Grissallia<p>December 29, 2023 - Day 363 - NewPlay Bonus Review<br>Total NewPlays: 393</p><p>Game: Mindustry</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Sep 27, 2019<br>Installation Date: Nov 6, 2021<br>Unplayed: 783d (2y1m23d)<br>Playtime: 1h12m</p><p>Mindustry is a top-down automation strategy game mashed up with an RTS.</p><p>I've always had a thing for automation games, which I suspect is a largely <a href="https://aus.social/tags/autistic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>autistic</span></a> thing. Most games of this type are about systemisation, finding efficiencies, then building (and rebuilding) automation pipelines to produce a particular outcome.</p><p>These are games that I avoid because they suck me in to the point that I've lost entire days inside them, with Shapez &amp; Production Line being just two examples. I've seen at least one person whose *entire* Steam 2023 review was one game played, no new games. All Factorio, all the time.</p><p>A game in this space has to bring something different to the table; for Mindustry that's planetary domination, leaning into the RTS side.</p><p>Build factories, research technology, build tanks, and defenses, seek and destroy.</p><p>Unfortunately, this is where Mindustry leaves me a bit cold. It's not that I don't like RTS games: I cut my teeth on Dune II. I went on to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, then finally StarCraft.</p><p>Unfortunately, Mindustry feels it doesn't quite pull off either type of game that well. The gameplay elements are not explained clearly, and the UI is *really* clunky, making it difficult to find critical information, and not always making it clear what the next step is.</p><p>Unfortunately, the RTS side of things feels like (at least in the early stage of the game) like the only real strategy is Zerg rushing.</p><p>I finally quit out of the game, entirely unsure whether I'd completed that stage of the game, or needed to do something else.</p><p>There are a bunch of nice ideas in the game, and I think it's the work of a single dev, as far as I can tell. I just feel like it needs a lot of polish.</p><p>Mindustry is:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Mindustry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mindustry</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/TopDown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TopDown</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Automation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Automation</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Strategy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Strategy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/RTS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RTS</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>