Satisfactory

I've been playing a lot of Satisfactory lately. It has basically been my drug. It is playable on steam deck, but not in handheld mode. The graphics are really bad, but I did say playable, not great. And not being able to play in handheld mode isn't that big of a deal since the game doesn't support controllers anyways.

I have not played many other factory games like Factorio (I'm not really sure what other popular factory games exist) so I don't have much to compare it to. I remember playing the early access version of Satisfactory a while ago and liking it a lot. Now that it's a fully finished video game it's even more addicting. All I want to do is progress progress progress make factory more efficient gogogogo. Factory games are really good at making your time melt away.

There's just so many aspects of Satisfactory that make it an enjoyable experience to play. I look forward to starting it up again every time I have spare time. The game play loop goes like this:

1. I need x amount of y resource
2. Make resources to craft y
3. I need to automate production of y
4. Fuck I forgot metal plates
5. Power outage
6. Optimize/build more power
7. Realize another production line could be done more efficiently
8. Automate production of y
9. Production of y is too slow
10. Explore to find more slugs to shove into jars to generate more power
11. Progress in the research tree
12. Improve production of y
13. Repeat for basically every resource

The logistics of the whole game is really what does it for me, I think. The whole game is about abstracting your need for basic resources so that you can build yourself a foundation to abstract more resources. The logic of getting other resources to where they need to be in order to efficiently automate the production of another resource is the meat in these potatoes. There's lots of different forms of transportation that can be unlocked, too. Sure, you could build conveyor belts across the entire map... but you could also use a tractor, or a train, or just build another factory entirely. The game encourages you to expand not just one base, but to expand your presence across the map. It's intended for you to link up all of your bases later.

Sometimes while I'm playing I get caught up in watching my factories do their thing. Once you reach tier 4 in the game and you have coal power and batteries, power becomes a little less of a concern. You can feasibly set up more machines and your power grid will just take it. So once you get a line up and running, it'll just go on forever - producing everything you directed it to. That's the benefit of having unlimited resource nodes, I suppose. This game is indeed quite pleasing (satisfying, I couldn't help it).