Infinifactory Review
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- čas přidán 22. 04. 2018
- The second in a series of Zachtronics reviews. Start with the SpaceChem one if you're seeing these for the first time. Links below.
Series Playlist: • Zachtronics Review Series
SpaceChem: • SpaceChem Review
TIS-100: • TIS-100 Review
Shenzhen I/O: • Shenzhen I/O Review
Opus Magnum: • Opus Magnum Review
The TIS recreation video: • TIS-100 in Infinifactory - Hry
Recall this line from the Lost Soul Arts video:
"It's FromSoft unfilitered, free to pursue an overarching design methodology even if that results in some unpopular decisions. That's what I want for every game developer."
Matthew is following his own advice and pursuing what he finds worth talking about.
this video is so calming
perfect for falling asleep
Big Joel it’s big Joel everyone.
Everyone I’m subscribed to watches each other. I’m convinced this is a holistic world
Big Joel plays Infinifactory? That's awesome. (I'm making an assumption)
The complaints that Matthew isn't talking about better known games somewhat miss the point. The points he makes in discussion of games like these can often be abstracted away from the particular game and applied to other existing games or considered for those looking to design their own games in the future. There is plenty to think about and enjoy in these reviews, even if they are on games in which you personally aren't interested.
So many rude comments. Matthew isn't your mother, guys. He doesn't have to review something you want him to if he doesn't want to.
I personally am not terribly interested in these games but your reviews are still insightful and well put together. Keep being awesome dude!
*DrTheKay* People upvote it, since the point still stands. CZcamsrs decide what content is being made. If you don't like the content, you can always wave goodbyes.
What's with the unnecessary hostility? It's not like he's wrong.
"Why is he reviewing a game he wants to review instead of a game I want him to review"
Hmmm really gets my noggin' joggin'
Yeah I really don't understand why people want to watch what they want to watch. Like, dude, just watch stuff you don't like, or don't watch and leave no feedback whatsoever, that will definitely help the content creator.
Literally just don't watch the videos you don't want to watch, it's not a difficult concept my dude
Kev Fröhlich no need to be catty like that, what the OP said really is true. The reviewer is not beholden to review what his audience demands.
Jake Jutras
The audience can tell him what they want to see. Noone holds the position that he is forced by a higher power to do what his audience wants, but if he wants to keep them it's a wise decision to do so every now and then.
Kev Fröhlich Agreed, I however think he has done plenty of that and he should take his time reviewing things he wants to publicize.
The nuances in your commentary always catch me off-guard - even on my tenth, twentieth listen to a review. Can't express how great it is to see seemingly more of that with every new release from ya, Matthew.
I feel really proud that I found a solution to the whale that was incredibly efficient use of it and was so fast that it didn't even register on the chart of solutions
"The entirety of the heist chapter suffers from redundancy." I love your work Matthewmatosis! Best game reviewer in existence!
Matthew back at it again with a top tier video
DrTheKay I did though
ponyfuckers pls leave
Even with all of its flaws, it's probably my favorite Zachtronics game. I remember going to some of the harder levels, see what you had to build and say "welp, I know what I'm doing for the next five hours".
Rotating arms are for casuals.
I completed the entire game without even knowing making rotating arms was a viable mechanic
I beat the directional quirk by placing platforms to make sure the block goes where I wanted it to go.
oh wow, I had no idea how the game prioritizes what direction the blocks go, no wonder i never got the hang of it.
Absolutely fantastic review, always great to see new videos about underrated games.
You said that the heist chapters suffer from redundancy twice in a row, that had to have been intentional right?
Superstar Banana Mix Haha, I was thinking the exact same thing.
Favourite part of the review
even if it was a mistake, it perfectly explains what he was trying to convey about the Heist missions. I felt the same about it.
Not a mistake lol. Joke on the word "redundancy"
Can't be a mistake, he does wordplay like that quite often if you look for it.
As informative and impressive as always. Because of you I learn to love my favorite games just a little more.
I found so many gems through these reviews/critiques
Another great review and the game looks very interesting, glad to see you giving it exposure so we dont miss it!
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is the second in a series of 300 reviews I'm doing on the Zachtronics series.
