Factory Default: Build, Trade, Repeat has the foundations of a business and factory game I really want to love.
Seven hours revealed plenty of interesting ideas. Contracts matter, transportation and import costs make international trade difficult, and building a business around all of those expenses feels different from the usual factory game. The story also introduces an enormous construction project that seems like a potentially satisfying long-term goal.
The problem is understanding it all.
The tutorial starts reasonably well, but eventually leaves too much important information unexplained. Finding what you need can be difficult, and in a game with this much economic detail, it needs to be much easier to understand exactly where money is being made and lost. More accurate info and easier to find are both important for making the game more player friendly.
None of that made the game bad. In fact, the underlying systems are exactly why I want to see what Factory Default becomes.
For now, though, it needs some time on the production line.
Factory Default is therefore placed into Cryostasis.
The factory isn’t closed.
It’s waiting for an upgrade.
Pronouncement: Cryostasis