I enjoyed Factorio but never got deep into it. I figured that these sort of games weren't for me. It turns out that navigating a maze of conveyer belts and machinery in 3D is a fundamentally different and awesome experience.

The last time a game made me feel like this was when Minecraft was in alpha and I spent weeks on end building dungeons and cities. Satisfactory taps into that same freeform creative element. You're working with limited tools and more specific instructions, but how you end up solving the problems will be an expression of your identity. My factories were sprawling, messy, and chaotic, and I loved it.

The multiplayer is its own joy, too. It's so fun to collaborate on big projects for a while, and then you just naturally split apart as you start chasing down little problems and side efforts.

The world is beautiful and exploration is exciting. The systems are easy to learn but deep and complex. The combat is ♥♥♥♥ and the enemies are silly - but for me, this is barely more than a footnote. The end game is incomplete, but it took me 60+ hours to get there.

Drink water and take breaks.