April 7, 2024 - Day 463 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 491
Game: Techtonica
Platform: XBox Game Pass UItimate
Released: Aug 16, 2023
Installed: Apr 7, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 11h6m
Techtonica is not in the Humble Bundle. If it was, I'd be torn between yelling "BUY IT IMMEDIATELY", and "RUN AWAY, SAVE YOURSELF!"
It's a first person factory automation adventure game set on an alien planet. It's not Factorio, because it's first-person, and it's got an actual narrative built into the game, instead of tacked on as an afterthought.
You're a "breaker", who's been woken up from artificial hibernation, because something has gone in this mission to colonise an alien planet.
The design and lighting and music are all utterly gorgeous, and I wish I'd never met it.
GG.deals had a link to Pacific Drive on special (that I can't afford), and when I clicked through to look at the pricing, I saw Techtonica in a bundle with Pacific Drive (that I also couldn't afford), and I went back to GG.deals, to discover it's included in XBGU (oh no).
I lovehate factory automation games. I own several of them, and I shouldn't play them.
My theory is that they scratch that DEEP itch for systemisation that my autistic brain loves so much. I have lost entire days of my life in this kind of game.
What Techtonica does, however, is that it ties the narrative progression to the in-game tech-tree progression, and producing enough widgets to open the next level of the tech tree and find out more of the story.
I barely moved all day. I barely ate. I managed to drink a little bit of water here and there, but I was fundamentally staring at the screen for 11 hours straight.
They built a damn Skinner box that was specifically tuned for my brain, and I locked *myself* inside.
This game is a dopamine-hit nightmare, and I love it, but I'm not sure if it's healthy for me to keep playing it, because it verges on "addictive" territory for me.
I hate to say it, but I must; escape while you still can, don't do what I did, because Techtonica is:
5: Excellent
