Recent reviews by Floodo1

Currently at 629 hours.
Both because this game is great and because it's a time-melter ("let me do just one more thing and then I'll be done ..."). Good from the beginning through to the very "end" game (giant factories).

I wont cover what this game is like/about (watch a few vids on youtube, esp anything titled 'megabase'), but instead cover why I have playtime equivalent to a full-time job for nearly 4 months!

Biggest upside to this game is that the dev team is still expanding and VERY involved with the community. The game has slowly gotten better, patch by patch. It was good when I started playing it but it has been improved in EVERY way since I purchased it, and will continue to improve for the foreseeable future. Each major version (0.13 -> 0.14 -> 0.15) has brought significant changes and the minor versions have lot of fixes/tweaks. The devs actually make fixes for minor issues in Reddit threads sometimes (-8

Second upside is that there is a lot of fun (for some) to be had just optimizing your factory. It creates a progression in itself because you can play through the game to launch your first rocket. Then you can optimize your factory so that you can launch your second rocket much quicker than the first. Once you've played this game for awhile then besides the progression this game is really about 'optimizing' your production .. you already know how to build everything so the fun becomes either building things differently or optimizing what you've built so that it can produce more and more!

This is where the time-melting really comes in (typical example) --> need to produce more 'red circuits' but that means I need more 'green circuit' production which means that my Iron Plate production needs improved which means my Iron Ore mining needs expanded ... BOOM, one simple task 'produce more red circuits' ends up melting hours as you get lost tweaking your new Iron Ore base, maybe so much that you forget why you even set out to improve Iron Ore production but you do remember the Copper Plate production problem taht you first noticed a couple of days ago ... ... ... (dozens of hours go by) ... ... ... 'Oh yeah, looks like red circuit production needs improved' ... (-8

Third upside is the mods. LOTS of super helfpul/useful mods really expand the game. Mods like SmartTrain let you build some amazing systems (trains that automatically travel between remote mining outposts and production facilities that deliver resources to your main factory which feeds a production system to launch rockets every minute) or Bob's Mod which extends nearly every aspect of the game (much longer progression).

I will say, this game isn't for everyone (my mom wouldn't play it) but if you're into this kind of thing then buy Factorio. It is the gold standard for this type of game and overall is VERY well made, by a team of devs who love what they've made and continue to develop it.

Few games are worthy of so much play time and even fewer still actually get it, so watch some vids and trust me: this game is GOOD!

Edit: cleaned up spelling mistakes and made the 'second upside' more clear.

I really like this game :-) Yes you can and maybe should spend money on it, but plenty of people play it for free (probably because of how frequent the card drops / rewards are). The art is good and the game is very well balanced. Luck of the draw plays just enough of a factor and games don't last forever.
Really happy I stumbled onto this game :)