything more than a passing fancy.

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When I'm looking for an autobattler, I imagine that I'm going to build my troops, direct them how to fight and then see how each of my decisions influence then battle. I would cheer my units as they fight and blame myself for my poor choices when they lose. This is what I imagine when I heard term ''autobattler''. This is what this game tries to offer, but completely fails at.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971309024
This game falls into the same mistakes as every other autobattler to my knowledge. It immediately devolves into incomprehensible mess of units and spells which are impossible to decipher. Gameplay becomes not about auto battling, but about picking meta strategies.

It is a game about meta strategies, resource management between waves and getting more ahead as you get ahead. Game is about using minimal resources to pass waves in order to stack gold which later can be translated to late end army with buffs.

This then has the opposite effect where you play the waves rather than battles. You know some waves to be harder than others and thus you invest more into that particular wave. Game becomes not about micromanaging battles or having an impact on them. It is all about micromanaging your resources between battles with heavy bias towards winning more. That means that if you get ahead, you get even more ahead. This translates into your troops just rolf-stomping right to the end and game offering no challenge at all.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971390992
Your units are unlikely to have any impact on a battle and types of units can interchangeably be taken. This game is not about auto-battling and influencing combat with spells. It is about meta gaming waves and frantically spamming your cooldowns while ignoring all action on the field.

Upgrades
• In this picture you can see various upgrades. Things like having additional options is largely useless as it is something you want to have early on, but 70 gold is a massive investment! You can get two draws of entire new tier. The best of it, you can start scaling sooner.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971293130
  In a same manner, getting upgrades on your draw is completely irrelevant, because you do not want to stay on low tier units. They are completely useless in this game. The only thing which scales well are the last tier units. In this game you want to get to tier 5 and as quickly as possible to get upgrade to amount of units you get. Then you want to get to 700 gold and get maximum gold bonus. This is how you really start rolling with the upgrades in this game. This is how you meta game. There is no auto-battling in this game, just meta-gaming the system.
  
  Difficulty
  
• You can't even blame the player as game is designed like that. Real game is in higher difficulty settings. However, those are just +999% to enemy having everything more. Your units do not scale at all. Your units cannot be controlled at all besides speed slider which decides which units will likely to get to the front first. There is no value to be gained from influencing battles and thus game fails at a fundamental aspect of being an autobattler which is fine. I never seen a good auto-battler ever made.
  
  Meta Progression
  
• At last, this game has stench of Vampire Survivors. Some systems are outright copied without thinking if they are worthy benefit to the game. Game has that annoying pacing where you could just AFK for first 5 minutes. First waves in this game are completely pointless. It has similar scaling and hero unlocks too. It draws inspiration from that game. However, copying a bad system will still not make it good. It only gets worse. This is a game where you cannot progress to higher difficulties, because you need to grind flat out power increases.

This game is fun for a while. However, there is little gameplay and variety. Longevity in this game is supposed to come from doing the same thing over and over again with different heroes on higher difficulty settings. Sadly, there is nothing tightly balanced. It is just throwing feces to the wall and seeing what sticks. Tiering is pointless. Some upgrades are useless. Unit abilities do not matter. Spells vary between game breaking and bad. Game lacks solid gameplay foundations to be interesting in the long run. It is just a small, silly flash game which is great for entertaining you for a few hours before you get bored with it.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow endless discussions under my reviews, because it rarely ends well.

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It is a clever, but simplistic puzzle, rogue like game. It is entertaining to manipulate enemies even if game ends up being too easy.

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Game promises a clever enemy manipulation and dynamic turn based combat system where you can plan ahead what you want to do. Game is best when you manage to use your opponents against each other. Flipping enemies, teleporting them next to each other in order to do damage to themselves. Things like that makes you smile!

Combat system is also fair and interesting. You can pick your own action and then enemies do their action. Your turn always takes a priority. It feels fair, because you are always in control. Rules are fair and easy to understand with little practice. This makes me hate myself for messing up and not the game for screwing me up. When you get this feeling, you know game does something right!

It is also has a nice interface to show you how everything behaves exactly if you forgot:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965766763

The core problem with this game is that it is not very difficult. It is really trivial at the moment and you end up taking damage more due to not being bothered to care rather than being outplayed. It is also a fundamental problem as I can't see the way how developer is going to fine tune the balance for it to still be fair without over-inflating enemies damage and health. The core design does not permit for much difficulty as there is one row with very limited move set. A player can quickly figure out the best solution and at that moment, game must either become unfair or create arbitrary challenges as it is had done in the demo.

The best example I can give is of checkers and chess. When you can move your units just in one way, game is relatively simple. When there are different types of units which must support each other, then games explodes in difficulty as there are exponentially more important considerations to make. This game is like checkers. It has only one row to take care of and as such, it can be easily figured out and beaten by players IF developer maintains a fair playing book for you.

