The grand duchy of first-person factory sims Satisfactory has finally reached version 1.0 on PC after five years in Early Access, bringing a “complete narrative overhaul” along with novel alien tech, which you can see and marvel at via the 1.0 launch trailer below. They’ve also announced a console version, but we don’t care about that kind of stuff. The only Satisfactory console I care about is the one that lets you turn off the fog for a pristine view of your gleaming conveyor belt empire.
If you’re novel to Satisfactory, it’s all about transforming a pristine alien planet into a gleaming, grinding web of production lines. You’re a “Pioneer” working on behalf of the illustrious FICSIT Inc., who need you to mine and process any resources worth their salt and send them via space elevator to Save The Day. FICSIT Inc. may not be who they say they are, but hush – you’re here to keep the matter flowing to the refinery, not to think about the “disturbing undertones.” Or even the “disturbing undertones” – Satisfactory’s satire of space capitalism is not exactly subtle.
In 2020, Brendan Caldwell, the distant Dickensian habitat destroyer of Rock Paper Shotgun, found Satisfactory to be a hell of a lot of fun. And also relatively casual fun, if you have enough hours to spare. “Everything can be reworked and modified to run an assembly line at peak efficiency, or even slowed down to half speed to increase efficiency and avoid conveyor belt clogging,” he wrote in our Satisfactory Early Access review. “But the opposite is also true. You can, like me, play it by ear. Build a crappy factory. That’s fine. You’re the only human on the planet, nobody’s going to fire you.” Good for you, Brenda, because that “unnecessary, mile-long pipeline” sounds like it could land you a few weeks without pay.
Satisfactory has come a long way since Brendy ruined Early Access with his excessive plumbing. Version 1.0 adds various technologies, including end portals “for near-instantaneous transport across vast alien landscapes,” though they require “massive power” and access to singularity cells. Dimensional warehouses, meanwhile, “offer a powerful inventory management option” powered by Strange Alien Matter. I suspect they let you store stuff in alternate dimensions. You also have more power to customize your uniform, with a range of colors, helmets, tool gadgets, and skins. Nothing helps you focus on your work like a drill pendant, and not on why you’re reducing the paradise of Eden to a maze of chimneys.
We’ve written a lot about Satisfactory over the years – here’s Alex Wiltshire (RPS in Minecraft) talking about how Coffee Stain devs lied about the pipes, and here’s Brendy praising the golf cart again. I’ve personally only put a paltry 10 hours into the Early Access build. I created some kind of smelter-related bottleneck that I didn’t feel like fixing. That’s my cue to start over.
