Satisfactory
Review
Building Up
by JesseGatt
reviewed on PC
IT IS FINALLY HERE!
After 5 years of early access, Satisfactory 1.0 has officially been released. Published by Coffee Stain Studios, Satisfactory is a solo/4-player co-op factory simulation game that places you in the shoes of a FICSIT employee being sent to an alien planet. You have one goal, to undermine nature with factories, factories, and more factories. On the surface, this game may seem like a simple and boring never-ending loop, but oh, the hours you'll spend hooked on perfecting your new creation will surprise you. Sometimes, even the game needs to remind you to take a break.
SLOW BEGINNINGS
Upon loading into the game for the first time, you are met with a beautiful landscape, rich with different materials waiting to be collected. You find a nice area to place your hub, where you can craft and unlock new blueprints as you progress through the game. ADA, your AI assistant does not tell you much, except construct, automate, explore and exploit.
Approaching an iron vein, you begin to pick at it with your chisel, and pick annnnddd pick, then quickly realise, this is going to take ages - but that is the beauty of Satisfactory. The early hours of the game are tedious and a little boring, in a way, incentivising the players to use tools and mechanics given to them, increasing the efficiency of material collection and crafting. As a FICSIT employee, you will be met with many problems, and the solution to those problems only creates more problems. You might be thinking to yourself, "I want to play a game, not do seemingly pointless chores to no end" and yeah, I agreed, until I started getting further into this game.
WHAT COULD BE ANY MORE SATISFYING?
Satisfactory can only be described as addictively satisfying. The feeling you get when you solve that iron bottleneck you were having, or set up a new assembly line crafting important materials, sets off something in my brain that I can't get enough of. Playing with friends only enhances the experience, having two or three buddies all working on different objectives and then connecting it all is just, 'Satisfactory'.
Even with factories being built and completed, I find myself constantly changing or adding to it, because I noticed that one small part of the assembly process was bottlenecking. Something as small as a factory not looking symmetrical or finding ways to make it more efficient leads me to completely dismantling and recreating the entire thing, then taking a step back to admire my creation. The machine animations top it off, watching each physical piece of material travel down the conveyor belts to the next step of production makes the whole process feel so authentic, seriously, I could watch it all day.
GIVE ME MORE
Power is essential to Satisfactory, and like many things, it always comes off a little short. Bio generators are the starting power sources but only produce a tiny amount of power compared to what is needed ahead, 30 Biogenerators later and your factory still needs more power, there has to be a better way. COAL! What better way to power your greed than with coal! Just like the Industrial Revolution, coal solves pretty much all your power problems (plus increases your chances of winning the war against nature).
When power leaves the equation, Satisfactory essentially becomes a sandbox for the player to build and connect factories all around the map. As you continue to do so, new machines, tools and equipment will be available to unlock. There are infinite possibilities and layouts that you can create, personalising your factory. However, building these factories takes a lot of planning and for some, may be off-putting, but for others, this is what will make the game so much more enjoyable.
A SINGLE PLANET
Satisfactory only has one map that is procedurally generated, meaning it is a pre-created map with set material spawns, this can become a problem for replayability. As of now, there is no real reason for a player to start a new save file, when they can simply tare down their current factories and start fresh with the materials they have gathered, avoiding that tedious start that all FICSIT employees have nightmares of.
During my gameplay, I started by playing with two of my friends, and so far, I can proudly say that our save file is absolutely covered with factories. But when they couldn't get on to play, I thought I'd start my own world. I placed my hub in the same location made the same set-ups, and used the same material veins that we did in our co-op file, but there was no reason for me to start that new world as it would just end up being the same as the other.
It would get great if the developers could add some sort of randomisation of item spawns or continue to add to the original map at the very least if they want to see this game thrive in the long term, as it has the potential to do so. It may be asking for a lot, but new maps will keep the experience fresh, there just needs to be something here that gives players a reason to restart.
WHAT THE SAM
The general gameplay loop consists of building, monitoring and tending to your factories, but there is a fun and rewarding twist to exploring the map. During exploration, you will encounter dangerous creatures and valued materials that could be used later on for...you guessed it, more factories. There is an unknown alien material referred to as SAM (Strange Alien Matter) that when approached, interacts with your character in absurd ways. I won't go too deep as to not spoil the experience, but this material is used for powerful late-game items. I love that Coffee Studios implemented this into Satisfactory, it adds another layer of depth to the game, making it more than just a sim. No information about SAM has been provided to you, so it is up to the player to research and discover the secrets behind it.
THE LONG TERM
Coffee Stain Studios has made something special. Satisfactory has the perfect balance of tediousness allowing the game to feel rewarding when creating new factories. However, having only one map with no randomised material spawns will shorten its longevity, (as of now), as there are no plans for a new map or any additional expansions of the current map. This is disappointing to see, as even though there is a lot to explore and thousands of hours that could easily be put into a single save file, players will likely become bored of it over time, and the game will slowly enter a decline in players. If it wasn't for this, I could have comfortably scored the game a 10/10. I must admit that I have put in an embarrassing amount of hours into the game, and will likely continue to do so. I love the experience it offers and highly recommend others to try it out for themselves.
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8.0
fun score
Pros
Satisfying and addictive, Infinite freedom to create factories, Detailed animations, SAM
Cons
Tedious planning, Poor replayability
