Shapez.io
26 Sep 2020So I realized, three weeks in, that university is a really big time sink, and I do not have that much time to play League of Legends anymore. Instead of queuing into an hour long game with no option to pause and potentially feeling down afterwards, I needed to find some sort of game that is easy to pick up, requires a little bit of thinking, and does not need huge amounts of dedication.
And look what I found.
Shapez.io
If you guessed that I would be doing a short game review, you would be right. Shapez.io is a Factorio styled game that is all about manufacturing different shapes from a variety of sources, and optimizing those pathways and processes. It does not require big brain activation to play the game, but in order to design your machines properly and compactly, some thinking and sketching is definitely reccommended.
The game starts off with a short interactive tutorial that introduces the aim of the game: to produce the required shapes and deliver them to the hub. It then introduces the machines that help you make different shapes; each has a different function, and together they form giant production chains that slowly assemble those quirky required shapes that over time, grow in complexity.
As you progress, machine upgrades and variants are introduced to streamline and ramp up your production to meet the ever-increasing demand. A painter that originally paints one shape at a time might have an option to paint two simultaneously. A stacker might be able to go from stacking an item per second to two. The map is also infinite in size, which means there is no need to worry about running out of resources. Keep expanding!
Review
I first found out this game from a medium-sized YouTube channel, aliensrock. He plays mostly puzzle and strategy games, which is right up my alley. I did not even click into the video when it was uploaded; the thumbnail alone was enough to tempt me into purchasing this.
The idea for this game never gets old, because honestly, expanding my factories Henry Ford-style without the fear of it all crashing down because of some energy crisis or demand fluctuation is quite satisfying. The content might be slightly limited if you are used to 30-hour long campaigns, since there are only 18 levels in this game, and I finished them in slightly under 16 hours, but frankly, I feel like I could do it quicker now that I have some basic ideas of how the game works and how stuff should be built. The dev, however, promised constant updates, and the next update apparently seems to expand endgame content with wires and logic gates and other cool stuff that I am never able to construct efficiently in computer science class.
The interface also looks clean and easy to understand. The required shapes are lines up nicely on the left side of the screen, while the machines are all shown in simple icons at the bottom. A nice, simple indicator at the top-right corner points towards the delivery hub, just in case you have forgotten where your origins are, after all that hectic expansion. Not to mention that this game has a light and a dark mode, catering to both casual gamers and hardcore edgy ones.
Overall, this is just nice game that burns up my extra time without demanding too much of it. I would certainly reccommend if you are looking for a casual game that requires a bit of thinking without wanting to get stuck on a level.
Other games
On the same vein, these are some games that I am either hoping to play, or currently playing but not enough to form a clear judgement. Most of them come from watching aliensrock videos.
Cosmic Express
- Steam - CDN $10.99
- Play Store - CDN $6.99
- App Store - CDN $6.99
- Official Site
Note: This game was bundled with Twitch Prime at some point. Check your Twitch account.
Cosmic Express is a game about building train tracks that move cute little aliens to their desired destinations. A few rules: the train has limited capacity, tracks cannot cross over each other, and the train travels one way.
5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel
- Steam - CDN $13.49
- Official Site
This is a massive brain game that requires a clear head and more to even understand the rules of the game. The name “5D Chess” is a bit of a misnomer, since you actually get only 4 different dimensions to play with; but that’s already 2 more than what we are familiar with. Play this game so that you can say to your friends “I’ve checkmated you in 10 turns ago” and “I’m literally four parallel universes ahead of you”.
Poly Bridge 2
- Steam - CDN $17.49
- Epic - CDN $17.49
- Official Site
Poly Bridge 2 is the sequel to the original bridge building game, Poly Bridge (duh). It is very simple: slam some roads across the chasm, build supports, and call it a bridge. Content never runs out, as there are also countless community-made levels.
Closing
I know this is a long post, but if you have any comments, pop into my discord and we can always talk about it!