Welcome to GATE, a company supposedly home to the ‘world’s greatest minds’ who are tasked with investigating every possible field of research through a global network of laboratories. You’re now one of its newest employees, and it’s your first day. Unfortunately for you, shortly after orientation, there’s a containment breach, leaving you and up to five fellow scientists trapped in an expansive underground facility being invaded by creatures from various interdimensional realms. Gordon Freeman is conspicuously absent, so saving the day is going to be up to you – or at least, surviving it.
Hello, Human Resources?
Abiotic Factor has been in early access for just over a year, and today marks the game’s illustrious 1.0 release. I’ve sunk around 20 hours in on PC so far (Xbox code wasn’t available until a few days before launch), and honestly, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this enormous, amusing and imaginative survival-crafting game. There’s a very obvious nod and general ‘Half-Life’ vibe to the enormous underground ‘GATE’ facility, but what surprised me the most is just how engaging the premise, the world(s) and yes – the story of Abiotic Factor is.
Once you’ve designed your character, replete with department badge and preferred awful tie, you’ll play through a short introduction to some of the games mechanics through an amusing orientation overseen by a rather unprofessional security guard. The voice acting is decidedly ‘indie’ – almost as if the developers just got their mates round to help out with a few voice lines. It’s divisive, and you may find it to be just straight up bad, but for me, it kind of adds to the overall charm.
As you step into the game proper, you’ll choose your role, be it a mere Lab Assistant, Summer Intern or in my case, a ‘Trans-Kinematic Researcher‘ – my particular role rewarded me with additional buffs in Blunt Melee, Fortitude, Sprinting and Strength. I started with eight points to spend on additional skills that provide even more perks, and I could get even more points more by selecting additional negative traits.
I decided to reflect real life a little bit here and selected negative traits I was familiar with. I made my character asthmatic, meaning my stamina dropped 40% faster than my colleagues, as well as suffering from dry skin, which resulted in being thirsty 20% faster than others. This gave me additional points to spend on positive traits, which was useful to give me a head-start in some areas. Looking back, I wish I’d picked the ‘Lead Belly‘ perk – clean water is hard to come by.
When it comes to the story, I don’t want to spoil too much, as so much of the joy (and sheer abject terror) to be found in Abiotic Factor is through that wonderful journey of discovery, but I can give you a general idea.
You’ve barely started your first day on the job when the whole facility is put into lockdown. Your fellow scientists have once again been meddling in powers they don’t yet fully understand, and now the massive research building is overrun with all manner of other-worldly creatures from all sorts of different dimensions – and you’re trapped down there with them.
While Abiotic Factor can be played solo, the real fun is bringing in some friends along for the ride. You can create and host your own server, and invite up to five pals to survive the containment breach with you. Cross-play is supported, with a lobby code system in place. I couldn’t test it between Xbox and PC, as it wasn’t live until launch day.
Surviving with Science!
With the first objective simply being your own survival, it’s time to set up camp in the first safe area and starting thinking your way out of this – you are a scientist after all, and you’re full of bright ideas. Shelter, food and water are the first orders of business, but pretty soon you’ll realise there are things out there, and you’re going to need to protect yourself.
You might start off with a simple chef’s apron from the kitchen area as some very light armour, but before you know it you’re building a makeshift club with a pipe and a pressure gauge, crafting a crossbow out of wood and rubber bands (using sharpened pens as your bolts), or strapping sofa cushions or magazines to your body for better protection.
One element that is fun, though a bit wonky is the ‘idea’ system – as you pick up or craft new objects, they’ll give you even more recipe ideas you can then piece together in a sort of ‘guess which parts you need’ type mini-game. Weirdly though, you can never really fail at guessing the items, so it does end up feeling ultimately pointless. It would have been more interesting to see a deeper ‘research’ mechanic to keep you thinking about the next evolution or rare element you’d need to help you build the next gadget for survival.
You can of course find more substantial items hidden around, from an actual proper backpack (rather than one crafted from torn rags and pieces of wood, to a lead vest from the lab area – even a full hazmat suit. Eventually, you’ll be able to craft modified armour to deflect bullets, rudimentary base walls (out of office dividers of course!) in addition to defensive machines, traps, cooking stations, farming plots and repair and crafting tables.