A bad kind of balancing is when a mob spawns, it can charge next turn at you with 6 damage and that is a basic kind of mob. Game then devolves into finding specific skills which help to mitigate the issue, stacking specific items like a shield. Gameplay becomes broken and this is why it is difficult to balance game such as this and it might not ever be balanced. Game tries to mitigate this with various arbitrary challenges like beating game without spending X amount of gold, beating in X amount of time, etc. While it makes game naturally more challenging, not all players (like myself) are interested in achievement hunting.

This results in a simple truth. There is no point in manipulating enemies in this game. It is just easier to outright kill them. To shift positions with them to dodge an attack becomes a standard move and the extent of combining moves. Gameplay does not require manipulation of your enemies to emerge victorious, because they are always far weaker than you. Even bosses are too weak and only serve as HP sponges.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. Why should I ever be motivated to think about clever combinations then I can just...wipe my enemies instantly?
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965784284

There are few things which had stuck out in this game. They are minor things which sometimes are frustrating.

Unclear in-game descriptions
• In-game menu is not clear. When you got through the map, you can't know what further events means without having already experienced them. This game has an impressive system where you press on "?" symbol and it highlights what each enemy and skill does. However, game could use more clarity between locations.
  
  For example, even after two hours of play I still do not know what kind is this shop. Why game has to come up with its intricate names when at the same time it tells you what shrine does in the most straightforward manner possible?
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965766733
  RNG nature
  
• Ultimately, it is just another rogue-lite game where roll of a dice dictates your run. I had runs where I needed some enchantment, used every opportunity to get it, used all my gold in re-rolling outcomes, but I still could not influence game to give what I wanted for my build. As you unlock more things, influence which RNG has on a run increases and I would enjoy seeing more stability in gameplay. A player should be able to exert more influence on its runs. For example, with more options to choose to what kind of shop he is going, re-rolling upgrade temples, etc.
  
  Technical Issues
  
• Game needs to be congratulated for being technically competent enough to recognise my audio input by default. It is a bane of a lot of indie games as they just fail to account that someone might be using a sound card. However, this game does not have a frame cap. This results in unnecessary use of hardware and might even result in some lag when CPU is taxed at 100% and you are using multiple demanding applications.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this demo. However, I do not think that this is game which could hold my attention for long. It is too simplistic, there isn't much room for deep mechanics. It is easy and the only difficulty is in form of arbitrary challenges which I have no interest in completing. It is a game which you probably are going to enjoy, but you will drop quickly without remembering why you stopped playing.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow endless discussions under my reviews, because it rarely ends well.

Programming in this game is bad. While it is powerful, it is incredibly messy and buggy (objects sending wrong signals, your computers not registering signal if it goes too fast). It gives you massive freebies in some areas while not in others. You can do incredible things with it, but when you play with it, you have to ask yourself. Why I'm spending so much time on a video game? Maybe more fulfilling use of my time would be building an actual computer with my own electronic components? These are the questions I was asking myself while trying to learn programming in Factorio.


This game gives you a lot of simplifications. You can sum, divide, multiply, send signals, compare signals. This is what you would expect from a video game. You do not want to be programming computer when playing Factorio. Massive simplifications like reading content of a crate helps players a lot.

However, then we come to the main issue. A lot of basic elements of programming is missing. Where is Memory? You can't store value in this game! That is right, you have to create the entire circuit on your own. Game holds your hand with giving freebies left and right, but a fundamental block of programming is missing and it is a massive difficulty jump. It contradicts entire design of programming in this game. It tries to simplify things everywhere, gives you freebies, sometimes massive freebies and then in random places it is unnecessarily and unreasonably complex.

Along other elements which I had missed is:
-Signal generators;
-Clocks;
-Flip flops;


The absolute worst part in this game is that programming elements are all put into one box. This arithmetic combinator serves as a logic gate with many functions. However, this makes same combinators very crowded as you will be putting same signals back into their inputs. All of it are done through wires. Quickly any circuit becomes incomprehensible. There are only two colour wires, there isn't any way to handle wires. You can't remove wires without removing the whole logic gate. In other words, any programming in Factorio is nightmarishly messy.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949211540

As you proceed with circuits, anything simple like my written circuit to control flow of resources into conveyor belt end up as a massive bundle of wires and computers. It is really messy to see what is going where. This is a big failing of programming in this game. Programming is supposed to be elegant, not messy.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963288588

There is also isn't a menu where you could build a blueprint. You would need a separate window where you could see logical expression of your circuit. Connect lines to elements and run a simulation to see if everything is correct. If it is, you then could press a button: "Transfer to blueprint" and have everything set up to be built, together with variables which you had set up in simulation. At the moment debugging is needlessly complex.


It is a powerful tool, but it has a problem. It is complex enough to reasamble the real deal. However it lacks everything that makes real deal so enticing. It also makes you question if you shouldn't just play with real circuit programming as it has more value in a real world. As it being off shot of a game, an additional feature written off developer's bucket list. It remains unfinished in a lot of parts. Have missing features which you would have with a real programming. It is also a pain to use in a game.

