Why didn't I discover this game earlier?

[Stevepunk]

Why didn't I discover this game earlier?

I love games with production chains such as The Settlers (the original on Amiga), Banished, X3: Terran Conflict, and to a lesser extent the Anno series. Also Minecraft - though automating production chains is usually over-complicated or impossible.

So mainly The Settlers. The farmer would grow the wheat, which is taken to the windmill and made into flour, which is taken to the bakery and made into bread, which is given to miners to work, they mine coal/gold/iron and the rest of the production line is fairly standard from there..

Also, this game features the grainy style of many classic Amiga games (again the original The Settlers), and the bleak grainy browns remind me of SWIV for some reason.

The combat was rubbish in The Settlers and they never quite got it right in the expansions though they did try different things. Thankfully, Factorio gets the combat right.

At first I was put off my having a main character. I was like "Why do I need a guy to stand near construction orders in an RTS game?" - it was annoying. But then I played Stardew Valley which is even more unforgiving with most commands being melee range only despite mouse and keyboard control like Factorio. So after playing SDV I warmed up to Factorio a bit more.

Now I'm addicted.

To think I actually purchased this game for a friend, intending to write the code down for a Secret Santa but the code was too long (pre-steam) so I just installed the game myself.
Were it not for this I may have never played this game..


I'm curious what similar games people have played and their first impressions of Factorio based upon these previous experiences, or what led them to play Factorio.

[Koub]

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