I like factory builders and tend to give them all a shot. Mileage certainly varies here, with two main reasons. First, is that the math needs to friggin’ math. Ratios and scalability are key so that you can compartmentalize a factory. I’ve gone over this bit a lot, and was probably the only gripe I had with Techtonica.

Second is manageable and achievable goals. Making the numbers go up is an inherent goal, but the actual steps to get there are key. Satisfactory has milestones (good) and hard drives (bad). These goals have to be incrementally harder to reach and ensure there is no downtime where you’re just waiting for a ticker to complete. This is much harder said than done.

Comparables

StarRupture (why one word?) is a mix of multiple games in the genre. It’s a preset 3D map, with research that leverages usable products, and has some PvE against planet bugs, so a tad similar to Satisfactory here. It uses a grid structure for placement of stations, which is very nice.

In terms of differentiators, every hour or so, the planet receives a massive solar flare that burns everything that isn’t under a shielded protection. That giant fire causes the factory to stop working until it auto-cools and adds new things on the map. Cavern access is one, which doesn’t yet mean much that I can see. It also spawns some fireballs you can mine, which are only used in 1 recipe to date, as well as meteors you can harvest which allow you to build more bases. It also has hunger/hydration gauges, which are closer to Planer Crafter in nature. Somewhat uniquely, it doesn’t use belts but instead rails under a pull mechanism.

Rails

Worthy of it’s own point here, rails are functional connectors between buildings. If a building needs something and that something is connected to an available rail, it will traverse the entire map in order to meet that need. A rail is not dedicated to one item, as you can connect multiple together. Their only limit is throughput, which is generally only an issue at the ‘mouth’ of a factory. Since a rail only transports what is needed, you can have 1 rail supply 3 items to a factory without causing jams.

Factory Design

Resource collection can get a bit weird as the nodes are spread out – Helium 3 for sure. You’ll eventually unlock the ability to ship things between bases, which opens the door on a mega factory of sorts. World design requires foundations (which don’t always work), meaning you can’t cover the entire planet like you could in Satisfactory. Even the base shields you deploy have a hard limit on the number of buildings you can deploy (higher than you think mind you). I’ve ended up with sort of micro bases, where they harvest raw material, smelt it, then ship it to the larger base.

Research gates start off a buffet style where you will invest in 5 at the same time. Eventually, you will end up focusing on a specific research and dedicate everything to getting it done. Dedicated bases with shipping is key here.

The relatively great news is that actually building something requires 1 or 2 items total, no matter the complexity. This dramatically simplifies building more bases, or a quick shelter if a flare is coming up.

Early Access

I haven’t had any crashes, which is nice. The ratios generally work, and figuring out how to best use rails is a nice thing. Progress on research generally means you always have something to do and/or tweak. Exploration has progressive risk, with some areas feeling like death traps due to a combination of poor shooting controls (yes, guns) and a lack of combat options – standard EA issues.

Exploration is required to progress, as you need blueprints for research items, and Helium + Sulfur is nowhere close to where you start off. It’s certainly more enjoyable to explore than most 3D games.

There’s a decent sized list of QoL bit here, like how much research is needed for an upgrade, how maps work, how consumables work, and general factory design. But it’s all QoL items and not simply ‘broken’, which honestly speaks volumes to how the dev team took their time to launch something good. The major design risk here is going to be the rails and how they work at scale, time will tell. I feel like the potential here is higher than many others in the genre given the various bits at play here. To be clear, it’s only potential at this point – that’s the nature of EA.

Overall, I am impressed with what’s here. Well worth a pick up!