In the end it is quirky and archaic in game programming which end up more difficult to learn and to understand than a real circuit programming, because insufficient tutorials, bizarre developer logic and missing features which you would get with real programming.

This is probably the best representation of what is wrong with Factorio. It is complex enough to be difficult, but lacks flexibility and logic of a real thing. You can make some things work with it, but you can't make complex things with it which you would be able with a real thing.


First of all, it takes talent to spend so much time and effort in trying to teach something to people and then completely fail at it. Developers are uniquely gifted in creating huge tutorial about train section, filled with real exercises and theory which utterly fails to teach players anything.

It reminds me of my time in university studying circuits. I spend the whole weekend in trying to understand my project with textbooks and given examples. I could grasp some things, but just could not really understand it properly that I could make something useful out of it. Then my colleague came and asked if I completed it. I said no, I'm trying to understand it from textbook. He laughed and handed me examples of other students works. I instantly understood everything by looking at other student's project and could complete my own work easily! I even aced examination, explaining professor method in most complex way possible. This is the vibe I'm getting with in game tutorials. I somehow managed to complete tutorial several times and still have no clue how it is supposed to work...


I spent about 5 hours trying to figure them out and I just gave up. I do not think that task can be even accomplished as I want to. A simple chain is easy enough. However, when you need to attach independent train line with another, this is where problems happen. Even after creating a miniaturised model, I was unable to send a signal to nearby line. It seems that signal is being sent directly through the line, which means that you need to send signal linearly upwards next connection. This is very cumbersome as you need to set signals kilometers apart and you still won't be able to send a signal to adjacent line. It also does not allow realistic expansion to a lot interconnected lines. Game allows you to control junctions that another train would not crash into a passing train. However, when you need to check for an entire route, this becomes problematic.

Rail signals also seem to be bugged as I experienced them receiving a negative signal when line should not be controlled elsewhere. Rail signal received a signal all whole railroad even without a visual confirmation that this part is being controlled. I removed a signal on the other side and my rail signal went blank.

This is the problem I have with this game. There isn't an interface to debug anything. Logic is designed around single routes. You cannot use same signals to control several routes. You cannot use same rail for different directions and trains with different routes. Game is designed around single rail going to a single destination. When you try to use same infrastructure, you get into engine limitations like signals not working on very long lines.


In the end I had given up. I decided just to program my rail network. In-game programming is a lot easier than figuring out this rail networks. It is good enough when you do simple connections like presented in tutorial, but its logic is not adapted to more complex networks. Even with programming, I found various bugs. For example, station sends signal of: "Red V 1" when it should send signal of: "V 1". In logic gates "Red" does not exist and I have no clue from where this 13 comes when I set value to 1.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963282698

Another issue is that train signals cannot be programmed. They have Read function, but it does not work. Even if conditions are met, you cannot change signal from red to green. So, I decided to use Train Stop for programming. It also had issues with very confusing interface. First, for some reason you need to send signal to the train, but Signal Stop has its own separate logic check. So, there is a thing which was overlooked. Normally train checks condition at a Train Stop. However when it comes to programming, it ignored conditions at a train stop and you need to send condition directly to the train...Yeah.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963282779

Programming is also not without its bugs in this game. Train Stops are a prime example how archaic this game is in regards to a lot of things. It is very unintuitive in random places. It also has various bugs which just frustrates you when you are trying to accomplish something. In the end, I had finally managed to set up my train controller after many hours.

If there is one thing which Factorio had managed to impress me is how convoluted and backwards it is for doing any complex task in it. I seriously started watching videos how you can make computer from electronics parts and I find THAT more fun and easy than this BS in Factorio.

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These types of games are born when someone looks at what is popular and they decide to make a twist on it to benefit from a market segment. However, this game falls short and as an imitator, it fails to achieve strengths of Risk of Rain 2 and it amplifies its failing.

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Before I go too hard on this game, I must say that game has some redeeming qualities. It is competently put up. It made some improvements in Risk of Rain formula like time freeze and choice during power up pick ups. Game has a solid foundation to work on. However, it is kind of game which just screams that it needs a sequel which would rework everything to be better.

...And I do not mean in a good way. It feels so formulaic, so generic and lacking in creativity. There is nothing interesting in this game. There are very few improvements. Where is ambition to have your own game? It feels like developers looked at what is popular, what games are missing in the market and they just tried to fill a niche. This level of passion shows up in this game.

No End Game
• The biggest fault of this prologue (demo) is that it has no way to win this game. It just loops over and over, carrying the worst aspect of Risk of Rain 2. In that game there are several ways to win the game. That is the point for most runs. Runs which just fail to end, while entertaining at first, become tiresome very quickly. This game wants to do looping levels of RoR, but it fails at its most important aspect. It is that of having variety within runs. Doing secrets. Doing meta objectives. Getting tired of a game and choosing in what way you want to end game. This game however has none of it. It is just endless looping over the same level again and again.
  
