Good Afternoon All,
I came across both of these games not too long ago, and wanted to give a quick explanation as to why I chose one and not the other to record and play a series on. First off, I believe that both of these games have had a fair amount of polish and work put into them and I would recommend either/both for you to pickup and play if sandbox games are what you enjoy playing.
I first came across FortressCraft Evolved (crash land on alien planet, harvest/build/automate/defend), and while there was a lot going on for it, with the voxel art style that we are all familiar with, there seemed to be too many changes to the game lately that would actually alter my play style. Sure this game is similar to Factorio, which I’ll explain later, but a simple mechanic, such as retrieving items from chests (hoppers), became more of an issue and less of a reward, especially if those chests were filled with different processed goodies that I needed. This may actually sound trivial, but if you get into the game, you will know what I mean. Another issue that I have is all of the enemies in this game attack and will only attack a single structure (the CPH) which removes most of the idea of ‘defend your whole base’ and ‘constantly under attack’ feeling from the game. Not a bad choice, but just doesn’t work for me too well.
Let me again repeat that the game is very well done, but I feel some of the mechanics are still a little in limbo and after reading the forums on a daily basis, I thought I’d come back to this title later. I actually started a ‘Lets Play’ series with this game, on the bleeding edge version, which forced me to this realization in the first place. This was a choice that I believe was the right one and I certainly don’t regret it since the devs have been very good at working on bugs and new content.
Next is Factorio. This game has similar premise to FortressCraft Evolved (crash land on alien planet, harvest/build/automate/defend), but seems to go deeper into the automation aspect, with not only you building and configuring your base, but later employing little bots to help construct products. In addition, I feel that the enemy is far more polished, attacking pollution creating structures with some fairly sophisticated path finding. This game feels like it could end you at any second and it’s a wonderful feeling to feel that sort of tension again. ^_^
I’m sure that I’m doing neither game justice, as I don’t have the time to fully explain why Factorio is my pick for my next ‘Lets Play’, but again, these are two solid titles and I hope to eventually share both with you. Thanks for reading this over. I’ll catch you next time.
~JMegs