Cover artwork I generate from the game data. I do not use publisher artwork.
Game profile
Factorio
On an alien planet, you design and optimize massive automated factory chains while local creatures fight back. The game is notorious for making entire nights vanish without a trace.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is City builder / Strategy, set in a science fiction world. Visually it is deliberately stylised rather than photorealistic, and the overall tone stays somewhere between light and heavy. The world is open, so wandering off and ignoring the main path is part of the deal. It rewards long uninterrupted stretches more than quick check-ins.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. There is no story to speak of, the systems carry everything. Co-op is supported, so you can bring someone along. It runs on 2 platforms. It sits in the mid price bracket.
What stands out
- Deep automation mechanics
- Extremely addictive
- Strong co-op mode
This fits you if
- you enjoy being made to think
- you would rather build something than be told what to do
- levelling, looting and optimising a build is your kind of loop
- you can sit down for a proper long stretch without interruptions
- you like getting lost and ignoring the main objective for hours
- cutscenes annoy you and you just want to play
Look elsewhere if
- you play mainly for narrative
- you do not have 100 hours to give a single game
- you only ever get short bursts of play time
- you want either a pure challenge or pure relaxation, not the middle
What it costs you in time
About 100 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 17 weeks, or 50 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 90 out of 100, which puts it above 85 percent of the 1206 games here and at rank 138 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, City builder averages 82 points across the database, so this one sits 8 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 305 collected ratings.
Released in 2020, so it has 6 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2020
- Genres
- City builder, Strategy, Simulation
- Playtime
- approx. 100 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- None, pure gameplay
- Play with
- Solo, Co-op
- Setting
- Sci-fi
- Visual style
- Stylised
- Price bracket
- Mid price
- Platforms
- PC, Switch
- Critic rating
- 90 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factorio | 2020 | approx. 100 hrs. | 90 | Mid price |
| Shapez 2: Factory | 2026 | Endless game | 88 | Mid price |
| Cities: Skylines | 2015 | approx. 100 hrs. | 76 | Mid price |
| Prison Architect | 2015 | approx. 45 hrs. | 81 | Mid price |
If you liked this, try these
- Shapez 2: Factory Shared: City builder, Strategy, Sci-fi, longer
- Cities: Skylines Shared: City builder, Strategy
- Prison Architect Shared: City builder, Strategy, shorter
- Going Medieval Shared: City builder, Strategy, shorter
- Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic Shared: City builder, Strategy, longer
- Oxygen Not Included Shared: City builder, Simulation, Sci-fi, longer