  Poor Scaling
  
• Another issue which this game is that scaling in this game is terrible. It is way too easy to scale out until enemies pose no danger to you. Then the only scaling option becomes multiplying damage you deal and take. Do you know that risky gear in Risk of Rain 2? Yes, it is here too of course, but it is common. You will get several of them in every run. Enemies will still do no damage to you. You will still melt everything. It gets so bad that I do not even need to destroy bosses, they kill themselves off screen. Then you end up completely randomly to some pillar AoE effect out of nowhere, because you touched edge of it. It is this kind of bad, broken, boring balancing.
  
  Uninteresting Items
  
• This game carries nonsensical items from Risk of Rain. The area where they could had improved is actually even worse. They are even more nonsensical and difficult to read on the battlefield than in Risk of Rain 2. They took a bad system and made it worse. That is the perils of imitation.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951209229
  You will get legendaries from Risk of Rain 2 pretty often. Here they however serve as main method of balancing. Since enemies do no damage to you, you keep stacking it on yourself. Enemies still don't do any damage to you, but now you at least can die randomly and completely unexpected from tip toying into AoE. That is always fun, isn't? To die out of the blue.
  
  Amateur enemy models
  
• Enemy models are just bad. They are minimalistic, but are not iconic like in Risk of Rain 2. This is due to them having little power in their abilities and being far less detailed in game. It is far worse in this game, because basic enemies you meet are the same for the whole game while RoR have different enemies for each map. Each of those enemies have unique strengths and weaknesses which were a challenge to figure out when we played that game. Here however nothing has any strengths or weaknesses. You all just Pew Pew Pew away as if players wanted even more simplified game.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951208817
  This model exemplifies well to just how much love this game received. What I'm fighting here exactly? This is supposed to be big enemy boss. However, it is just a generic golem with generic attacks. I can't even pin point its form. Even out of place models in Risk of Rain 2 are better simply because they try to be unique. Giant fire breathing lizards? Yeah, that is memorable. This? This is just generic mass of polygons which I never remember, because I do not know what this is even supposed to be!
  To make it worse, even developers themselves have no clue what it is. In game objective is to kill a Siren when actually you need to kill a Prince which is not prince at all, but giant mech. Just an utterly confused mess.
  
  Generic Setting
  
• Setting is nonsensical. It does little to establish what you are doing. Why you are here. It talks in vague terms like some Dark Souls game. It is bad story telling in that game and it is bad story telling here. It gives me no context. This is complete opposite of RoR. Your ship crashed down, survivors fell into a strange new planet. You all are trying to escape the planet. Here, strong and simple context to what we are doing there. In this game however I had no clue what I was trying to achieve. I went for 2,5 hours trying to die and failing at that and I was none the wiser why I was doing all of it.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951209813
  Here is a good example. What I'm doing here precisely? I'm supposedly being under attack and I defend my realm. Why I need to charge portals? Why attention level is increasing? What are those weirdly named effects? There is no context to what you are doing. You are doing this, because Risk of Rain did it. You are here just doing the same thing, but worse.

The core problem of this game is that it tries to be too much as Risk of Rain without grasping or having capabilities to do things which made that game so great. Thus it fell short on things which make that game so good while exacerbating its shortcomings. The core foundation is here. Developers could make something interesting out of it, but I also see a risk of it being just a mediocre clone about which I could say just this: it is like Risk of Rain, but from isometric perspective and worse.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow endless discussions under my reviews, because it rarely ends well.

I wanted to make a post detailing my impressions about this game. I tried game once when it was in beta, but I did not played far. Stopped before going into fuel production. Now as I'm playing it once more, I wanted to share my impressions of a mid game before going unto the deep end. It might also be interesting how different players tackle same challenges in a completely different way.


The first thing which I had noticed is how OP is solar panels. They are easy to produce by hand. They produce electricity by night. Factory does not care about unstable power supply. It will work anyways. Here is power graph of my factory:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949199588

I was wondering why there isn't any wind or geothermal electricity in this game. My friend said that there was, but it was removed/not added in order not to cheese biters in this game. He probably talked out of his behind like he loves to do. However, I do think that Factorio players are getting a lot of freebies.

• Infinite energy generators - belts.
  
• Click and drag power infrastructure. As a senior engineer working in electricity/gas company I can't help, but to cringe on how simplified this whole process is. No, it is not even remotely realistic and it will not work like that in real life.
  
• There is no maintenance of factories. No pollution generated. In reality coal power plants would generate a steady stream of trash which you would have to automatise of getting rid of. Entire game is like that, it is missing whole dimensions of complexity.
  
• There is no lifespan disruptions. No broken parts. No less electricity due to clouds. Solar panels generating power during night, etc. You get so many freebies in this game.

Now, pollution and bitters had me scratching my head even when I played during beta. Even if I would set bitters to maximum aggressiveness, they would just refuse to attack me. Throughout entire playthrough, I got only a random attacks. I then just lowered my pollution level and attacks stopped. I spend entire game just standing and thinking how to do stuff. Bitters are continuously evolving. However, they are non present in this game. They never attack me nor they are never an obstacle to me. They are just here. I broke this mechanic just by mere presence.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949201826

I thought that further manufacturing will be extremely polluting which would attract attacks. However, that is not the case. As you see there are two bases. The second base is where I produce all my oil related production. I transfer coal with train and send back my oil related goods. It is not very polluting to produce oil or its goods.

