I may wander off, I may restart time after time, I may abandon more saves than I finish… but I love this game as much now as I ever have. It’s gotten me through my diabetic years (and the pandemic years, both of which are ongoing) at least as much as any other piece of entertainment you could name, and moreso than most.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Satisfactory’s version one point oh release. The reasons I keep coming back are varied and probably too many to count, but I’ll count some of them here anyway, in no particular order:

1. I can spend as much or as little time in the game as I want. Sometimes I just want to touch up some building design elements, other times I want to build an entire factory from start to finish. (Doing so in one session gets less feasible as one progresses through the game stages, but the gist remains: If I have hours to burn on a project build and the drive to do so, I can.)
2. The official in-game goals are always clear, providing forward impetus if I need it. “Oh, right, I need to make more of those so I can get that unlocked.” I may not always want to pursue the immediate goals today but the presence of those goals means I’m never at a loss for what to do next. The way my brain works, that can be extremely useful.
3. The game keeps getting better. Through the various update milestones during Early Access and onward to the 1.1 feature release and whatever the (presumed) 1.2 might hold, Coffee Stain Studios consistently delivers buildable items and quality of life features alike that we often didn’t even know we wanted, let alone needed. Case in point: 1.1 gave us the new screenshot “photo mode” feature, complete with ability to detach the camera from the player avatar (I love this so, so, so much) and apply artsy filters to the results (I almost never use this, so of course that’s what I did to the image at the top of this post).
4. Playing with friends & family is a viable option. Multiplayer gameplay remains somewhat “janky” but it has improved greatly over the years, and adding extra pairs of hands can make progress vastly speedier. The trade-off, of course, is having to reach consensus about how and where to build things… but that can be part of the fun if you bring the right people to the party.
5. It isn’t all factory building. Sometimes it’s exploring, on foot or by vehicle, aided by parachute or jetpack if wanted. Sometimes it’s hunting down hostile fauna. Sometimes it’s just looking around at the gorgeous scenery. Whatever mood I’m in, there’s probably an in-game activity for me… or even an out-of-game activity if I’m planning out a particularly complex facility build using spreadsheets and the wiki and various 3rd-party helper websites.
6. Not that I’m good at designing architecture, but the available greebles for doing so remain fun to tinker with. The game provides various textures and types of walls, pillars, beams, and so forth in addition to a customized set of color palettes on top of unlockable metallic paint finish options. Playing around with them lets me turn “just a concrete box” into something with at least some level of visual flair, and that’s rewarding all on its own.
7. The game allows you to set certain quality-of-life features on-the-fly. For instance, the “novelty” of having to fend off hostile fauna to get at new resources wore off for me years ago. Now, with the creature behavior options, I can ignore them (for the most part). There’s even an option to stop the game from even spawning the spider-like “stinger” creatures… but be warned, that’s in the Advanced Game Settings section and turning on anything in there disables Steam achievements. (Ask me how I know!)

I might be able to go on, but won’t, because all I really need to say is: If anything I’ve ever written about this game suggests to you that you might enjoy playing it yourself (or with friends), absolutely you should try doing so. Just, you know, watch out for stingers.

Here’s to many more years. Party on!