Factorio is a game developed by ten people in Prague, under the label Wube Software LTD. It's been in development since 2012 and has been available on Steam in Early Access since February 25.
Factorio is presented on the official website as a factory simulation. In short, our character has crashed on a planet and his goal is to escape by creating a rocket! It sounds simple said like that, but it will require a lot (a lot, a lot ...) of resources. To achieve this, it will therefore have to automate to the extreme the manufacturing and processing of minerals and research processes. And it is really possible to go very far with logical interfaces based on AND and OR. Especially since on this planet, our character is not alone ...
Among resources available, we will find stone, coal, iron, copper, petroleum, wood and water. With this, and nothing else, it will be necessary to do everything! At the beginning, I start by mining the iron ore, in order to transform it into iron plates, allowing me to create new drills for coal, stone and finally copper.
Once the drill is installed on the iron ore, it must be fed, like any other thermal object, with coal. Coming out of my drill, I install a conveyor belt and then a robotic arm to convey the precious ore and transform it in the furnace.
We must quickly think of switching to electricity to overcome the manual refueling imposed by coal. Because until the installation, I am required to bring back coal ore to feed my thermal furnaces ...
Regarding the hostiles of the planet, it is possible to choose when creating the part that they do not attack. And I really advise you to do this when you are new to Factorio because otherwise they will regularly come to visit you which can cause a lot of inconvenience. To defend yourself, you can build turrets, armor, or even a tank!
Des scenarios are there to teach you the basics, but a lot is really skipped over and leaves you in the dark. On the subject of research, it's a bit chaotic, it will take you resources and a lot of time to complete it. But above all, there are no really clear indications on the progress and on what each release will reveal thereafter. Suddenly, we go a little blind, which is not necessarily very rewarding when we have just invested a lot of time and resources in something that ultimately does not please;
If you liked Banished, Prison Architect or Craft the World, which Simcity's latest installment made you claustrophobic, you'll like Factor, but not for its graphics. Factorio is an excellent game but currently suffers from some problems: in my opinion, it's ugly and, the more you zoom in, the uglier it is! Tooltips are non-activatable options, getting started is a bit complicated and you shouldn't hesitate to go to the wiki to find out how it works. There are also a host of mods for the game available here, as well as a multiplayer mode.
As of this writing, the game is still in Early Access and, good thing, you can try it out before you buy it, which is a rare thing these days: the demo is downloadable. here. Also note that the game is available in spanish! So I think the best thing to do if you're interested in the concept is still to try the demo and see if you stick. You don't have much to lose!
For its full version, Factorio is available on Steam for 20 €
