Infinifactory is an interesting puzzle game released in mid-2015, with Early Access being available since the start of that year.
I won’t go into too many details here, and instead cut to the chase; the review will have Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals and Personal Thoughts sections. Without further ado:
Table of Contents
Storyline
The storyline is pretty simple. You are a human abducted by a weird alien species.
The aliens use you in order to build assembly lines for various objects for their own purposes.
Throughout the game, you will find others, previously abducted; now dead humans and hear their last log.
The game has various sectors and each sector has various puzzles. When you complete all the puzzles in each sector, you are then brought for evaluation before the aliens, who award you with a random object and some food pellets.
When you finish all the puzzles in the main story, there is also some bonus levels that further advance the story.
Some humans that were previously abducted managed to escape and build a base on that alien planet, and they recruit you.
The final levels are you and the other survivors trying to escape the planet to return home.
Gameplay
The gameplay is what makes this game so interesting.
In every level, your purpose is to have specific types of blocks (or their combination) to reach an endpoint.
The blocks that must reach the endpoint are produced by an assembly line, your purpose is to use other kinds of blocks to bring them to that endpoint.
While this might sound complicated, it really isn’t; the game’s mechanics are very much alike to those of Minecraft.
Movement, for example, is identical to Minecraft’s creative mode. You can even double-tap the jump button in order to fly with the use of a jetpack.
Every level, of course, has some boundaries, both for you and your constructions. Breaking them won’t have any severe punishment, you’ll just return to the start of the level with the construction intact.
PLacing blocks is another thing that this game shares with Minecraft.
At start, the only blocks you can use are conveyor belts. They are as simple as they sound.
You can unlock more blocks as you advance the story, blocks like pistons and sensors, or rotators among others.
You can also start the assembly line to check for any possible errors in your construction. There are no penalties to starting the assembly line so trial and error are key here.
There is also the option to pause production in order to check various production block positions and speed it up.
You can set the input rate before starting the production line to be faster or slower, which might help you or hinder you depending on each puzzle.
Input rate also helps with the total cycles, higher input rate; fewer cycles. More on that later.
One key difference between this game and other building games is the existence of gravity; you cannot place a block on the air without it being attached to anything else.
Some of the puzzles might have relatively complicated solutions, but what makes the game truly challenging is optimization.
Every puzzle has 3 save files. When you complete a puzzle, the save point shows your stats.
In every puzzle, once you are finished, you are then shown your scores in footprint, cycles, and blocks used. In fact, you are compared to other player’s solutions through a histogram.
Footprint is a number that calculates how much of the free floor your assembly line takes. Essentially, the more floor you use the higher this gets.
Cycles is simply the time between the start and finish of the puzzle.
Blocks used are pretty self-explanatory too; it’s the number of blocks you use that do not belong in the production line.
The hardest thing in this game is coming up with solutions that are optimized compared to other people, many of the game’s achievements rely on that.
The game also has a puzzle creator. You can create any puzzle (and present a solution to it) and post it for other players to try it out.
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Visuals
The game’s visuals are decent. They aren’t anything special, but they get by. The positive is that this game plays on most computers, failure to run this will probably be to processor speed instead of graphics problem.
Personal Thoughts
The game is very good. It’s a unique puzzle game that encourages creativity and rethinking a problem from different angles.
No wonder it has so many positive reviews.
The only problem you may find is its difficulty. I’m not saying that this game is extremely hard, but the fact that there is no limit to what you can do may be overwhelming for some.
Other than that, I definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes puzzle games.
Final Verdict
Storyline: –
Gameplay: 8.8
Visuals: 6.0
General Rating: 7.4
That’s it for my review. I hope I convinced you to try this game out because it really is worth it. If you have any questions or want to add anything feel free to leave a comment below.
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