This Week I Have Been Mostly Playing…
Satisfactory on PC
23hours 37 minutes. Total play time in the last two weeks. Should tell you pretty much all you need to know about this game. I fired it up and then the whole of Sunday was gone! Time is already feelling bloody weird at the moment, I dont need another thing fucking it up! Oh well, least it has been well spent. I have not seen this level of addiction since Stardew Valley…
Actually this game has me split right down the middle. First the good stuff, it looks amazing. I was pretty impressed my 3 year old laptop is set to Ultra graphical settings by default! You have a few different map biomes to choose from. I went with generic Grassy Fields to play it safe, a lush green world with a much flatter surface which seemed preferable for a first attempt. The game was still in early access so who knows what bugs it would throw up!
You land on a pristine planet (well large map) and get started exploiting the local resources. Yes it is all about the crafting, like nearly all games today but the aim here is to end up automating everything. Hence the -factory part of the name. You wander around, start smashing the ground for resources whilst trying to avoid the local fauna.
Once you get your head around what you need to build and chuck in some conveyor belts then the Satis part of the name really kicks in. This has one of the most delicious feedback loops ever. You get resources to make items, of which a bunch can be used to unlock the next tier of items and resources. One feeds into the other and it's like having a big toy set with new items every couple of hours. I am on tier 7 now and not showing any signs of slowdown.
As you unlock more buildings the complexity of your factory grows. There is a lot to take in and I think Fez was the last game I had to actually draw out a design with a pencil to work out what I needed to do. You smelt iron ore into ingots which can be turned into Iron bars that then can be transformed into Screws. It’s a lot to think about but the game gradually builds up to this. Having resources from multiple sources joining up to then combine into a tier four item that slides across the belt is beautiful.
Ok well that's the wrong word. This game is wonderful, an amazing first person view with the space to build whatever you want. Demolishing buildings even gives you all the resources back. The game actively encourages you to build up to your current goals and then tear it down to rebuild a whole new spider web of industry that Henry T Ford would be proud of.
But there is a nagging feeling at the back of your mind while playing. Should I be doing this? There are no environmental impacts to the world per se but an area full of deadly wildlife will disappear once you set up shop. It wasn't until after I unlocked the chainsaw and was busy hacking away at a forest that I actually paused the game due to unease. I cannot remember the last time I stopped playing due to feeling morally wrong.
You know those companies that lobby to put more pollutants in the river? Those tearing down more hectares of Amazon rain forest or blowing up more of Australia's past for giant strip mines? Well that's me currently and I am pretty sure i never signed up for this. In theory you could cover the entire map in metal and concrete so no greenery remains.
But that destroys the fun parts. You need the element of danger and death to keep you on your toes. My greatest feat was finding water deep enough to get a water pump on the go. That took an hour of intensive exploring and was so damn satisfying. There's a lot to be said for designing maps rather than procedurally generating.
Overall I am very torn. The game is amazing and I love how all the crazy animals and plants look. It totally feels like landing on an alien planet and trying to carve out an existence. But I hope the developers add in some environmental stuff, something to make most players think about what they are doing. I know it's only a game but all forms of media put across a message and have a duty to make this clear to the player. You do a lot of damage in this game.
There’s not really a story in this game as it's the players actions that count, leaving the game feeling rather bittersweet. I am still hooked but will be much more careful in placing my buildings.
Anyway I have to continue playing, I just unlocked trains!
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