Over 2000 hours spent in numerous manufacturing unit video games makes me a little bit of a purist, I suppose. In idea, I ought to then be the perfect reviewer to get pleasure from Shapez 2. However I am additionally the perfect reviewer to tear it aside over probably the most minor hiccups and defects. I am the Anton Ego of manufacturing unit video games. I do not like meals, I adore it. If I do not adore it, I do not swallow.
Ah, you needn’t fear. That is by far probably the most enjoyable I’ve had reviewing a sport, and Shapez 2 has, in my thoughts not less than, turned the holy trinity of manufacturing unit video games (Factorio, Passable, Dyson Sphere Program) right into a holy quartet. Its pared again, everything-is-free-forever method is kind of liberating, and I’ve by no means had a lot enjoyable putting conveyor belts in my life. However 40 hours into my save file, I’ve typically discovered myself craving for a bit extra creativity within the challenges, just a few extra curveballs despatched in my route.
For those who’ve performed a manufacturing unit sport earlier than, you already know the drill with Shapez 2, and can have the ability to settle into its rhythm of chopping, rotating, and mixing shapes in a short time. Life begins on the centre of the world, the place a large, shape-hungry vortex lives. It desires you to feed it circles. So, you plop just a few extractors on the close by circle deposit, and conveyor belt your new shapes proper into the vortex’s maw. Ding! The vortex is now bored of circles. It desires squares. So, you join up a patch of close by squares. Ding! Now it desires semi-circles, so you must do your first little bit of form manipulation, by slicing a few of these circles in half. Ding! Now the vortex craves semicircles connected to rectangles. Ding! Now a circle on high of a sq.. Ding! Now the circle is pink and the sq. is blue. Ding! Ding! Ding!
You get the concept. There are two massive factors of differentiation between Shapez 2 and different manufacturing unit builders. First is the sandbox nature. There aren’t any enemies to cope with, and buildings do not price any sources, so that you’re free to construct up or tear down belts and buildings as a lot as you want. The second is the abstraction of the manufacturing unit merchandise and objectives. In Factorio, you are constructing circuitboards, gears, plastic bars, all with the top purpose of constructing a rocket to fly away from the hellish planet you have crashlanded on. In Shapez 2, you are constructing shapes, for no different purpose than to feed an ever-hungry vortex who desires to eat shapes.
Cheffing shapes for a ravenous abyss means the sport does throw duties and milestone objectives at you continuous, like the power to color shapes totally different colors or use trains to move shapes over large distances, so you’re feeling propelled alongside by the intrigue of not understanding what you’d make subsequent. However even nonetheless, you do really feel like issues begin to gradual a little bit because the milestones maintain coming, as I hoped for just a few extra unlocks that might actually get my mind working.
Whether or not these factors of differentiation are interesting or repulsive is totally subjective. I’ve no difficulty with the extent of abstraction; in truth, I believe it is very intuitive. In different video games, it’s important to hover over a circuit board to learn the way to make it. In Shapez 2, you’ll be able to clearly see – oh, okay, in order that’s a sq. on the underside, with reverse quarters of a circle layered atop it. Cool. This sandbox method signifies that lots of the points you run into in video games like Factorio – operating out of sources, defending in opposition to enemy assaults, exploring the world for brand new areas – do not exist right here, and can attraction to some gamers. However I do not assume the sport goes far sufficient to interchange these problem-solving moments with different quandries.
However, the sport has additionally grown vastly since I performed its Subsequent Fest demo, not simply in scale however in sophistication. One bugbear I had with the demo was that finishing duties would robotically enhance the effectivity and throughput of your belts and manufacturing unit buildings. Sounds good on paper, however truly it is pissing annoying for individuals who cares about rigorously engineering a construct based mostly on throughput ranges, solely to have these ranges change a couple of minutes later. With the early entry launch although, non-Milestone duties will grant you analysis factors which you can also make the selection to spend on bettering the effectivity of various buildings – in addition to unlocking totally new buildings and options. It is a well-implemented system and a very good change which locations management of manufacturing charges straight within the participant’s arms the place it belongs.
One barely weird design alternative is that Shapez 2 makes all of the buildings and belts free, however concurrently ascribes a forex to each copy-pasting blueprints and putting down platforms. The procedurally generated worlds of Shapez 2 are huge and – not like in Shapez 1 – largely outer area which you’ll be able to’t construct on. To achieve far-flung “form asteroids” to mine extra attention-grabbing shapes, you must place down extra platforms just like the one which homes your central vortex, thus growing your real-estate for factory-building. The sport’s tutorials additionally encourage you to pre-build platforms for a sure function. For instance, I spent a little bit of time placing collectively a platform which takes in eight full conveyor belts of 1 form, splits all of them in half down the center, after which outputs the 2 halves in several instructions. After that, I might simply copy and paste that platform each time I wanted it. Properly, so long as I had the Blueprint Factors for pasting it, and a few spare Platforms to put down.
It is an odd, barely muddled combination. On the one hand, the issues which usually price sources in these video games, like buildings and belts, are free. On the opposite, issues which are usually simply fully free high quality of life issues, like copy-pasting a blueprint, have a value. Again once I performed the Subsequent Fest demo I preferred the concept of getting an additional purpose within the background to toil away at, however now I am not so positive. Largely as a result of the steadiness appears fully wacky with the prices, anyway. You achieve Blueprint Factors by inputting sure shapes into the vortex, and possibly I used to be only a bit too proactive, however I at all times had a number of million Blueprint Factors accessible, and even the most expensive copy-paste jobs would solely price just a few thousand on the most. It feels some rebalancing is likely to be so as right here.
However these sorts of minor quibbles are simply forgotten while you’re midway by a serious shape-building challenge. In my present save file, I am engaged on a manufacturing unit which outputs over 4,000 of a sure milestone form each minute. After you full the ultimate form in a milestone, you’ll be able to proceed to supply that form and ship it into the vortex to extend your Operator Degree, which is generally only for bragging rights but additionally provides you some analysis factors, Blueprint Factors, and so forth on your hassle. It is a good contact, without delay celebratory and motivational.
And when you unlock the ultimate milestones, the milestone shapes turn out to be randomised, and the sport encourages you to start out utilizing logic and circuitry to create what’s referred to as a Make Something Machine (MAM) – the final word step in automation. Now that is the form of intriguing step up in complexity I would like extra of all through the sport, and it is one which I hope to spend a lot extra time with.
This rings very true, given how the sport realises that satisfaction is the bedrock of the manufacturing unit style, and leans closely into it. Dopamine is a byproduct of nearly each constructing within the sport, with splendidly charming animations that present the shapes truly being break up aside, rotated, and stacked atop each other. A few of this small-scale refinement is misplaced while you develop your manufacturing unit to a sure dimension and begin to spend most of your time zoomed out, copy-pasting entire platforms at a time as a substitute of particular person buildings and belts. When you get to that stage although, you’re already nicely and actually within the clutches of the sport’s siren track of mass manufacturing and automation.
Shapez 2 is a unique flavour of manufacturing unit sport than I am used to, however executed at occasions to a near-masterpiece degree which makes it very simple to dive in and take a look at one thing a bit totally different. Minor balancing points apart, all of it feels extremely tightly wound, with an enormous emphasis positioned on consolation, person expertise, and satisfaction. I simply hope the depth will increase over its early entry interval, with extra kinds of challenges constructed into later manufacturing unit processes, and extra causes to discover additional afield.