I just spread bases depending on complexity of production.

• First grade products are stuff which requires one base material. That is being mined and smelted like: Iron Ore -> Iron Plate -> Steel Bar.
  
• Second grade production is production which requires several different components. I'm planning to make distant base in order to spread pollution across wider map more equally.
  
• Third grade production is the most advanced parts which require combination of various lower tier parts. Like engines being combined with other equally difficult to produce elements.
  
• Oil products. I split them into separate group, because they are location specific. I mine them in an area and just produce all base goods related to them in a same area.

This is my layout of my planned base. Bitters to me are non existent in this game. I do not know why Factorio players to me seems those rapid polluters who crave to destroy environment all around them. Even developer seems to promote this anti-green message in their game via achievements and lack of ecological solutions. My friend was like: "I hate trees" and I was like "Whut? Why?".

As I played, I learned that trees are the most valuable and advanced machinery which I own. They do not require any complex logistics chains. They are perfect, all inclusive solution for air pollution. They also prevent desertification, create humid environment and enable local wildlife to exist. Sure, none of it is modelled in this game. However, trees serve as a wall against pollution. It stops it right in its tracks and I take great care in avoiding destruction of forest or any trees in my playthrough.

The only thing which is slightly annoying is how bitter colonies are spread evenly across the map. Finding some unoccupied zone seems more like a bug of random generation than a feature. To me it is unrealistic and annoying gameplay feature that I just can't pack my stuff and go somewhere where are no bitters.


I tend to play this game by just standing a lot. To me, each new technology needs mastering. This is why when developers gave me programming, it was just a massive stop on my progress. Of course I will use them immediately when I get them! I need them to balance clogging of my belts. Due to inability to control inputs and outputs, I cannot fine tune to give a precise amount of output despite how much input it has. In other words, if I add a million smelters and extractors, entire line is going to get swarmed by production and it might break without further re-adjustment. So, I needed a solution which would solve that.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949211540

This is my solution. This simple thing took about 5 hours until I figure it from grounds up myself. It is a computer which tracks how many inputs were are in a chest. It is programmed to insert only 4 metal plates and 2 copper plates. When it is full, my other inserter unloads its content. When signal goes back to signal - 1, computer re-checks contents of a crate. At signal 0 it unloads the crate. It also can act as a clock which defines a frequency at which various elements can work.

This is a programmable belt inserter computer. I can modify it to check any kind of content and work at different speeds. In general, I found programming in Factorio to be archaic and awkward. It lacks features which you would normally expect from such low level programming. Other features are unintuitive as hell. It also gives you massive freebies. I had to check how people check contents of a crate, because....really? Just to check contents of a crate is an impossible task which even most cutting edge AI would find problems detecting reliably. Here however it is given as a freebie together with infinite energy belts. This is how you know it is s a game and it has those extreme simplification in some areas while curiously lacking such simple things like variables and memory in its programming language. The end result is this mess of a language which never was fully developed or given attention which it otherwise might deserved. It is sufficient for game's needs, but it feels like you are really struggling to do things which in actual low level language would be a lot more straightforward when you spend time and effort to learn it. Instead we are learning fake programming languages which are complex enough to require an actual effort, but is fake enough to be useless in real world applications.


As for my base, it is an original layout of my base. Initially I had made a blueprint where I could expand infinitely with assemblers if I needed more manufacturing capabilities. I got burned in a tutorial where I made a factory layout where I was bottlenecked with manufacturing at the back end. So, I started making a layout which I could scale infinitely. However, it seems that 6 assemblers are a complete overkill for pretty much anything. So, I ended with a lot more manufacturing capacity than I needed and I just abandoned it. I'm going for a segregated approach where I would split my manufacturing capabilities across the whole map and would supply ingredients via trains.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2949209951


Overall, I do like Factorio. It is decent enough of a time sink. Mods probably give you even more tools to play with which are at the moment lacking in a base game. It is also just deep enough to enable something respectably complex. I can see how people can spend thousands of hours in it. However, after completing goals which I set out for myself, I'm planning launching a rocket and just moving on. There are countless great experiences out there and there is no need to get stuck in one which can't offer you anything new anymore.

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Hot Pursuit is a curious beast. It is an amazing game at its core. Its mechanics are amazing. It is an arcade racer which avoids being too simplistic while retaining its casual nature. Everything would be amazing if only for one small, little thing. Developers forgot to develop an actual game out of it!

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https://youtu.be/SReiIihffyo
This is the core issue with this product. On its own it is damn good racing game. However, you are buying a game which has no campaign. No challenges. No game modes. Its campaign is just glorified custom maps. It is same missions over and over again in different parts of a map, using progressively better cars. It is more proof of concept type of game which would become a lot better when radically expanded and improved upon. I believe that Need for Speed and racing games can be better and we should expect better if we are ought to pay full asking price for such games.

