shapez 2 - Factory

I played the hell out of shapez years ago and was excited for 2. I played the early access last year and just never got hooked. Then I tried it again once it 1.0 was released and... yeah it's real good. Here's the big highlight for me, a super simple but incredibly impactful choice the game makes. See, in the first game, machine ratios, i.e. how many machines it took to export a single full belt, was quite complicated. Even splitting a belt was complicated, requiring a unique machine. This was worsened by systems that allowed you to upgrade the speed of machines separately from the belts, meaning that a set of painters that previously worked fine, would suddenly be operating at 80% capacity because you upgraded your belt speed. Getting a good handle on these ratios felt like specialist knowledge and it never really clicked for me. In Shapez 2, a couple of small decisions have fixed all of my problems. First of all, belt splitting is an inherent ability of belts now. It works so seamlessly that the idea of having to place "splitters" feels entirely alien. Ratios are now listed very clearly when you select machines. They're always integers from 2-6 meaning that you can perfectly balance inputs and outputs. These ratios are also pointed out to the player from the first moment they deal with them, encouraging engagement with the concept from the moment you start building factories. Finally, and I don't think this was the case in the earlier build of the game I played, machine speed is now a singular variable that upgrades all machines AND belts, meaning that the machine that you built in the first five minutes will still be a viable design after 50 hours. This is such an insanely good change and it reinforces the way this game approaches ratios by keeping that number consistent. No matter how much I upgrade, I am still going to need two rotators for every full belt of shapes. Now this falls apart a little bit when it comes to fluid, which behaves differently from shapes. At a base level, this is a great change. Fluid in the first game behaved identically to shapes, being moved along belts as individual clumps. In 2, fluid is measured in liters and requires a different kind of belt (tubes) to transport. This means you can no longer get a clump of blue stuck in your stacker, which is nice, and requires you to deal with the physical properties of fluid, also nice. However the transportation of fluid and its use in machines feels far more like the first game's ratios. It's very unclear to me how much fluid is needed per machine. Pipes can be fused together and transport fluids instantly to machines, but can still run out of fluid if not enough is being supplied. Launchers, which function seamlessly for shapes, impose limitations for fluid. And because we're dealing with liters, the numbers are far harder to grasp at a glance. Despite this, I have managed to make painters that operate at peak efficiency, although the complex nature of fluid means that I can never feel quite certain that I'm not oversupplying them. As for general game feel, Shapez 2 is peak. The productivity ceiling is so much higher than the first game, but you start at about the same output, so instead of going from delivering 20 shapes per minute to doing 200, you go from 20 to 200,000, discovering new levels and technologies to reach that number. My only critique would be to hide some of that future from the player at the onset. Players are informed of a third level early on in the game before you have access to it, so you're aware that you're operating at limited efficiency for a good portion of the early game, which doesn't feel awesome. If that level was hidden from the players (which would require some remodeling of the space pipes, so I understand why they don't do it), you could convince the player they're always being as efficient as possible, before pulling the rug out from under them and revealing, "no actually, you can do triple the amount." I also wish the shape requirements were a little bigger. As it is currently, if you build efficient factories that export a full train car of shapes, you burn through each level of a job extremely quickly, meaning that you've hardly gotten started on designing the next factory when you have to go back to the first and update it. I crave moments like I had in the first game where I can take a deep breath and take a break or just appreciate my work. As it is, there's not really a gameplay "loop" as much as a gameplay "laser;" constant, unrelenting, but still pretty rad. Anyways game good buy

First automation game that doesn't force me to manually delete and replace every machine in my factory whenever I need to move it over by one square. One of the best games I'd never heard of before. The automation process is very well refined and leaves out many of the annoying mechanics and excessive button pressing other games require. Highly recommended for anyone.

Отличная игра. Строишь невероятно сложные фабрики и смотришь, как результаты твоих трудов красиво улетают в дыру. Реализм.

The best part of this game that separates it from other popular factory games is that it respects your time. No spending hours figuring out resources, power, enemies, anything. It's just building factories, there's no friction getting in your way (but still a challenge). Shapez 2 also has amazing music and graphics that complement the gameplay very well.

Factorio for people with dents in their head (like me) It is so damn easy to execute your ideas once you have an idea. No resource costs/time constraints make me feel good about laying out 100 machines for a scuffed solution, only to realize while constructing my contraption that i can do it with a fraction of the parts. The QoL, interface, and for lack of a term, the game just knowing how to make your keypresses do what needs to be done is so finely tuned it's bordering on magic. This is 100% the game i'll tell people to start with if they're looking to get into factory builders

This is and is likely to stay the only steam game I will ever review out of the 60+ games in my library and thousands of hours through steam. NEVER. IN MY LIFE. HAVE I EVER BEEN SO ADICTED TO A GAME THAT I SIT DOWN AND PLAY FOR THREE HOURS STRAIGHT ON A FIRST PLAYTHROUGH. NO SNACKS. NO COFFEE. NO BREAKS. I COULD NOT LOOK AWAY FROM MY FACTORY IF YOU ASKED ME TOO. THIS GAME TICKLES MY BRAIN. Praise be the shapes. -Brackets

If you like the core essence of factory games without any constraint except placement and efficiency, then this game is for you. I find it has been brilliantly executed -- the graphics are stellar, the UI is good and the music is perfectly unobtrusive. Every part of the game is designed to put you into a delightful flow state where time just disappears and you can leave the real world behind.

游戏领域减法设计的标杆，工厂游戏最核心的两点便是生产与物流，毫无疑问本作这两点都做的足够出色

Şekilleri kesip, döndürüp ve boyayarak istenen tasarımları üretmeye çalıştığınız oldukça keyifli bir otomasyon oyunu. Her yeni hedef farklı mekanikler ekleyerek üretim hatlarını giderek daha zorlu hale getiriyor. Fabrikanızı istediğiniz zaman yeniden düzenleyebilmeniz üretim hatlarını optimize etmeyi oldukça keyifli hale getiriyor. Oyunda optimizasyon neredeyse zorunlu aksi halde oyunu tamamlamak fazla uzun sürecektir. Sadece ilerleyen saatlerde biraz tekrar hissi oluşabiliyor. Otomasyon ve fabrika kurma oyunlarını sevenlere tavsiye ederim.

While a huge fan of factory building games this one seems to undercut itself with the endless supply of everything. There is no real reason for optimization, and often you scrap things for the next design. While the game has unlocks they are quite limited and often, due the fact everything is endless, feel underwhelming. It is no bad game at all, but there are better choices out there.