To say that Factorio: Area Age throws out the rulebook is an understatement. It would be extra becoming to say it is by some means automated the entire course of: an inserter plucked out the rulebook from my mind and deposited it in sizzling magma, whereas a brand new rulebook was churned out in a close-by machine and plopped into my mind from the opposite aspect – just for that to be instantly plucked out and incinerated as properly. With every new planet and every new part, Area Age reinvents itself. I am battling hyperbole right here, however ah hell, I admit defeat. Factorio: Area Age is a masterpiece, the ultimate type of maybe essentially the most well-crafted constructing sport I will ever play.
Area Age appears fully content material with the primary few hours, even the primary few dozen, being just about precisely the identical because it at all times was. Except for a handful of high quality of life modifications, you principally simply play a brand new sport of Factorio. Punch rocks and timber. Place miners on iron and copper. Spin plates that preserve every little thing manually fed till you might have some boilers and steam engines up and operating. Automate your first science packs. Analysis your first few techs so you are able to do every little thing once more, however larger and higher. In the event you by no means clicked with Factorio earlier than, Area Age is unlikely to alter something for you, since you’re unlikely to hold round lengthy sufficient to see what Area Age actually has in retailer.
Me although, I’ve at all times been a manufacturing unit sport addict. I blasted by way of the primary 40 automation-filled hours, and finally I reached the second the place the DLC actually started. In Area Age there are a number of new planets to discover, however first it’s essential to assemble ships able to getting you there (and ideally again) in a single piece. The second I began to craft my first rocket, my manufacturing ranges floor to a halt.
None of my earlier data helped me up there in alien territory. I needed to slowly piece collectively learn how to ship bits of basis and different objects as much as my ship to start out increasing it; learn how to place asteroid-grabbers on the perimeter after which filter the totally different asteroid sorts by way of specialised crushers to extract new assets like carbon and ice. Easy methods to then flip these into rocket gas, after which automate ammo manufacturing for my gun turrets so I might blast aside giant asteroid chunks earlier than they turned my creation right into a lonely, silent Hindenburg.
Like a pump positioned precisely as far down the pipeline as wanted to make sure throughput, Area Age got here alongside at precisely the purpose in my playthrough the place I would ordinarily have began to really feel burnt out. Aboard my ship, it not solely felt like beginning a brand new sport, it felt like studying Factorio yet again. Goodbye, effectivity and cautious calculations. Greetings, countless bottlenecks, asteroid collisions, and observing merchandise descriptions with out even a modicum of gorm. It sounds irritating, however I liked each second. If I ever acquired drained, I would just sit back and watch the beautiful animations on the spaceship. The foundations unfurling themselves little by little like chunky steel origami. The Doc Ock tentacles of the asteroid collectors, yoinking close by chunks of steel and carbon out of area. The animations have at all times been stellar in Factorio, however the brand new buildings are artistic endeavors.
Finally I acquired to my first new planet – Vulcanus. I jettisoned from my (fortunately nonetheless working) spaceship Hephaestus, and landed on a gorgeously hellish, lava-filled panorama. My stock needed to be fully empty to even begin a journey by way of area, so after I landed on Vulcanus, I used to be ranging from scratch. And the rulebook had as soon as once more been shredded.
Vulcanus feels actually totally different. Not simply within the environment and panorama, however the processes themselves. Acquainted assets have been current, however the methods I acquired maintain of them have been fully totally different. There have been no iron or copper patches on the bottom. As a substitute, I needed to hit rocks to present me iron, copper, stone, and a brand new useful resource referred to as Tungsten. Earlier than I might do something worthwhile, I wanted an influence supply. However what to make use of? I used to be near the solar, so solar energy was a robust choice, however I did not have the assets to construct a single battery, and I did not fancy my total manufacturing unit switching off each night. Steam energy sounded good, however how might I get water for steam on a lava planet?
