One of the best sci-fi survival crafting games to come out this year arrived on console as part of the PlayStation Catalog and Xbox Game Pass over the summer, and it seems to be quite under-loved. If you’re looking for something interesting to play over the holidays and you’re an SCP Foundation fan, you’ll want to check this out.
The game is called Abiotic Factor, and it is a voxel-based (think Quake 2) first-person survival crafting game. It takes place in the year 1993 (though the technology is very much not of the time), and you are a new scientist about to begin work at the sprawling underground facility of GATE (Garrick Advanced Technology Enterprises).
However, your onboarding experience doesn’t quite go well, and you end up thrust into a facility that is being overrun by rival factions and beings escaping numerous portals opened in every sector of GATE. It is very reminiscent of how the first Half-Life starts, and it’s clear Abiotic Factor leans into this inspiration happily.
The issue is that you are just some scientist. You’re not tough or capable, but you have a strong intellect when it comes to crafting, and that is what puts you ahead. You’re forced to scavenge what you can from deadly otherworldly monsters, other dimensions, and even mundane office supplies to craft new tools and weapons to survive.
The main focus of GATE is to contain the Immurment Registry. Every IS (Immurment Subject) is an object/being/phenomenon that poses a potential threat to the outside world. This is like Remedy Entertainment’s Control and/or the SCP Foundation. You encounter many of these, but there are still more locked away, and you learn about them through voice memos.
There are base-building mechanics, but you’re not going to be laying down full houses like in similar games. You’re given all sorts of possible locations in which to set down your main crafting tables, but you’ll need to build defenses because raids do happen from some enemy types you’ve already encountered.
The game is very nice about moving everything because all structures can be “packaged,” which makes them take up a single inventory slot for easy transport. This way, every base you build can easily be moved by you to the next portion of the story without much difficulty.
I chose to put my main base up (and never moved it) in the cafeteria you enter at the end of the tutorial. This just made sense because all sectors have shortcuts leading back to the starting area, like the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls 1. It’s also one of your respawn options, so it was the perfect spot.
Plus, there is a pretty big wrinkle in GATE where, at night, all power is turned off. This means the facility goes almost entirely dark, and all outlets stop working. The latter effect means that you cannot craft in the dark, as the main table requires power to operate. It’s a really cool idea that makes things way more deadly in certain sectors.
The story is also what sets Abiotic Factor apart as something special. You aren’t just wandering aimlessly, as the game has direct objectives to complete to reach the next sector and hopefully escape the GATE facility.
The one thing it shares with games like it is the word settings that can give you an edge over the difficulty increases. These are things like changing the hunger/thirst progression, increasing XP, and making enemies do less damage. I enabled just about everything beneficial, and I was pleased to find that it didn’t make the game trivial, just a little easier.
While I didn’t play Abiotic Factor in co-op, I can imagine how much more fun I would’ve had with a friend to help lessen some of the trouble in sourcing important materials.
Oh, and the game is definitely trophy/achievement hunting friendly, as there aren’t any missables, and a majority are earned just for exploration. There aren’t any missables, so everything that you didn’t get by the end can be managed pretty easily. It’s a pretty easy platinum. I was surprised to find so few players had earned it, especially for a technically free game.
If any of this speaks to you, it might be a good idea to get on it now. There isn’t any word on when Abiotic Factor might leave either service, but it likely won’t be there forever.