What can I say about SpaceChem that hasn't been said already? If you follow the indie scene even slightly, I'm sure you heard the ample praise and acclaim for Zachtronics' chemical puzzler. After a foray into card-game strategy with Ironclad Tactics, the developer has returned to the world of meticulous planning and systematic onstruction with Infinifactory. You might have heard it described it as "SpaceChem in 3D", and while that's an apt description, it doesn't exactly detail what makes Infinifactory an awesome evolution of the SpaceChem formula. Infinifactory takes everything you loved about that game, on a grander scale and with new depth, wrapped up in an alien industrial aesthetic.
Forget about bonding elements and creating molecules. Infinifactory leaves the microscopic world of SpaceChem behind for the world of alien engineering. The enigmatic story puts you in the shoes of a person captured and forced to build extraterrestrial constructs. Audio logs and notes allow you to gradually piece together the overarching tale, but let's be honest: you're here for the puzzles.
"SpaceChem in 3D". Introducing the third dimension adds so many tweaks and new complexities. Having to remember that items take time to fall when you're trying to sync up blocks across multiple levels. Working out how to maneuver pieces across multiple axises so that they all eventually meet. Having to build objects with height and width and depth. Getting the mess of energy conduits and welders and pushers to work and timed correctly...all without Spacechem's sync command to fall back on. On top of all that, Infinifactory has the most seamless, intuitive, user-friendly control scheme and interface I've seen in a block building game. You can effortlessly rotate and place blocks, easily create long conveyor belts or delete unwanted sections in seconds.
It's the meticulous construction and pursuit of perfection and optimization you love. The hypnotic rhythm of seeing your complex sprawling mess of moving pieces and parts actually work properly after countless failures and tweaking. The challenge of learning how everything works and functions, and using that knowledge in new ways that makes you feel like a damn genius when it all comes together in the end. It's all that, in a 3D world of sky docks and armories and spaceships and missiles. Six hours in, and for me, Infinifactory had already eclipsed SpaceChem, due to the presentation and polish and the spatial depth that offers new challenges in ways that SpaceChem never could. The price may seem steep, but for the amount of polished content already here, and the content to come, it's well worth the asking price. While Infinifactory may be in Early Access, the current version is literally the 1.0 release version, with a feature-complete finished main campaign. Mini-campaigns and new blocks and mechanics will be adding in future updates
If you enjoyed SpaceChem even in the slightest, you won't be disappointed by Infinifactory. It's everything that made that game great, on a grander scale and literally with new depth.