Tallcat That is sexist, don't forget the other 72 genders!
300 more! 300 more!
Matt, if you're reading this it was a joke I still love you.
I like how your review both judges the game's merits on their own and contrasts the game to its predecessor, in both pros and cons. It's clear you have a passion for these games and these videos. Very nice!
Your videos always help me understand games that I would never normally play.
Also, sending a printer with love.
I want to hear him say "giant rotating arms" again
I've been playing this game since you recommended it. I love it, it is so good.
I fucking love this series. I've never had the patience for these kinds of games but god damn do they fascinate me. Keep up the awesome work matthew, this shit is my jaaaam.
Really looking forward to you getting to Shenzhen. It was my first Zachtronics game, and it's still both my favorite, and the one I've come closest to beating.
As someone who had to go watch the SpaceChem vid, thanks for putting it in the description. Some people mention a video, then have no link to it a lot more than you'd think.
It's the video he made before this... how hard is that to find? It was second in my recommended vids when I clicked on this.
Yeah it's true, I was kinda high as fuck when I wrote that, but I was still grateful.
@BrightPage hahaha well in that case smoke on man
@DrTheKay get your fucking head out of your ass and your ass off that pedestal
I perfectly zoned out on this! 10/10 experience!
i dotn get it whers the redstone
everything is powered wirelessly from a power source outside the universe
4:24 There’s actually a contraption which moves a block back and forth, triggering a sensor every other “cycle”, which causes a pusher/blocker (I think that’s what they’re called, haven’t played the game in a while) to be in a constant state of activating and deactivating, and since pushers/blockers can’t fall while activating/deactivating, it makes a floating machine! Which can be used to suspend whatever parts of your factory you want in the air.
the solution to the priority system is to just to use a minimal amount of conveyors, like if your object is 3 long you put a conveyor every 3rd block. Then when there's a turn it'll only be on the turn one and you're good.
Daaang, great review!
I came up with a solution to the problem mentioned at 13:50, and that became an unsatisfying dominant strategy. To minimize cycles, the strategy was to have the inputs spit out a straight line on a ledge, where platform on a loop of conveyors would make all the ledges fall out from underneath at once. The level “Relaxant Formula 13” is a notable exception, where the speed is capped not by how fast the inputs spit out blocks, but by the rate at which blocks can enter the juicer; how fun. Still, to circumvent this problem, I looked into custom levels that incorporate randomness elements - jury is still out on that search.
just bought the game because of this series and so far (i’ve only played for a couple of hours) it’s amazing. probably the one of most satisfying games i’ve ever played. if the stuff matt said in these videos piqued your interest or resonated with you, then i think you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. infinifactory even has a ps4 port with a pretty nice control scheme, so you can enjoy it on whatever platform suits you best.
Dont listen to the haters, Matt. If you think there's something interesting to say about a game, I'll be interested in hearing it.
Hey, ever thought about doing a review of Factorio ?
If automation is relevant to your interests, it is THE automation game of the moment !
infiniminer when?
People don't up the input rate because the majority doesn't care about optimizing every single solution. They just find a solution that works and move onto the next.
Another great review! .. I've played all the Zachtronic games (including the early free ones back in the day) and beaten most of them. I've never even really looked at the histograms. Imo they provide 0 motivation. Completing the challenge and seeing your design in operation is the reward.. Also there are multiple histograms for different qualities. You *could* get a super high score on one by sacrificing the others, so they dont have much meaning.
"spoilers"
IT'S UP BOYZ
Something you only minorly went over was block interaction. In the video you see use a technique that wherein you drop the parts into place to make them interact the way you want, ie blocker and rotator. I was new to zachtronics and this was the major barrier to the final world. Although I think the final part 2 wasn't great (teleporter problem was mentioned, and laser was very much the idea of wasting to much material), in the final zone I felt that I was forced to play against the engine, creating floating mechanics are not fun and I'm sure more blocks could have been added to avoid this.
Your zachtronics meme has grown on me and now I cant watch until I play it REEEE
When's the Infiniminer review coming out?
Lovely! :D
Don’t waste your hotkeys!!
