Satis-Factory-Oh

Factory construction sims are a pretty niche genre and yet there are two separate IPs currently in development that fit the definition perfectly.  The first is Factorio.  With a Steam early access release in 2016, this Czechoslovakian title has since become "complete" as of August 2020.  I put complete in quotes because even though the game has passed the version 1.0 mark it remains in active development.  Regardless, I imagine that any new official content will come in the form of paid DLC.  The other title is Satisfactory.  Made by the same developer as Goat Simulator, this game is newer (having launched in early access on the 19th of March, 2019) and is not yet feature complete despite just recently receiving its fourth major update.  Anyway...that little development overview aside, what's different about these two games?  Depending on who you ask, the answer can vary from "not much" to "quite a bit."

On first impression, players will immediately notice Factorio is a 2D sprite-based game viewed from an isometric perspective.  It's highly optimized and runs smoothly even on fairly old hardware.  It's perfectly functional, but not especially pretty to look at.  Satisfactory, on the other hand, utilizes fully three dimensional environments viewed from a first-person perspective.  Everything is more impressive visually, but the GPU demands can lead to performance issues even on newer gaming machines.  This is especially true when the number of objects onscreen get large.  Visuals aside though, what's different when it comes to gameplay?

When beginning a new game, Factorio allows the player to specify what kind of world the procedural generator should create.  It's a nice feature to have, but only really makes changes to topography and resource distribution.  Regardless of the settings, the player will find themselves in a relatively flat, arid location with patches of trees, water and minerals.  Conversely, Satisfactory has four biomes to choose from at the beginning, each with their own distinct qualities.  While a more exciting way to start off, it's important to note that there is only one handcrafted world - the player simply chooses where they get dropped into.  Given it's 3D nature, Satisfactory is much more vertically oriented.  Exploration is also a more prominent feature.  To Factorio's credit though, it has one major feature that is absent in Satisfactory - base defense.

Both games feature hostile fauna on their respective alien worlds, but Factorio takes it to another level.  Specifically, there are hostile colonies of giant insects that will encroach on and attack the player's base(s).  Apparently, these bugs really hate pollution and will seek to destroy anything that does not conform to nature.  Of course, this gameplay feature can be tweaked or outright disabled during world creation.  Nevertheless, it remains a fundamental component of the intended experience.  Everything from laser turrets and artillery pieces to flamethrowers and tanks can be built to deal with external threats.  Conversely, Satisfactory has far fewer weapons and, in general, is a much less intense game.  

I've tried to clarify some of the differences, but when you get down to it both of these titles have resource extractors, smelters, power generators, automation and a whole lot of conveyer belts.  They both take place on exoplanets.  Either can be played multiplayer or alone.  Currently Factorio has a lot of mod support on the developer's website, but there are plans to introduce mods into Satisfactory via Steam Workshop.  If you're wondering which to buy, I would say get both.  Together they cost less than your average triple-AAA title, and you'll probably get more hours of enjoyment out of them as well.