A crash landing on an alien world is the starting point for the extensive factory building in Factorio, as you can only leave the beige-brown 2D planet if you use all the resources you can find to build a new rocket. So you scavenge nearly all the raw materials, discover the wonders of automation, and pollute the environment until it fights back.
First, however, you start small. With the directly controllable game character, you cut down trees to get wood as fuel and then build ore conveyors to extract iron and copper ore, coal, or stones, whereby the conveyors must be fired with wood. You have to do the filling yourself at first unless you are creative with coal. The mined ores are then used to make iron and copper plates in the blast furnace, which in turn are needed for other projects. Either you carry all the materials from A to B yourself or you build conveyor belts and gripper arms that take care of the automatic transport to the destination. The first step in automating production has been taken, although the first gripper arms still have to be manually filled with fuel.
Since a great many resources are mined, consumed, and processed, increasing automation of the factory is necessary, especially since the character cannot produce all materials or intermediate products himself. Iron and copper ore cannot be smelted in the inventory itself, and assembly factories or blast furnaces are needed for engines or steel beams. Also, you have to get used to the fact that the character can carry around entire buildings, weapon systems, and trains, and they are placed ready-made in the world instead of being built on the spot.
Anyway, a lot of the controls are quite idiosyncratic. Apart from the handy quick launch bar, the general user interface is kept arguably plain. Almost all elements are hidden behind quite small icons, which are at least minimally grouped thematically but should be better distinguishable. In addition, you should urgently get to grips with the keyboard shortcuts to split stacks in the inventory or to be able to take everything with you with one click, which greatly facilitates management. At least tutorials and text panels help you get started, as well as the ALT key to not lose track of the stuff you've produced, but still, a lot is learning-by-doing in Factorio.
This typical gameplay of building, expanding, and optimizing, which can also be found in the Anno series or Satisfactory, is a motivating and encouraging thread throughout the entire game. Nevertheless, one can sometimes be overwhelmed by the new building possibilities, as the complexity continues to increase, and often a complex expansion or reconstruction of the factory base is necessary.
Conclusion
Behind the staid facade of Factorio lies an excellent factory construction simulation, in which almost everything that is not nailed down can be automated. A motivating pull of construction, expansion, and optimization quickly unfolds, as long as one gets involved with the complexity, the possibilities, and the shaggy user interface. Later on, exemplary usable train networks, transport robots, and circuits come into play, especially since much is complemented by nifty tricks. Factorio is a very good game and scores with high complexity and well-thought-out logistics networks.