Pressing “c” while selecting a block changes it’s type. So a vertical to horizontal sensor for example.
Meaning you only need one sensor, one welder, etc in your car 1-9 bar
love this game
Could you review Prey?
perfection
I really need to keep on these games. I keep quitting before it gets really interesting. Like the space chem bossfights or getting to chapter 2 in Infinifactory. You ever look at Human Resource Machine?
I loved this game. I generally hate puzzle games, but this one just hit home with me. I got to some levels into the second part of the game, and eventually lost interest, but I loved spending hours trying to work out a solution that would work. It was just so gratifying.
However, I really didn't like that you could go back and optimize with new tools, because that meant the scoring was completely irrelevant as I was progressing. Sure you could compete against the norm, but as the stages went on, more and more figured out that perhaps they could go back and improve it for a better score with new tools, which just skewed the whole scoreboard.
Still though, great puzzle game for people like me who loathe puzzles in general.
Were you planing on adding a K at 20:56?
Great Job!
I love you matt your a 10/10 guy
When's that shovel night review coming?
How many times are you going to review this game?
as many as it takes, that is, until we buy them. I'm looking forward to the tis review because i bought and completed it on the weekend matt uploaded the 0th video of this series
once
I hope he makes 10 more videos on it just to annoy you in particular.
Was that an actual attempt at musicological analysis in a game review? Colour me somewhat impressed.
That's the only game of Zachtronics that I still don't have, well, I know what i'm buying in the next steam sale ;)
About that printer... Have you turned off and on again?
I hope you continue to find ways to insert the word 'fuck' into all the videos in this series
Is Infinifactory turing complete?
Not sure slaughtering a whale and harvesting its meat in an industrial setting is supposed to be satisfying. Processing it quickly by wasting most of the meat probably wouldn’t sit too well with the space environmentalists, but using as much as possible is clunky and problematic for factory efficiency. I doubt that a perfect solution for that kind of problem exists.
Matthew I hope that maybe someday you'll share your thoughts on Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain.
Not happening, he's determined to tank his channel.
Suddenly every other review I've seen before pales in comparison.
That quirk is so damning, because it's exactly what kept me from finishing this amazing game. It's the first puzzle game I've ever played that I could get the best possible score on my first try. My brain apparently REALLY works well with this game, but the later levels where I want to use products to push other products the directional quirk ends up being maddening. I haven't even played the last 5th of the game because it's just too frustrating.
The standard keys to change the input rate are unfortunately awkwardly placed on non-English keyboards. Right Alt + 9 is a strange choice when everything else is just one key easily r
Wait...Giant rotating arms?
Is this a reupload?
four more until it's over, what a story mark
It's like endless eight all over again...
Stefan I literally just watched the entire Haruhi series including endless eight a couple weeks ago, spooky.
Is it just story spoilers for infinifactory, or are there significant game-play spoilers too?
game-play. around the third act they give you a wet sock to use.
You get to see factories running, and making use of some clever tricks. Some factories on display are from later in the game than others, and even the fairly early ones may give you ideas you might not have thought up yourself (or not until much later).
There's not any in-depth discussion of the plot, but there's some hints in the video that point you towards what plot there is.
There's no "this level is really hard, and this is how to approach solving it, and this is how my solution works" but there's plenty of gameplay hints.
Any chance of Breath of the Wild and MGS5 videos? Metroid Prime would be great as well.
Can you review mario odyssey soon? Pls?
Matthew I think you like Puzzle games
Plz do a mario odyssey review
Woo best reviewer boi!!
Just beat this game after 68hrs
Yooooooo new video!
I think the complaints come from people who missed when he said he would be doing a series on these games. It would seem like the channel is just this forever now, and I would kind of understand any disappointment with that. Well, it _is_ just a series and as for that popular game you're waiting for him to review, he has probably already said on twitter that he eventually will.
I was just watching Joseph Anderson's video on this!
he's aloive!!!!!!
What? He made a video like, a week ago.
21:55 It's a printer?
17:00 - I think, I speak for a big part of the community, if I say:
We are indeed capable of recognizing those improvements, but we just don't care about that optimization, if the solution looks like a weird concept of a factory built to gether with glitches and cheats. For me, aesthetics are more important, than a high score and a nice place in some kind of user-matrix.