Seems, all you want is a few sulfuric acid, pumped in by way of geysers, and you then feed it right into a chemical plant with a little bit of a brand new useful resource referred to as calcite, and that is sufficient to get oodles of super-heated steam. You possibly can then cool the steam to provide water, earlier than feeding it into a well-known boiler and steam engine setup to provide steam at a decrease, extra helpful temperature. Hey presto, you have acquired steam energy on Vulcanus! And what a pleasant means of discovery it was. Course, I realised later that night time that I did not must do any of that; all I wanted was to pump the unique super-heated steam into some generators for big quantities of vitality. However hey, now I do know for subsequent time.
The entire objective of going to Vulcanus is to provide the planet’s distinctive kind of science pack: Metallurgic Science. Every planet has its personal kind of science which it’s essential to automate if you wish to analysis every little thing and get to the endgame. Regularly, I noticed potentialities. I might pipe magma into the brand new Foundry constructing for a vast provide of iron and copper; I might use sulfuric acid to liquify coal into oil to make plastic for circuit boards; I might enterprise out into the fog of battle to seek out some Tungsten deposits… Besides that the panorama was crawling with colossal worms referred to as demolishers which slaughtered me at a single contact and have been nearly unattainable to kill. The primary time I noticed a (small) demolisher rumbling alongside the outskirts of my base, I really laughed nervously on the display.
A minimum of the demolishers have been passive. They’re going to depart you alone until you disturb their territory with buildings, or shoot them within the bum with a tank shell. Conversely, I quickly found by way of repeated alerts that I might maybe left my dwelling planet Nauvis a bit of rapidly, as every little thing continues to run in realtime all through your entire photo voltaic system irrespective of the place you might be. Up in orbit, my ship Hephaestus continued to be caressed by asteroids. And again on Nauvis, my turrets steadily ran out of ammo and have been being destroyed by Biter assaults. I might see all of it unfolding, however I could not do something about it till I discovered a manner off-planet. That was a brand new type of rigidity I hadn’t felt earlier than in Factorio, and it was good.
Fortunately some quick, targeted work allowed me to cobble collectively a rocket and head again as much as Hephaestus. 15 hours of worms and lava was sufficient to make Hephaestus really feel fairly nostalgic. It was an actual second of triumph. After which, a couple of minutes later, that very same feeling was magnified as I returned to Nauvis, the place I might spend the following a number of hours shoring up defences, changing depleted useful resource patches, and simply typically ensuring issues would extra adequately deal with my subsequent absence.
All the brand new interstellar programs and processes do remind me simply how lengthy it took to develop into even passably educated in Factorio. Area Age does nothing to assist onboard new gamers and is as dense as ever. In all probability far more so. Fortunately, the DLC does come alongside the free 2.0 replace, which offers all gamers (of each Area Age and the bottom sport itself) with an enormous number of high quality of life enhancements, in addition to a few elementary modifications. There are new (far easier and extra satisfying) fluid dynamics, wonderful new terrain technology, and a tonne of different tiny modifications. Most of these modifications would sound laughably inconsequential for non-addicts, however for automation husks like me, they’re music to my ears. And new options just like the Factoriopedia and a very good collection of ideas and methods (full with illustrative movies) accessible at a click on do assist to chop the training curve and make issues a bit extra intuitive. None of that stops Factorio from being probably the most advanced, complicated, consuming video games I’ve performed. With Area Age, the journey is longer and extra mind-boggling than ever, however there’s additionally no higher time to start out.
All of Wube’s signature depth and engineering high quality is current in practically each a part of Area Age. There is a lightness of contact at work with all these new options and modifications, a lessening of complexity in some areas and a heightening in others, all within the pursuit of enjoyable and fascination. I sadly have not seen any of the opposite planets on provide in addition to Vulcanus, even after 100 hours in my save file. However a number of years of a number of the most satisfying, addictive, cerebral enjoyable I’ve ever had in a sport has satisfied me that Wube actually know what they’re speaking about. And from every little thing I’ve seen to date, Area Age is what Factorio was at all times meant to be.
Replace: since scripting this assessment I’ve began work on Gleba, and good lord, if I believed Vulcanus threw out the rulebook… You are in for a deal with right here, of us.
