> To me this is a text by someone that treats the game as if the game authors have created factorio by a series of deliberate choices, that is they treat it lik

> To me this is a text by someone that treats the game as if the game authors have created factorio by a series of deliberate choices, that is they treat it like a serious creative work. I think factorio is utterly genius. As a creative work, it is more sophisticated and interesting than I think any game I've played. I personally appreciate it as a harnessing of emergent behavior, which tends to be my favorite kind of gameplay. It's just that the aliens are a really small part of that. The aliens have basically no impact on the game after a point not too far into it. Resources consumed by weapon production become negligible compared to other objectives. > Whether the aliens are for the just parts of the game or not, it is fact that the authors state in the gameplay trailer that the aliens are there to force you into making weapons: https://youtu.be/KVvXv1Z6EY8?t=88 https://youtu.be/KVvXv1Z6EY8?t=88 and this is the trailer on their homepage mind you Both things can be true at the same time. Yes, the aliens force you to make weapons. But of course they aren't going to just tell you "at first, the game can be a bit slow, so here are some aliens to keep you busy until your factory is more interesting"...