4:40 you basically described coding
Yessss...
However, the game does optimization much better than Spacechem. Even the very first level is incredibly tricky if you want to optimize it.
didn't he already talk about this game or am i insane
I believe you're thinking of Joseph Anderson
Goddamn it that explains everything. I watched Joseph's review a few days ago and saw this in my subcription box and went ???????????????????????????????
his "recommending zachtronics" video was mostly focused on infinifactory since he felt it was the best game to start with.
Any upcoming Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey reviews on the way?
He has four or so more reviews of these Zachtronics games coming down the pipe every 2 weeks or so- after that, free for all. I imagine he'd want to do something a bit more universal after indulging in his own niche (not that I'm complaining)
He has said in the past that neither are in the works at the moment.
He said he's do BotW after all the DLC I think. It might be one of the 18 scripts he worked on over his break.
He said on askfm, "I'm a lot more interested in covering Zelda/Mario again than MGS." I'd look at the history before asking him a question. So it's probable but Mathew may have other games in mind. Don't take it to heart but every game he's mentioned so far I haven't heard of and am enjoying them. so for me, he's gonna do it again. lol.
I hope he gives breath of the wild the critic it deserves
Better then the last one. I'm getting the feeling that this whole stint of videos is going to essentially run this type of puzzle solving into the ground, which if your into it could be a good thing, I guess. Then again none of these games are really for me so I guess I'll just fuck off until you start reviewing non-zachtronics stuff again.
21:56 ... getting a... printer to... I thought you were reviewing neat puzzle games, not psychological survival horrors!
Haha that caught me off guard too.
I stumbled upon your channel after seeing your Recommending Zachtronics video and I have to say after reading the comments here you have a very hateful following. I for one enjoy videos like these on lesser known games and I'm sure other people feel the same, so don't be shy on stuff like this!
I really like Infinifactory's existence but I think it's not as good as SpaceChem or TIS-100. (I haven't played Shenzhen I/O or Opus Magnum yet.) While the shift to the third dimension is the most obvious change, I think the accessibility is an even bigger one. The relatively small reactors of SpaceChem have turned into sometimes huge amounts of free space. This makes everything easier, but also messier, at least for me. Since there is usually more than enough space available, you can easily divide a production cycle into separate steps to make a problem easier, which isn't anything special of course, but because they can operate independently, it can feel like completing a checklist. And when everything finally works, it's often not a surprise because the last step can be as easy as every other one. Then you just need to fast-forward until it's finally over. I think completing a level is very anticlimatic. This may also be because you've seen your half-finished solution dozens of times (at least I did), so the final run isn't that different from the previous ones.
Since optimization is less rewarding like you said, I'm probably not the only one who has absolutely no motivation to go back to some of the harder levels, because in this game, "hard" often means "time consuming" and "tedious", while the easier ones are more fun to do again, I think. For me, the most annoying thing about the game is the slow speed. Sure, the maximum speed of SpaceChem may not be possible in this game, but it's almost like they want you watch your factory over and over again. Eventually, the novelty wears off and that's the point where solving puzzles isn't as fun anymore.
One of my contraptions was my smartphone pressing the fast-forward key on my keyboard while leaning against an alarm clock. I really had no patience left to press a button for 2000 cycles. I probably spent one half of my playtime in those just testing my factory which is a huge waste of time. I think this is the first time in a Zachtronics game where I just completed some of the levels for the sake of it. The combination of slow speed, too much space and the long building process of large factories made the later levels a chore for me. And I'm surely not going back to optimize them.
That said, I like that the inputs are now automated and I'm not sure you gave it enough credit. Ideally, a factory has a certain flow to it and learning how to keep everything in sync was pretty cool. I think the last level benefits from this because the input rate is locked and quite high. Maybe there should have been a few more instances of these. This is very different from SpaceChem where some reactors wait ages for the next input to arrive. Instead a high input rate can really make a factory reach its limits. Keeping up with the input can be a challenge itself and is thus necessary for completion. I agree that the histograms don't really make sense with different input rates, but increasing them motivates me far more than a low cycle count. Maybe there should have been a histogram that keeps track of the highest input rate you cleared a puzzle with? That would negate the problem you mentioned at 15:22. I think automated inputs also kind of solve the problem that was present in Sigma-Ethylene.
