gemini://gemini.mjollna.org/satisfactory.gmi

I bought the game as I was looking for a 2 to 4 players coop game. I wasn't too sure about the fact that I would like to build factories, but since it also contained exploration and the map looked big enough to offer a bunch of surprises, I thought that all of us players would be fine.

All the mechanics around building factories and automation are really fun. There's a huge dedication from the developers to balance the game; you can have a look at the major update news/patch notes explaining choices and balancing, every aspect is carefully studied (be aware though that if you look before playing it obviously spoils some of the progression). I enjoyed very much the fact that you can completely choose your own pace in building, customizing, optimizing or not, and the way you want : energy, resources, space, etc.

It's also worth noting that it's not required at all to have a look at the wiki of the game while playing, until you want to check at the very end if you've missed something along the way. The only thing I was happy some friend told me about is that you can type numbers in almost every field of the UI instead of moving cursors, which is not completely obvious at first sight.

The game offers very good quality exploration. It's dangerous "just right" to go with the mood of the game, there's a lot to see, no pre-made guidelines (which could ruin the feeling of discovery), as well as some very well crafted landscapes and caves. Sometimes you can feel it's beta, in some zones lacking polish. More variety in the food and monsters would also be cool, but it's already fun to spend hours wandering and taking screenshots in photo mode.

The coop aspect works well, although it's a bit rough at the edges for the moment. Sometimes the visual sync between players is a bit weird, and there are a few bugs here and there, but overall it's totally usable and we were able to play (two players) without major issues.

Satisfactory