The most appropriately named game on Steam.

Where Factorio satisfies the autistic desire to automate things to perfection, Satisfactory does that but with a twist.
After 200 hours, I thought it fitting to rewrite my review with at least B+ for effort. Nobody will read this novel, but I owe it to the devs.

First of all, in this genre, 200 hours is absolute rookie numbers. On a lazy Sunday, or so you thought, you might find yourself starting the game around lunch... and still going to bed late...
Or maybe not, it's hard to recommend a game that is, on one hand, recommended by 99% of people (as of now, impressive), but I'm sure for many, it just won't be fun. To find whether you're the right target group, consider one of my lazy Sundays:
- After upgrading my factory to a certain tier, I realized I will now need a new resource, aluminium
- I thought, just like with the more basic materials, I'd find some easy mining spot, mine a bit of ore and make ingots
- Upon scanning the nearby locations, I realized there is no aluminium anywhere... huh?
- That made me build a dune buggy, which I haven't really used before, and go on a grand adventure around the island, stopping every few minutes and scanning the area
- After getting to some weird red bamboo forest, the scanner finally beeped and I felt a sense of relief...
- ...not for long. After fighting off a horde of spiders, as I stood on the aluminium vein, and I looked down the hill, I realized it would be a good few kilometers to get this ore back to my base for processing...
- Luckily, just a while back, I unlocked the ability to build railways and trains. I had no idea how it works. But the game is brilliant in that it slowly nudges you to use the new technology you discovered. You don't have to, you could, you know... walk with the ore... or something... but what if... maybe if you motivate yourself and put a little effort, you could make your life a lot easier.
- So... I decided to make my life easier by learning how trains work, which took me about an hour
- Then I had to plan where I'll build my railway. After much consideration, I decided to build a sort of funicular/skybridge
- Obviously, the most important thing, was to choose the right material and colour... also, what will be the angle of the "funicular"... I had to calculate how long the train can be, in order to climb the steep angle...
- After I picked the right aesthetics for my schizophrenic architecture piece, I spent the next 2 hours building the bridge at an angle that I calculated should end right at my base
- Unfortunately, I miscalculated, so I spent another hour autistically rebuilding it tile by tile to make it "look" perfect (functionally, it wouldn't have mattered, at all)
- Then I spent another hour autistically changing colours and materials because I realized I prefer a mix of chrome painted concrete and gold platform
- And then, as I looked back with pride on my final building, the only thing left was to try the train. It WORKED!
- So I sat inside the automated locomotive and watched as the whole monster structure unfolds... the platform loaded the aluminium into the freight cars... the train made a CHOO-CHOO and we were off to my base... where it unloaded to a bunch of containers I prepared

And that was how I got aluminium back to my main factory. This was just the start... I was now sitting on a ton of aluminium... as I realized I cannot simply melt the aluminium into ingots, such as with iron ore... I had to build a full on refinery and the process was way more complicated... luckily, I already had an oil refinery going, nearby, so this was just one more puzzle piece I had left for another day to be solved... as I went on to sleep, in my dreams I was visited by a refinery...

As you can see, this is quite a bit different from Factorio, and perhaps other games. The twist mentioned in the beginning, relies on the game being in three dimensions, and with a heavy focus on architecture.
Where you'd spend hundreds of hours planning the logistics of your base in Factorio, you do that (to a less hardcore extent, of course) also here, but personally, I find much joy thinking about "how to make it look nice". The aesthetics part is very important in Satisfactory, in my opinion, and it goes hand in hand with the game being absolutely gorgeous. It will motivate you to search for elegant solutions.

At the same time, it's extremely chill. There are no hordes of enemies to overwhelm your base. You can explore on your own pace. If you want to stand around the factory and listen to the sound of machinery, you can do that - and the sound design is great.
Nobody will chase you. Maybe you'll rebuild some concrete stairs, maybe you'll recolour something from chrome to gold... you can do whatever feels *Satisfactory* to you.

Does all of the above sound boring to you? Perhaps you're not the target group. Or perhaps you are, you just didn't know it yet. After finishing Subnautica (and enjoying the, what I *now* know to be, very basic building system) I was looking for something that feels similar, in vibe. I definitely got it, and much more.
Just like with Dark Souls, this game feels like almost a blessing, like a sort of therapy, in that it might "restart" you. You will suddenly start to feel joy in doing the challenging things. After months of slacking off, I picked up a math textbook to study again, and I once more returned to enjoying the problems. It does something to your brain chemistry, as it takes your hand and gently drags you to take one more step than you'd be comfortable with. You would rather take the easy way and manually craft that iron thingy, 1000 times? Hell no, let's do the "chores" and automate. See? Feels better, doesn't it?

At a risk of sounding cliche-
If you're somebody who struggles with depression, I would especially recommend you to try. That difficult bridge you build - at first you didn't feel like it, but the game motivated you to do so, and now you got your little dopamine boost, you made something nice out of nothing, when you thought you couldn't...
As the machinery sounds resonate through my speakers and I wait for production to finish in the background, suddenly I find myself fixing small things around my apartment, things that were broken for years. Desiring to clean every spot, make it prettier. Out of nowhere, finding the drive to finish things I've been putting off.
That bridge... within your brain's reward system, it just might become the bridge between "darkness, comfort" and "productive, getting back on track". Perhaps the drive for efficiency and elegance teaches a valuable lesson.