The level where you destroy the whale poses a moral question which I never would have expected in a puzzle game. I think my first solution only used very little meat of one whale, so I felt bad for killing so many of them and tried to get more meat out of a single one. Sure, the puzzle itself isn't the best but I found it very interesting regardless.
My conclusion is that Infinifactory is a lot easier and less intimidating than SpaceChem, but also less spectacular. I would recommend Infinifactory to more people than I would recommend SpaceChem to and I wonder if the developers saw your first video about SpaceChem and took some of your complaints to heart. Unfortunately, some of SpaceChem's brilliance got lost in the process. The small reactors have turned into arbitrarily big messes of factories and it's usually clear how to approach a given problem, meaning that they can feel quite similar. You could say that quantity is more important in Infinifactory than quality.
The reduced difficulty has one advantage for me though: This is the first Zachtronics game that I managed to beat. I did it in about 51 hours which I believe was about the same time it took me to reach the last level in SpaceChem. I'm not sure why I even remember this. That was years ago.
And ... wow. That recreation of TIS-100 in Infinifactory is just ... insane. I would like to meet the person who made this. Maybe he also reads his e-mail using Infinifactory. I guess Zachtronics might want to hire him.
I'm not sure if I'm making this up, but your joke about saying that something is redundant in a redundant way (in this case, by repeating it), reminds me of your video about Bioshock Infinite where you said multiple times that something got repetitive, which itself is repetitive, of course. If this is intentional: Nice job.
And by the way, I noticed your ongoing trend of showing us your favourite word at the ending of your videos. I haven't watched the video about TIS-100 yet, but it would be cool if you had found a way to display it in a visualization module. If you didn't, I will give it a try.
Infinifactory has spoilerable content? XD
I'm very confused.
People actually optimize for block count in this game???
Did you just say that there's nothing interesting or clever about parallelism? Oh noes!
I only watch these niche game reviews because of his voice actually. How I'd love to hear his opinions about games I actually know ^^
Well, if a game that he reviews or recommends grabs your attention, go and try it out, then come back and rewatch the review.
You might be surprised with what you experience compared to him ^^
I don't even give a fuck about the actual game, i just like to put his voice in the backround. Yeah i'm probably the worst kind of fan
antonco2 No worries, I'm sure it's fine. But you really should try the games he recommends.
I do the same, Im doing ds 1 pvp rn and like to have him in the background
Sadly only as voice, not irl
20:54 Fuck
FUC-
The fact that the creator's wife kind of pushed out rushed stories that , in my own personal opinion, are not all that well written holds me back the most.
Either Stephen's Sausage it or Braid it; getting the most convenient person possible to write such a integral part of games for some people stops the purchase for me!
I love your work, but if you review the same games as Joseph Anderson people will start to realize you're both just split personalities in the same guy
This videos are great and all but this type of puzzle games are not my cup of tea, hope next one is a different genre. Don't get me wrong you are doing amazing work for these games but having them all in a row is bit too much.
bazz you people really can't even listen to what he says can you? He will review zachtronics for now. The next one is probably tis100.
Imagine going to subway to get your fav subs. Then one day they say theyre going to only sell burgers for a while and subs will return. The burgers come out and theyre ok some people like them but alot of the original patrons preffered the subs. A year goes by with no news of subs coming back. Especially when new awsome subs come out that everyone likes (breath of the wild/mario odyssy) but subway never gets them.Eventually the original patrons would go somwhere else for the subs and burgers they preffer. He started out reviewing mainstream nintendo and sony games. Do you really think mainstream nintendo/sony fans would play these? Atleast give us some subs man cmon.
Do you even understand how selfish you're being? He reviews games he finds enjoyable and that others might like as well and it does not cost a cent to view them. There are plenty of people that review more mainstream games and instead of watching them you complain here? That's the equivalent of someone giving you $20 for no reason and then complaining that they didn't give you Euros instead.