- Terraria/Factorio blend offers satisfying, chill gameplay
- Engaging factory automation mechanics are a highlight
- Appealing and well-crafted pixel art is present
- Slow pace and excessive grind are present
- Significant bugs and performance issues exist
- Gameplay feels uninspired, unpolished, and repetitive
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 78% · Negative 22%. Score: 22 / 100
Positives:
- The game blends elements from Terraria and Factorio, creating a unique and enjoyable factory-building experience in a 2D side-scrolling environment. Players can expect a mix of exploration, crafting, automation, and combat, with a focus on resource management and base building.
- Despite being in early access, the game offers a substantial amount of content and a satisfying gameplay loop that keeps players hooked for hours. The game is considered fun, chill, and relaxing, with a well-organized structure and a promising tech tree progression.
- The game features engaging factory automation mechanics, including material acquisition, processing, and assembly line placement. Players enjoy optimizing base efficiency and setting up complex builds, finding the automation process mentally stimulating and fun.
- The game features a well-crafted pixel art style with cohesive animations and attention to detail, creating a visually appealing aesthetic. The visuals contribute to a chilled vibe and enhance the overall gaming experience.
- The developers are active on Discord, responsive to feedback, and provide steady updates and improvements, indicating ongoing support. They quickly address bug reports and engage with the community, showing care and passion for the game.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers feel the game's pacing is slow and grindy, with tedious early-game actions and limited options for increasing movement speed. This is exacerbated by high resource requirements and a lack of compelling content, leading to frustration and a feeling of artificial lengthening.
- The game suffers from various technical issues, including bugs, crashes, performance slowdowns as the factory scales, and save corruption after updates. Some reviewers experienced game-breaking bugs that forced them to restart, leading to lost progress and frustration.
- The game feels uninspired, borrowing mechanics from other games like Terraria, Factorio, and Oxygen Not Included, but failing to execute them well. Reviewers note a lack of polish, clunky controls, missing quality-of-life features present in similar titles, and a general sense of repetitiveness that makes the game feel like a chore.
- The game world feels generic and empty, lacking interesting exploration content, rewarding digging mechanics, and boss fights. The core gameplay loop is repetitive and unsatisfying.
- Enemy raids are frequent, disruptive, and offer little benefit, often leading to terrain destruction and halting production. Preparing defenses is difficult due to cost issues, making raids feel more like a nuisance than a meaningful challenge.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay loop blends elements from factory automation games like Factorio with exploration and base-building mechanics found in games like Terraria. Players focus on building automated production lines for resource extraction, transportation, and processing, often in underground environments. The game differentiates itself by incorporating magic and a storyline.
- The game incorporates automated defense mechanics, such as turrets, to protect against enemies. Enemy strength varies, requiring players to balance automation with combat and defensive setups.
- New areas and biomes are unlocked through progression, often involving delivery tasks or tech tree unlocks. Players may need to relocate their spawn points as they unlock new regions of the map.
- The game features simplified systems for resource management, including automated delivery and cultivation/animal husbandry. These systems allow players to transform resources and obtain rare materials, potentially making limited resources infinite.
- Research unlocks new buildings and materials, enabling more complex factory designs. However, the tech tree is extensive and can be confusing.
Performance:
- The game generally exhibits good stability and performance, with players reporting few bugs and no crashes. One user specifically noted seamless compatibility on Linux.
- The game offers support for ultrawide screens, enhancing the visual experience for players with compatible monitors. One user confirmed support at 3440x1440 resolution.
- The game's zoom function is limited, offering only two levels of magnification. This may restrict the player's ability to view details or manage the battlefield effectively.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers express cautious optimism, recommending the game with reservations due to its Early Access state. They see potential and enjoy aspects of it, but suggest waiting for updates or sales, or only recommending it to specific audiences. Some reviewers suggest buying it to support the developers.
- Reviewers frequently compare the game to Factorio, Terraria, and other similar titles, recommending it to fans of automation and factory-building games. Some suggest that players who dislike these genres should avoid this game. Some reviewers suggest that it is a good entry point to the genre.
- Some reviewers mention unintuitive mechanics and the need to watch guides before playing. Players should prioritize building defenses to avoid repeatedly rebuilding structures.
- The game offers a substantial amount of content, providing at least 30-40 hours of gameplay. One reviewer anticipates spending a lot of time in the game once controller support is implemented.
- Some reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its current state. They suggest a lower price point is more appropriate.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is in Early Access, but the developers are very active, communicative, and dedicated to rapidly addressing bugs and adding content based on community feedback on Twitch and Discord. This suggests a promising future for the game.
- The game would benefit from Steam Workshop support. This would allow players to share and download mods, expanding the game's content and replayability.
- The game features well-designed character models, environments, and a cohesive color palette. This contributes positively to the game's overall aesthetic appeal.
- The game's pixel art style evokes nostalgia for some players. This can be a positive aspect for those who appreciate retro-style graphics.
- These points are too specific to a single reviewer or express a lack of specific feedback. They do not provide actionable insights about the game itself.
