Blinding em’ with SCIENCE!
Survival crafting games live and die by how well they balance freedom and frustration. Abiotic Factor’s 1.0 release has been a long time coming and on the Series X it does a lot right; it’s creative, it’s tense, and it nails the Half-Life-inspired vibe; but it also has rough edges that hold it back from greatness.
Players will create and control a scientist stranded in GATE, an underground research facility that has completely lost control. It’s 1993, the experiments have gone sideways, and now your biggest threats range from alien horrors to the furniture you thought was safe. There’s a constant mix of humor, tension, and environments that feel ripped from the golden age of PC shooters.
MSRP: $34.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Players pick a PhD specialization; that’s just a fancy way of saying they are going to pick a class. Plant Geneticist, Structural Engineer, you name it and each of these actually affects gameplay in some fun ways. These perks shape how you survive and contribute to the team. It’s a smart layer of RPG depth without drowning you in stats, and the retro sci-fi flavor makes the setting stand out in a sea of generic survival sandboxes.
At its best, Abiotic Factor delivers a fantastic loop of scavenging, crafting, and fending off bizarre threats. Combat feels scrappy but fun, and the co-op chaos of six scientists cobbling together defenses is a blast. Every run through the labs feels like a mix of Half-Life tension and Minecraft creativity, with a sprinkle of SCP-style unpredictability.
Here’s the issue: the systems don’t always play nice together. Crafting menus are cluttered, making it too easy to lose track of recipes. Base assaults, even after tweaks, can feel cheap, with enemies rushing in waves that break pacing more than they build tension. Sometimes you’re rewarded for creativity, other times you’re punished for not grinding enough resources beforehand.
Playing with friends is the game’s saving grace. Alone, the repetition creeps in faster. With a group, the teamwork helps cover for the jank, and laughing through a botched defense run makes the rough patches more tolerable. That said, the game doesn’t do much to onboard new players; tutorials are EXTREMLY vague, and some parts didn’t work as it was described on the screen. Figuring things out often comes through trial and error, reminds me of the Studio Wildcard way. (You know…the team behind Ark and Ark II starring Vin Diesel)
This is where Abiotic Factor stumbles. The game feels unfinished in spots, despite its 1.0 release. Progression isn’t always satisfying; grinding resources gets old, and the payoff isn’t always worth it. The humor works early on, but starts to repeat. Worst of all, the pacing wobbles between downtime and overwhelming assaults, and the middle ground isn’t consistent.
Abiotic Factor is ambitious and often fun, but it’s also clunky and uneven. When it clicks, it really feels like what would happen if Gordon Freeman never picked up a crowbar and only used science. When it doesn’t, you’ll feel the grind, the jank, and the imbalance drag things down. It’s still easy to recommend to survival fans looking for something fresh and cooperative, and the fact that it’s on Game Pass but know going in: this feels like more of a brilliant experiment than polished product.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
