Abiotic Factor

I searched for an existing thread but came up empty.

This is my favorite survival crafting game, and it just came out in 1.0 yesterday. Instead of chopping down trees and breaking rocks you are dismantling desks and computers and shit. I played almost 100 hours in EA and then quit on purpose before the first big update so that I could start a new run for 1.0, and it is just as fun as I remember.

Before anyone asks, you can play both solo or multiplayer.

Since I recently tried 7D2D and liked most of it but intensely hated other parts enough to make me stop playing, that's what I'll compare it to, even if that isn't entirely fair. First, this one uses learn by doing progression, so the more you hit something with a club/table leg, the more your blunt weapons skill goes up. The more you sprint, the more sprint skill, etc. It has pretty solid tech progression that guides you through the game in such a way that you aren't getting in over your head until you are (mostly) ready, but there is still plenty of shit that will wreck you if you aren't careful. Typical survival mechanics with food, water, temperature, radiation, fatigue, pooping, but not so annoying that it becomes a hassle. Monsters and enemies to kill that require more skill and tech the further you get, that sort of thing.

Questing is pretty light, but on purpose. It is more of a "hey, this door requires a battery to get through, how do I make a battery?" and then you explore around until you find something that lets you learn how to make a battery, find the pieces, etc. That's a super-simplification, but what I'm saying is that it doesn't step-by-step you through every little thing. Later it is mostly just "get to manufacturing" which will take you all over the place, through various sectors, etc. The other great part about this game is that once you figure out the roundabout path to get where you need to go, there is typically a door that you can unlock only from that side, so once you spend 3 hours traversing areas and not remembering exactly how you got there, you just open that door and voila, you're back where you started and now can just take the shortcut through the door instead of that 3 hour trip every time. Even shorter explorations can result in opening doors that were previously locked to you, maybe through a ceiling or something.

It also has a fairly fun base-building portion, although the lack of snap is a bit of a pain. They implemented snapping for cubicles now, and have mentioned that they might try to do it for everything later, but not sure how difficult that would be. And just when you finally made a cool base with good defenses, you'll find another place that looks even cooler (and might be closer to where you are currently exploring), so plenty of motivation to explore and move around. Seriously, the locations in this game are far, far more interesting than most of the forest/desert/radioactive waste biomes in your typical survival game.

It was only $20 when I bought it I think, so the current price is only a little bit higher with the sale, but still way below shittier games that you won't get anywhere near the hours of play in. I expect I will put another couple hundred hours into this version. As you can tell, I am way overhyping this, but I think it deserves the hype IF you are into this type of game. This is easily my favorite game of the last couple years.

Graphics aren't the highest caliber, but it also doesn't matter that much, so don't let first impressions influence you that way. Also, unlike some devs (The Fun Pimps *cough* faggots) these devs actually seem to listen to their player base and implement a lot of things that make sense. I believe they will stick with it and keep updating and adding content too, in case that's a concern.



Here is the 1.0 release trailer, and then a longer PR/dev sorta thing that is amusing but might not make as much sense if you haven't played the game yet.

Caliane said:

after trying a bunch of things.

making a shortcut. adding " -dx 11" after the target seems to have worked. I wonder if this will fix the Vrising crashing.

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When you start the game there is an option to choose dx11 if you have issues. Did you select the other one the first time and check the "always use this option" box?

Gravel said:

This is a pretty cool take on survival games. Grounded is probably the most out of the box one I can think of, but that's still almost identical in concept. This one takes it to a whole different world.

Not super far into it, think we're probably nearing the end of the 2nd "area." To me, this almost seems like it's the hardest portion of the game because we finally got shitty guns, but without good aim they're incredibly difficult to use. I think as we start gaining more skills, even if enemy difficulty goes up, we at least won't be fighting with drifting aim.

Click to expand...

Eventually you'll find out that there is tons and tons of content ahead still. It is kind of crazy just how much is in the game.

And you're right, the aim drift will get better over time. I like how they took the concept that you're a fucking science nerd that has never touched guns before, so of course you won't be good at using them, instead of other games where if you the player are skilled enough you can just headshot everyone even with low skill. Same with melee, your damage clearly goes up over time as well. This is why I complained about 7D2D abandoning their learn-by-doing skill progression system, because I shouldn't suddenly get better at shooting simply because I leveled up from doing a bunch of melee or even just completing quests, or even worse, found a few magazines. Your character gets better at shooting by doing it, but you as the player also get better at it because you fought with the drift for so long.

You've probably already made the shotgun thingies, I forget their names, scrap maybe? But the big one mitigates the drift a ton because it is just blasting buckshot (screws) in a huge area. Sneak behind someone and shoot them in the head with that, and a lot of times you'll get a one-shot kill. I hate the fucking pause for the charge-up for that gun to shoot though. The pistol is pretty good too, but obviously less powerful and more susceptible to drift.

I'm fucking loving this game all over again, and playing it every spare moment I get.

One tip I'll give, not a spoiler or anything, and maybe you've already discovered it. Well ok, two tips. First, grab the first refrigerator you find and bring it back to base asap. Second, since even in the fridge shit eventually rots, get someone to the cooking skill that lets you make soups. Soups can sit on the stove forever and not burn (unlike meat on a skillet), and they can also be taken off and put on the floor/counter and never ever decay. You can make a soup mug that holds two portions to carry with you, just like the water bottle you can make. Soups are literally the most OP thing in the game, seriously. And if you haven't already seen it, hit J to go to the journal and in there in the upper left are all the soup recipes. They'll fill in as you gather materials that are used in them.