Weird Science
I think I have shared this on the podcast a few times but, I have never played the story in Half-Life. I bought that game back in the day solely to play Counter Strike; which was a mod at the time. While I never fully played as Gordon Freeman, I have seen tons of videos and things about the bespectacled scientist turned fighter(?) to know that Abiotic Factor is a game where players basically play as Gordon Freeman, but instead of trying to stop the madness; you just want to study it.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
In Abiotic Factor players will being things by creating their nerdy, scientist who much like Gordon Freeman is on their first day of work at a secret research complex. Of course, some large-scale disaster occurs and all hell breaks loose, breaking up the facility into different areas. Being a cooperative survival game, the narrative is one that players will have to piece together as they make their way through the facility. Players have freedom to approach things as they see fit, but much like Metroidvania games there will be areas that will be gated off and will require a specific solution to progress.
At first glance, Abiotic Factor appears like any of the billion, million other survival games that hare out there. But it manages to stand out from the pack not only due to its focus on solving problems with the power of science, but it also oozes that dark humor and charm that Lethal Company and the more recent Content Warning has in spades. Since this is a survival game, that means that players will spend a lot of their time managing things like hunger and thirst, but Abiotic Factor also wants players to keep their characters active by addressing needs. In this game players are physicist whose greatest power comes from their brains and therefore players will always be inventing new tools.
Players will build and defends bases much like all the other survival games out there. Players will be able to construct generators in order to power turrets for defense as well as a host of other useful devices. There are some forklifts and mechs that can be build currently and these are useful for fighting the alien creatures as well as harvesting resources. Which being a survival game, players will be doing a lot of in order to progress. The nice thing is that even in ‘early access’, Abiotic Factor is doing a lot of things right with its unique approach to a crowded genre. While the game is built for co-op, players are free to play single-player and even tweak their experience to be as easy or as punishing as they see fit.
While not for everyone, Abiotic Factor is a fun, new addition to the survival games space. Drawing a lot of inspiration from the more science nature of Half-Life, is something that I think a lot of people will appreciate. There are some bugs here and I don’t appreciate the lackluster controller options, but if you are looking for something new in the survival genre, then Abiotic Factor might be for you. It is currently in early access with no firm date for 1.0 which means it can go through some changes but for now; its pretty fun to play.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.