It is an EA launcher which everyone talks about. Yes, it is just as bad as everyone talks and offers absolutely nothing in return by going through its pains. I will go in detail why exactly it is so terrible.

The Pains of Log in
• It is endless forgotten passwords. Endless resets. I had just the worst experience in trying to log in into the old account.
  
  It Haunts You
  It is not enough for launcher to frustrate you with log ins, but it constantly runs in the background. Constantly pop ups with computer launch. It is intrusive, persistent horror.
  
  Pointless
  
• Ultimately it is always online game and it is always useless. It provides no benefit, no leaderbords. You go through all of this only to handicap yourself.
  
  Dangerously Broken
  
• It can crash, wiping progress and preventing game from launching up until you re-validate game and wait for quite a bit for it to synchronise data. Cancer launcher at the very last play session refused to launch my game. I had to fully re-log, because it somehow lost my info. Then it had no saves or meta data about game. Eventually after synchronising for a long time without telling me about it, it allowed me to continue playing my campaign.

Indeed, those stinking peasants struck again and ruined yet another game. Game is made with consoles in mind and it shows. Game has terrible controls and interface. You always get lost where things are supposed to be. Interface layout does not make any sense. It is designed for neanderthalands who are still are afraid of fire and fine mouse controls.

Some of the issues stem from broken gameplay. Being teleported into crashes, a light brush causing you to stop in cinematics, everyone cheating in this game. There are plenty of issues which might take you from an experience.

Cinematics
• Slow down, respawns tend to give back control only for you to run straight into the wall. It is good that game is easy, but it can easily lose you a game if it happens at a wrong time. I talk more about it a video review.
  
  Simplistic gameplay
  
• There isn't any complexity in cars besides top speed and acceleration. There is much room for improvement. What does rear wheel drive does exactly? Why I should not drive exotics over rough ground? Give me details! I want to have more depth in driving, because as it stands now we have countless amazing car models and they all play basically the same.
  
  Police
  
• Terrible police mechanics. Police vehicles are always cheating and they will catch up to you for ramming at certain points in the match. They can outpace 310 km/h supercar on a straight road. They are extremely annoying to play against and ironically, the best gameplay against the cops in the gauntlet is just ramming any police car on sight. They always be on the side of a road. When you spot an interceptor, you engage nitro for an extra damage and just ram stationary police car. It will instantly take them out. This way you trivialise gauntlet into a solo drive joke.
  
  Racers
  
• You are constantly handicapped by racers slowing down or speeding impossibly fast. However in some races this mechanic breaks down and racers do not slow down for you to catch up. It is annoying to know that everyone in this game cheats or does not take it seriously. When you understand that, the grand illusion is shattered and your victories always feel hollow and empty.
  
  Progression system
  
• Game is handing out cars like candy only to lock last two of them behind considerable grind wall. It just frustrates me that I cannot get the best without being obsessed over this game. This also results in a broken curve where game constantly gives you out a new car almost for every race and in the end game you will be driving your favourite over and over again, because last two exotic cars are never unlocked.
  In addition, during level 16'th and above it suddenly starts giving you out starter cars which you will never have a reason to drive again. Progression is a mess in this game.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2947441409

There is also a distinct lack of content. Game seemingly spent all of its big bucks on licensing truly astounding number of real life cars. However, they drag their gameplay over little content they managed to create. You will memorise entire map to this game way before you are going to finish campaign. There is very little variety to what you do throughout this game. Ultimately, game doesn't even do anything with its awesome car models. They all play pretty much the same. Game lacks meaningful customisation and what is in this game is trivial.

This game has a lot of little things which show that developers did not really cared or were given resources to properly develop this game. It is a small thing here and there. Civilians ignoring cop cars or game not detecting your hardware. It is things like that which shows that developers never had any pride in their product.

1. Lack attention to details
   
2. Presentation of car stops when you start editing it
   
3. Cops start chasing you and arrests you even if you obey traffic rules. Civilians are not slowing down, getting out of the way of police cars.
   
4. Wheel controller set up resets each time when wheel is disconnected.
   
5. No audio card support
   
6. No mouse support.
   
7. Music which you can barely hear over overly loud engine noise
   
8. You cannot repeat track for a better score. Unlock or completion of a track kicks you out of a mission
   
9. Cars are being unlocked way too fast.
   
10. Long loading times and unskippable cutscenes.
    
11. Cannot set up controller fully as more advanced buttons as it auto-selects a value.
    
12. Campaign descriptions are sometimes wrong.
    
13. For some reason, levels around 15 start unlocking basic cars.
    
14. Campaign does not allow players to play as they want. Race missions with cops are always interrupted with racing or performance races.

