This game is sort of a logistics puzzle in making a gigantic factory that has some light survival from hostile aliens, but they never become more than just a nuisance.

What I liked
It has that “Let’s just do this one thing before I quit” feel that we know from Civ games. You keep getting new things to build from research and has research well spread out. You will never feel bored, there is always something new to try out and build or something to optimize. This game reminds me of Conway’s Game of Life, making almost hypnotically complex imagery with simple rules (look it up). In this game you are kind of making your own Game of Life. The conveyer belts, inserters, trains and drones together make your game a beautiful mess after a while. With props to the sound design that has distinct sounds for the objects you build as well as a perfect “place down” and “demolish” sound that add to the juiciness of this game. It was very meditative to play this game, there is never any real pressure but you will always be busy. This game also has a big community that shares blueprints of parts of their factory online that you can import in your game. I recommend doing this after you tried your hand at it yourself. And the game has some interesting mods that almost require a university degree if you found the base game too easy. Playing this game with a group of people is also a lot of fun even though you will be doing your own thing most of the time. Things will go twice as fast and it is easier to learn when you play with others that played before.

What I didn’t like
The start of the game is slow and it takes a while before you can start automating things, which this game is all about. Just as the end of the game is a bit of a grind. Optimizing your factory and expanding it is at some point the only thing you can do since you went through all the interesting new research and tried most things out. Some things are also a bit hard to understand like the railways or nuclear power. The in game tutorial/campaign didn’t explain these things well enough. I found it easier to look up a guide. The campaign wasn’t as good in general due to unclear objectives. They did redo the campaign recently though.

Why others should try it
The game was surprisingly easy to get into. Since you start with a very limited list in what you can build that you expand over time. Your first game is kind of a huge tutorial. It also feels like a finished game even though it is still in early access.