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Have you ever wanted to dive into a game that was vastly meme-worthy while still providing a great survival experience and even giving a great place for you and your friends to mess around and create pure chaos? To me, those are the best kinds of games, regardless of graphics or popularity. Abiotic Factor does just that and went above and beyond with the pleasant surprises that I experienced as I traversed the GATE facility, trying to put back the pieces that some mysterious circumstances threw out of place. Here are my hands-on impressions of Abiotic Factor‘s Early Access gameplay and features.
Being a Scientist Never Felt So Dangerous
You start out as the new guy in the GATE facility, a research facility that specializes in the research of alien species from another dimension. Sounds like a great time, right? It might have been at one point, but since everything went wrong following a horrible incident, the portals between your dimension and the aliens’ have created some interesting issues. The GATE facility is now being overrun by otherwordly pests, and not the usual kind that you’d find in a place like that.
After the containment procedures meant to keep these entities in their dimensions failed, it’s your job to put things right as you struggle to survive amongst a variety of dangerous and bizarre scenarios. The GATE’s security measures gone wrong, fellow coworkers who aren’t quite acting right steal your belongings if you don’t feed them, strange portals leading to who knows where, and electricity-wielding aliens. Abiotic Factor puts an intriguing twist on modern survival games, and I honestly can’t get enough.
Crafting, Cooking, Alien Invasions, and…Bedtimes?
As you traverse the strange realm that is what the GATE facility has turned into, there are loads of things to do. Of course, if you want to survive, you’ll have to check off all the boxes: getting proper rest, eating and staying hydrated, defeating enemy forces, and, of course, making yourself at home with furniture and decorations. Oh, and don’t forget that you can actually roll around on office chairs. Does it have any benefit? Probably not, but it’s pretty funny.
The crafting within Abiotic Factor is pretty unique, in my personal opinion. I’ve seen loads of games where you need to discover certain items for crafting recipes to be unlocked, and of course, it’s a given that you’ll need to have the proper items needed for each of them, but this is just a bit different. After you’ve unlocked a recipe, there’s another step that you must complete before you can craft that item. You’ll be given a few items with differently designed frames that serve as puzzle pieces to go into each recipe, and beneath them, empty boxes hovering over a brain that have matching frames. You’ll need to choose the proper items and drag them into the empty boxes in an attempt to guess the recipe before you get to craft it. The uniqueness of that alone has me thoroughly intrigued, and I can honestly say that I love it.
Now, when it comes to keeping yourself full and hydrated, you’ll need to be careful. You can’t just walk around eating and drinking everything you find in a facility that’s been plagued by radiation, can you? Well, I mean, I guess you can, but you’ll probably have some pretty serious problems to deal with if you do. You have to take special care when you cook and eat food; otherwise, you can end up getting pretty sick. The cooking mechanic in Abiotic Factor only adds to the challenge of the game in the sense that you must cook the food for a specific amount of time. If you either overcook or undercook the food, you will still end up being sick. Cooking also requires you to either find a stove with a frying pan or craft a frying pan, pot, and makeshift stove. Let me tell you: Getting to that point takes quite a while, and vending machines can be pricey in a world with no real money exchange options in your favor.
Okay, but did I mention that you not only have to worry about taking care of yourself, fighting off aliens, and crafting, but you also have a bedtime? Every night at around 8 PM in the GATE facility, the power gets shut off, and everything seems to go downhill quite quickly. The enemies roam free and are much more active than they typically are during the day, and the facility’s security measures are deployed. Now, this would normally be okay, right? Security measures are typically meant to keep you safe, but in this case, there’s been a pretty big malfunction. Now, rather than being protected, there are giant robots wandering the halls of the facility and attacking anything that moves. Unfortunately, anything also includes you. With that in mind, I always try to head back to base and sleep off the rest of the night by the time 8:00 hits.
Chilling Vibes But Not So Easy on the Eyes
All survival elements aside, Abiotic Factor has some issues with the graphics and audio that I thought I should point out. When it comes to the audio, there are loads of dialogue lines in the game that are both absolutely hilarious and pretty creepy. I love how almost everyone you come across in the game has a story to tell, and if they don’t, they’ll do everything in their power to make you feel uneasy just with the lack of speech. However, I noticed after a few moments that the audio tends to cut out occasionally and has this strange in-between period where you’re near the person but leave the room, and their voice begins to play over a walkie-talkie. During that transition, the person becomes almost impossible to hear, and it’s easy to miss out on some of what’s going on, especially if you approach a person and talk, then get attacked and need to move away.
Additionally, I think the design of the playable characters could have been a bit better. I definitely don’t have a problem with the aliens, the facility itself, or even the other scientists you come across in-game, and I actually love the cool look of the portal worlds’ environments. My primary concern is the character creation menu and how the characters are so bland. If the enemies can be wildly creative and unique, such as being as tall as entire buildings or capable of wielding lightning, then why is it so hard to have a character that actually looks like a female? I’m pretty sure women are more than capable of being scientists along with men. We can have female voices and somewhat feminine hair, but we have to use the same universal body shapes and faces. Overall, it’s definitely not the biggest problem, but it’s one that caught my eye right away.
Closing Thoughts About Abiotic Factor’s Current State
Overall, I thought the Early Access gameplay in Abiotic Factor was amazing. Sure, I would love to see more character customization options so it feels a bit more “for everyone,” and I would love to see a bit less glitching in the audio and dialogue, but otherwise, it was fantastic. The enemies are well-created and provide a decent challenge to keep the player entertained and immersed. The overall quality of life features are incredible, and the possibility of just being silly with your friends is even better. I would highly recommend Abiotic Factor, and I can’t wait to see what the full release brings.