It is a game which worked out its core gameplay well, got car models right, but is lacking in all the other areas. Its consoles routes are showing with a lot of basics missing like sensible menus, wonders of mouse control. In addition, this game feels like made by a corporation. It is focused on producing minimal viable product and all of the budget went to marketing. Game lacks a lot of polish and is rough around the edges. Its systems are primitive and developers took a lot of shortcuts where they shouldn't had taken them. All of this translates in an experience which feels underwhelming and I was left craving for more of the same, but done better.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow trolls and toxic people to comment under my reviews.

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It is one of those simulators which seem to have sprouted like mushrooms after a rain. This one however misses a lot of crucial points which would make this game fun.

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Gameplay is not pleasant to play. This comes from many little things which might seem insignificant, but as a whole it creates a gaming experience where you just want to get out of a game. I will try to cover all those details and why this just isn't a good game.

1. Infuriating camera
   It is annoying to play this game. One of the reasons why it is awkward controls. You cannot move freely as you are locked unto an axis around which you can move. However, this axis is often misplaced and you cannot even get a good look over an object which you are inspecting.
   
   In this case, I'm trying to get a look around a part. I cannot lift my camera above it. I'm also are locked with tank controls. I have to press keyboard to move around the part. This means that if you want more precise with a mouse or are looking at a difficult angle, you can't properly control your view. This creates a constant frustration as it feels that you have to constantly fight the game.
   https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941243202
   
2. Non existent parts
   Game also has a nasty bug which was never solved. In a first second you can see which part I need to replace. I go over the shop, scroll through all the windows, I try to use their bad search function which demands a perfect name and does not find similarly named products. The end result? I cannot find the part. I checked it multiple times. Some cars have certain parts to fix which game simply does not have in the shop for one or other reason.
   https://youtu.be/dbrDSiwOvLo
   
3. Plastic graphics
   This game looks ugly. Not only it is very grainy, details also lack textures. It is one of those lazy simulators where they really skim on models and it shows.
   https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941487502
   An utterly basic model. Wheel is even lacking textures entirely! Not to mention that model only has basic details inside. It immediately strikes as looking fake.
   
   https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941487488
   
   You can see this car from far away. It shimmers. Lighting on it is unrealistic. It lacks proper texture, it is a smooth paint which makes it look like a plastic toy. None of the cars in this game look realistic. They all are like that, just got from assembly line. Assembly line meant for assembling plastic toys!
   
   https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941487478
   
   If you go inside the car, it is missing a lot of parts. It is not even remotely realistic configuration and it seems to follow a basic schematic which developer had made and they reused it for all cars with some minor differences to how parts are called or drawn in a shop. When I opened this, I was even more shocked than looking inside of a car!
   
   
4. Poor music selection
   Choice of music is very bland. Game like PC Building Simulator at least have some very good hits which are fun listening to. I enjoyed that game a lot more, because monotony could be brightened up by a long list of songs which were not just running in a background. Building ultimate PC was my vision! That song would hype my up! Here however music is in a background and very bland. It is so bland that I can't even remember if game features songs...
   
   
5. Grindy gameplay
   Gameplay is very monotonic. In two hours I'm already bored by it and saw most what game can offer. Watch this short video and you will know about 90% of what you will be doing in this game.
   
   https://youtu.be/sLo4I3uR_9o
   
   
6. Misses the point
   The serious problem with this game is that you cannot get immersed into it. It has no fantasy to play on. PC Building Simulator gives me a fantasy of PC repairmen. Coming to my work each day, turning on lights, computers, reading emails. Fixing computers. Then preparing for another day by ordering parts. That game at least made you feel like an owner of a shop. This game however does none of that. You already have a super fancy garage meant for dozen of employees. Everything is tidy, you have insane amount of space. Everything is already owned. Except you have to do all the boring manual labour. There isn't any depth to what you are doing. Dealing with clients. Ordering parts. Trying to manage your inventory. Managing shipping. Trying to upgrade your repair shop. There is none of that in this game. Owning barely standing garage and trying to build up your reputation, upgrade your garage and to move up into far better place as you expand your business would had made this a far more immersive experience.
   
   
7. Monetisation
   Developer provides no support for its older games. He half-asses his game by making a good content patch and then calls it a brand new game for which he asks more money. I just love game hypocrisy. Games as a service is bad. Receiving tons of serious improvements for free is evil for them when it comes to Paradox. However, paying for patches is perfectly fine. Well, gamers would not be entitled dum dums otherwise.
   
   I'm still amazed to this day why this game has such positive ratings with such toxic monetisation model when gamers raise hell for far less elsewhere. However, in a same way they drew an artificial line with Epic and not Steam, they also are ignoring very greedy practices here while over-reacting elsewhere.

This game is pain to play. It has none of the immersion like similarly flawed PC Building Simulator has. It is even more simplified game than it which makes it even more monotonous. Don't get tricked by positive reviews, it is one of these times when very good reception is actually completely misleading.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow endless discussions under my reviews, because it rarely ends well.

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European Escalation suffers from a first game syndrome. Game was good, but it aged with time and its sequels did everything it does, but better. However, this game still has one ace up its sleeve.

