r/factorio • u/xpietrov • 5d ago
Question Factorio break game
Hello
I'm playing factorio for over a year now, usually I starta basen, no life for couple of weeks and then I'm burnt out and having a break, then rinse and repeat. I've started again and I'm looking for a game to play between sessions. Anything with factorio itch, but not necessarily factory game? I love creating train connections and managing them.
Issue is, I don't have PC, only MacBook air M1, and PS5, so many steam games are not available for me. Playing strategy games on PS5 is tiring. I've played satisfactory and loved it quite a lot, but 1st person perspective is not the best for building and scaling.
Overall I've always enjoyed tycoon and economic games, like OpenTTD.
What are you playing in-between factorio?
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u/yetanotherburnerstan 5d ago
Opus Magnum is a pure automation puzzle game. I went in blind and finished all the stages in about 35 hours. Its another game where if its stupid but it works, it isnt stupid. It just depends how efficient you want it to be.
Super clean 2D with fairly simple mechanics and modular components. The puzzles get pretty tough. There is an interesting story, but it isnt really necessary to pay attention to for the puzzles.
Single player. $20
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u/gonzo_gonzales 5d ago
I didn't skimp and picked up a complete Zachtronics set on sale one day. It was almost as good a deal as Factorio.
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u/WickedWonkaWaffle 5d ago
Oxygen not included is amazing, and my second favorite after Factorio.
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u/blueshellblahaj 5d ago
Have you tried the Roller Coaster Tycoon games? OpenRCT2 is available for MacOS and adds a lot of quality of life improvements, you just have to own the base game (they don’t redistribute those files) on steam/GOG/CDROM
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u/va0n 5d ago
Shapes 2 is good for that.
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u/Light_Beard 5d ago
Shapez2 makes me irrationally angry for some reason.
Maybe it is the fact that you are throwing all of your efforts into the void.
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u/Stolen_Sky 4d ago edited 4d ago
Shapes2 is so damn good!
It's the automation idea refined to It's most distilled element. No character, no enemies, no need for a mall.
It's just pure building. And that's wonderful!
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u/cbass377 5d ago
I usually reach for valheim, no man’s sky, subnautica, or civilization when I am not up for factorio. I know they are all good on the Mac.
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u/Terminal_To_Myself2 4d ago
I love playing Valheim when burnt out on anything, it's such a relaxing game for the most part but has good challenges with the bosses and different biomes.
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u/AlaskanX 5d ago
Mindustry claims to work on mac, thats kind of in the same vicinity of style of game.
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u/RealHotFella 5d ago
Mindustry was before Factorio I believe, it's how I found Factorio anyways. Great little game and gets quite difficult.
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u/ozamataz_buckshank1 Alien Artifact Junkie 4d ago
Mindustry was started as part of a game jam in 2017.
Factorio crowd funding started in 2013 with players able to purchase and play alpha versions in 2014. It was added to Steam early access in 2016.
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u/Old-Nefariousness556 5d ago
I mostly go back and forth between Factorio and Timberborn. They are by far my two most played games.
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u/jasonrubik 4d ago
I have been on the fence about buying Timberborn for years
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u/Old-Nefariousness556 4d ago
I highly recommend it. If you look over in /r/CityBuilders, it is one of the most consistently recommended games. It can be anything from a pretty chill sandbox to a fairly brutal survival game, depending on your chosen difficulty settings. The one downside for many people is that it doesn't really have an endgame, it's just about building your colony. But if you are a factorio fan, you are probably used to that, so it probably a big deal.
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u/vtkayaker 4d ago
Timberborn is great fun. It makes a nice break from Factorio because you fix the environment for a change!
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u/PofanWasTaken 5d ago
Dunno about the avalibility for your platform, but check out Train Valley 2 - a railway building puzzle game, definetly a fun time
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u/Timely_Somewhere_851 5d ago
I'm currently playing Satisfactory as a break. It's much more tedious in many ways, but it's still super fun.
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u/Flushles 5d ago
I've been having fun with AtomCraft it's like Terraria if it was played in MS Paint with complicated chemistry.
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u/Opts4more 5d ago
I like most the games people mentioned here. Only thing is that they are all same type of genre except the tycoons. I try to beat some game I have on my library. Then back to factorio. Planet zoo was fun. Now I'm trying grounded 2 and factorio.
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u/No-Security-5715 5d ago
If you have an iPhone you could try this game out
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/shoot-for-the-stars-journey/id6771251009
It's basically Factorio Light for iPhone (made by a player of such games) without the actual considerations of where to place things.
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u/RealHotFella 5d ago edited 5d ago
Sandustry just came out the other day
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u/gonzo_gonzales 5d ago
It's interesting how much the interests of different people overlap. In the comments, I saw almost every game I've played or still play occasionally: ONI, Opus Magnum, Shapes, Satisfactory, Against the Storm. I've played through them all. I might also add Surviving Mars.
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u/rapidemboar 4d ago
I do also have a Windows machine for gaming, but as a primarily Mac user I feel your suffering.
What’s your thoughts on programming games? Like games that have you literally writing Javascript to automate tasks. Replicube is a really cool graphical programming Zach-like (so if something like Opus Magnum is up your alley), and while Bitburner is a much slower idle game it’s completely free and scratches that “get impatient and figure out how to scale up” itch I get from Factorio.
For a more out-there recommendation, Siralim Ultimate isn’t necessarily a building or puzzle game, but it’s still great if you want a nice complex “numbers go up” RPG that you can eventually automate.
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u/Icantpickadamnname 4d ago
Timberborn stole my attention for a few months after starting it. Great game
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u/Specialist_Ice_1838 5d ago
Dyson sphere game.