Factorio: Space Age Review (Hrizalida)
It took me 97 hours to complete this expansion...
Factorio Space Age is priced like a full game, even though it's labeled as a "DLC." In reality, you could call it a new game altogether, and it's absolutely worth the money.
I was a bit apprehensive, thinking that I’d have to go through the early stages of the game again and build a rocket (something I’ve started doing four times in the original game). Theoretically, this could have taken me around 60 hours, which is quite a lot. But thankfully, the balance has changed, and you can now reach the space rocket much faster—somewhere around 20 hours, and even faster if you have blueprints. So, I started the game for the fifth time. The time spent felt like a warm-up before embarking on cosmic journeys.
Space exploration itself is a whole new mechanic that requires attention and a smarter approach, which can cause your first ships to fall apart (I wish you luck and patience in the final stages of the game). I couldn't handle it for long, though, and by the time I built my third ship, I started looking for tutorials and blueprints online (thanks to the people who publish them).
Each planet not only presents a new challenge but also introduces interesting mechanics. At first, it can be a bit tedious to set up familiar production chains, but once you figure out how to approach it (and if you don’t, you can always head to YouTube or search for blueprints online), everything runs smoothly. I enjoyed every planet, even though the process of settling them wasn’t easy—but it was incredibly engaging.
One thing I can say, both as a plus and a minus, is that the game consumes a tremendous amount of your time. The only way to balance it is with your brainpower and optimizing your logistics chains. As a result, after a 3-4 hour session, you feel drained and exhausted but satisfied that you completed yet another section of production (factory must grow). However, the final stage, in my opinion, feels very drawn out without additional mods and requires a lot of patience. Although, this is subjective since I suffered mostly from making too many "temporary" decisions, which eventually crumbled and had to be fixed.
The developers deserve a standing ovation; this game and its DLC are an unreal phenomenon that will give you at least hundreds of hours of gameplay and an addiction to it.
P.S. To save time, I would strongly recommend playing it in co-op. I decided to build my Factorio solo and regretted it by the end of the game, as I was being pulled in all directions—some items were running out, and I had to expand or introduce new logistics chains, which became quite overwhelming. By the end, it became almost a matter of pride to finish the game. I was tired, I spent a lot of time in the game, and I did it almost "in one go"... but I am incredibly proud that I managed to beat this challenge.