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It is an old game and usually, sequels tend to improve game in every way, making original as a completely redundant experience. This game however has two elements which makes original game still unsurpassed by its two older brothers.

• Star System
  Game has an unique system where you unlock units to play with stars. These stars are gained through playing matches or completing campaign. While initial decks are completely uncompetitive, players receive so many stars that by the end of campaign, they will have more than enough stars to unlock most of units which are of interest to a player. This system adds an interesting progression layer to a game as it is fun to gradually unlock more and more stuff rather than merely being given everything. Furthermore, veterancy on units stays throughout the campaign. As you keep your units alive, they become gradually better and better in each mission.
  
  Such systems in RTS games are very rare and it actually really fun. If you are progressing through singleplayer, you can add more and better units to your decks as campaign progresses and becomes harder. In a same way, you call up veterans of a campaign with which you thought from a first battle into the last, hardest fights. This way you can feel that scale and intensity becomes more and more serious. It also adds an amazing incentive for a player to complete all the side objectives and to repeat same mission until they ace it. It is seldom seen mechanic which adds a lot of immersion to a simple campaign as each of your units has a little story to tell and you hate seeing them die for it.
  
  
• The Campaign
  Good RTS campaigns are the rarity. This one however ticks boxes in all the right places. It has the narrative as it makes realistic WW3 scenarios. It makes you immersed into experience through its story line. Stock Cold War era footage makes experience feel authentic. It gives generous presentation of what your mission are and why it is important. Such things are simple, but few RTS gives enough a damn to do that. It even surpasses Red Dragon. Where Red Dragon has identical presentation at the start and then a long narrative campaign, this game has same level of presentation for one mission. Presentations can be quite a bit shorter than in Red Dragon, but there are dozens of missions to complete! European Escalation has a massive campaign to complete and then triple your playtime as you try to perfect each mission in an effort to score all those juicy stars.

Lets not overhype this game. While it had obvious care, love and passion poured into it, still feels like a first attempt kind of game with a lot of jank and roughness. It is borderline frustrating to play it in multiplayer and its sequel refined everything this game does.

Ugly screen filter
• First issue is graphically. This game has an ugly screen visual effect as it tries to portray everything through a lens of an old TV. Sure, it had distinct look. However, there is a reason why humanity had moved away from it. It looked bad. Putting it in your game only makes your game looks bad. Thus developers had quickly threw this screen effect away with sequels. So, you need to buy this game in order to enjoy the badness!
  
  Lack of variety
  
• Another issue with this game is that there is very few units in a game, but game has a lot of factions. Polish for example are comically bad. This game does not have enough stuff for any more than two major factions, but for some reason it hamfists into multiplayer a lot of minor factions which are just a joke.
  
  Abandoned without getting balanced
  
• Game units are vastly unbalanced. Nato units have various units like Chaparral who are way and above better than anything Warsaw Pact can bring to the table at that price point. By the same extension, Nato helicopters (especially with anti air missiles) makes mockery of Warsaw Pact's helicopters. This game has a lot of units which are easy to highlight as examples of a terrible balance.
  
  Accuracy system
  
• Game engine is a primitive one. It merely calculates range and then picks from a table base accuracy for that range and then multiplies that value for modifiers. However, that then leaves blame on developers. Cheap units are extremely bad. Even at shorter ranges they can't do anything.
  
  As we played, we had prepared an assault with a lot of cheap, basic units. They failed miserably to kill Nato forces in a zone. Then I had deployed a team of Shturms, ATGM tank destroyer vehicles. They single handedly dealt with entire Nato force there. In a single salvo they would always destroy one vehicle. They would be more potent, have a greater range and accuracy. All this at a reasonably small price too! Our entire, far costlier force did not managed to do half of that these two units did!
  
  Game has a severe issue where low cost, low accuracy vehicles are practically useless and newer, more expensive vehicles have historically unexplainable performance advantage over old hardware. If you are an aspiring commander, this game is not your ouster to prove your tactical ingenuity. In game units have nonsensical performance which does not align even remotely with reality.
  
  Unrefined unit interactions
  
• This game is first attempt from developers to create Wargame such as it is. It is very rough product. We are speaking about game where infantry gets outspotted by tanks when they are in buildings or in vegetation... We are talking about game where tanks are the counter to entrenched infantry in the forests... We are talking about game where an enemy can deploy swarms of helicopters, legions of tanks, human waves of infantry and all that would be defeated by 1 Abrams, 1 Chaparral with a supply vehicle. Game often does not work as it should. Expected interactions never materialise and its flawed unit simulation makes most units completely useless in a competitive environment.

This is one of few precious gems about WW3 wargamming. There is a distinct lack of such games on the market. Even more so if you want something remotely modern and actually good. This game is one of such products. It is cheap and it has a lot of enjoyable content to play which wasn't one up'ed anywhere else. If you are looking for a good campaign with gradual unit progression, this is your game.

Calicifer's Reviews

If you are interested reading full review or want to discuss something with me, please follow the provided link. I do not allow endless discussions under my reviews, because it rarely ends well.