I like a good factory game, but there’s a fine line between “I enjoy this” and “I am uninstalling this before it ruins my year.” I can’t tell on which side of the divide Shapez 2 will fall, but I’m planning on finding out when it launches in Early Access next month on August 15th.
Here’s the Early Access announcemnt trailer from earlier this week:
Like most factory games, Shapez 2 is about laying down conveyor belts to carry items between machinery that alters those items in some capacity. The difference is that instead of rendering one type of ore into another, Shapez is all about… shapes. That allows the game to broaden the possible solutions, with no predetermined recipes for the objects you’re trying to create. Instead, it gives you machines that perform simple, fundamental actions – cutting a shape in half, changing its colour, rotating it, etc. – which you can puzzle out how to combine.
The second compelling element to me is that the machinery is free to plonk down, and resources are infinite. It’s more of a pure puzzle game, nearer the Opus Magnum end of the spectrum than the Factorio end. That’s where I live. (Ollie, who lives in every factory possible, loved the Shapez 2 Next Fest demo.)
I didn’t play the original Shapez (which has overwhelmingly positive reviews and currently costs less than £1 on Steam) but I admit, the leap to 3D presentation does make the sequel seem more approachable. You’ll find Shapez 2 also on Steam, where it’s aiming to be in Early Access for around six months.