The most appropriately named game on Steam. Where Factorio satisfies the autistic desire to automate things to perfection, Satisfactory does that but with a twist. After 200 hours, I thought it fitting to rewrite my review with at least B+ for effort. Nobody will read this novel, but I owe it to the devs. First of all, in this genre, 200 hours is absolute rookie numbers. On a lazy Sunday, or so you thought, you might find yourself starting the game around lunch... and still going to bed late... Or maybe not, it's hard to recommend a game that is, on one hand, recommended by 99% of people (as of now, impressive), but I'm sure for many, it just won't be fun. To find whether you're the right target group, consider one of my lazy Sundays: - After upgrading my factory to a certain tier, I realized I will now need a new resource, aluminium - I thought, just like with the more basic materials, I'd find some easy mining spot, mine a bit of ore and make ingots - Upon scanning the nearby locations, I realized there is no aluminium anywhere... huh? - That made me build a dune buggy, which I haven't really used before, and go on a grand adventure around the island, stopping every few minutes and scanning the area - After getting to some weird red bamboo forest, the scanner finally beeped and I felt a sense of relief... - ...not for long. After fighting off a horde of spiders, as I stood on the aluminium vein, and I looked down the hill, I realized it would be a good few kilometers to get this ore back to my base for processing... - Luckily, just a while back, I unlocked the ability to build railways and trains. I had no idea how it works. But the game is brilliant in that it slowly nudges you to use the new technology you discovered. You don't have to, you could, you know... walk with the ore... or something... but what if... maybe if you motivate yourself and put a little effort, you could make your life a lot easier. - So... I decided to make my life easier by learning how trains work, which took me about an hour - Then I had to plan where I'll build my railway. After much consideration, I decided to build a sort of funicular/skybridge - Obviously, the most important thing, was to choose the right material and colour... also, what will be the angle of the "funicular"... I had to calculate how long the train can be, in order to climb the steep angle... - After I picked the right aesthetics for my schizophrenic architecture piece, I spent the next 2 hours building the bridge at an angle that I calculated should end right at my base - Unfortunately, I miscalculated, so I spent another hour autistically rebuilding it tile by tile to make it "look" perfect (functionally, it wouldn't have mattered, at all) - Then I spent another hour autistically changing colours and materials because I realized I prefer a mix of chrome painted concrete and gold platform - And then, as I looked back with pride on my final building, the only thing left was to try the train. It WORKED! - So I sat inside the automated locomotive and watched as the whole monster structure unfolds... the platform loaded the aluminium into the freight cars... the train made a CHOO-CHOO and we were off to my base... where it unloaded to a bunch of containers I prepared And that was how I got aluminium back to my main factory. This was just the start... I was now sitting on a ton of aluminium... as I realized I cannot simply melt the aluminium into ingots, such as with iron ore... I had to build a full on refinery and the process was way more complicated... luckily, I already had an oil refinery going, nearby, so this was just one more puzzle piece I had left for another day to be solved... as I went on to sleep, in my dreams I was visited by a refinery... As you can see, this is quite a bit different from Factorio, and perhaps other games. The twist mentioned in the beginning, relies on the game being in three dimensions, and with a heavy focus on architecture. Where you'd spend hundreds of hours planning the logistics of your base in Factorio, you do that (to a less hardcore extent, of course) also here, but personally, I find much joy thinking about "how to make it look nice". The aesthetics part is very important in Satisfactory, in my opinion, and it goes hand in hand with the game being absolutely gorgeous. It will motivate you to search for elegant solutions. At the same time, it's extremely chill. There are no hordes of enemies to overwhelm your base. You can explore on your own pace. If you want to stand around the factory and listen to the sound of machinery, you can do that - and the sound design is great. Nobody will chase you. Maybe you'll rebuild some concrete stairs, maybe you'll recolour something from chrome to gold... you can do whatever feels *Satisfactory* to you. Does all of the above sound boring to you? Perhaps you're not the target group. Or perhaps you are, you just didn't know it yet. After finishing Subnautica (and enjoying the, what I *now* know to be, very basic building system) I was looking for something that feels similar, in vibe. I definitely got it, and much more. Just like with Dark Souls, this game feels like almost a blessing, like a sort of therapy, in that it might "restart" you. You will suddenly start to feel joy in doing the challenging things. After months of slacking off, I picked up a math textbook to study again, and I once more returned to enjoying the problems. It does something to your brain chemistry, as it takes your hand and gently drags you to take one more step than you'd be comfortable with. You would rather take the easy way and manually craft that iron thingy, 1000 times? Hell no, let's do the "chores" and automate. See? Feels better, doesn't it? At a risk of sounding cliche- If you're somebody who struggles with depression, I would especially recommend you to try. That difficult bridge you build - at first you didn't feel like it, but the game motivated you to do so, and now you got your little dopamine boost, you made something nice out of nothing, when you thought you couldn't... As the machinery sounds resonate through my speakers and I wait for production to finish in the background, suddenly I find myself fixing small things around my apartment, things that were broken for years. Desiring to clean every spot, make it prettier. Out of nowhere, finding the drive to finish things I've been putting off. That bridge... within your brain's reward system, it just might become the bridge between "darkness, comfort" and "productive, getting back on track". Perhaps the drive for efficiency and elegance teaches a valuable lesson.