One neat trick is being able to flatpack large furniture items. We were absolutely delighted when we found a fridge, which we were able to successfully relocate to our homebase and utilise for food storage. Not only that, but we added a couple of arcade machines, a comfy sofa and armchair, and even a little dining area where we could sit and have meals. Very cosy.
As you venture further and deeper into the GATE complex, you’ll find some pretty neat and quite imaginative level design on display, with multiple places to explore as you pursue the story, unlocking more and more complex objectives in your pursuit of getting topside. Again, without spoiling too much, one element I really appreciate is how many of the paths eventually loop back to a central location, with various shortcuts – including a working TRAM system – unlocked as you go.
Resource Management and Science Skills
Beyond exploring and crafting, there are other skills you’ll need to work on. Being a survival game, you’ll also need to manage your overall health – and the developers love making even more mini-games out of these. When asleep, you’ll dream in the form of a silly 2D platformer, tasking you with jumping over some of the monsters you’ll encounter in the facility. Do well, and you’ll be more rested.
Your usual survival game traits need to be managed too – hunger, thirst, and amusingly, your toilet needs are top priority. Be caught away from the facilities, and your character will make a right mess of themselves, in addition to being very smelly. Even pooping has a mini game attached in Abiotic Factor, encouraging players to defecate efficiently. Should you have an accident, you can bag up your poop. Everything is a resource here.
Resource management, a core element of these sorts of games is I’m afraid not great, but merely ‘okay’. I played on PC using a pad to better reflect what it’d be like on an Xbox, and they’ve done a pretty good job of enabling you to be efficient. Moving things to and from storage crates, to your hotbar or splitting stacks of items is relatively simple to do, but it’s not perfect and even twenty hours in, I kept making mistakes. Mouse and keyboard players will definitely have an easier time here.
The other solid tried-and-true system in play here is the way you level up your character, which is done essentially by doing things. Creep around to avoid enemies, and your stealth will increase. Go in with a table leg and whack everything that moves? Say hello to increases to your ‘blunt melee’ combat skill. Everything, from sprinting, stabbing, building and cooking has a level, and the higher you climb, the more things you’ll be to do. In the early hours of the game, I managed to increase my strength by quite a bit by carrying around large pieces of furniture during exploration, which dealt out plenty of additional XP. Consider that tip a freebie.
Combat itself is serviceable, and occasionally, a little wonky, and early ranged weapons are an absolute nightmare to use, likely by design. The deeper you go, the more conventional weapons you’ll discover, though your feeble scientist hands can barely load a magazine. Perhaps it’s best to just invent some weapons? Though those may be decidedly unconventional.
Another World(s)
One of the core strengths of Abiotic Factor’s presentation, beyond it’s 2004-esque graphical style (it grows on you, I promise) is how much the game values exploration and problem solving. The story is doled out through seemingly simple objectives all focused on your desire to escape and get topside, but there are some delightful bouts of problem solving as you seek to make your way out of the facility.
You’ll start in the cafeteria, which will act as your home base for the beginning parts of the game, with your primary objective being to not only survive, but escape the GATE complex itself. The developers smartly introduce new objectives, new items and of course, an ever expanding list of ‘craftable’ objects you can make from the various office supplies and equipment you find in the area around you.
Non-player characters and audio logs are strewn throughout, giving you hints and story nuggets as to what happened, and where to go next. The scarcity of resources will often lead you to avoid confrontation unless absolutely necessary, and the progression systems add a great layer of depth which elevates Abiotic Factor into something pretty special. There’s even a sense of dread and some surprisingly tense moments, especially when the lights go out.
You’re equipped with a handy wristwatch so you can keep an eye on the time, and that’s important because come 9pm, the power – including all the lights – will go out. Your crafting tables, most of which require power in some form, will cease to function. Portal storms can occur, with enemies directly warping straight into your base to try and wreck the joint. Imposing security bots start to roam the abandoned halls (besides other things) and they will all try and kill you.
Go out on an expedition for resources and stray too far from your home base (or worse, get lost in the maze-like complex), and you might find yourself toe-to-toe with something you’d rather avoid. In the early game, the security bots are one of the more challenging targets to take down, but in later areas, expect to come up against hardened military units, complete with sniper rifles and machine guns that will shoot you on sight.
You’ll also encounter a variety of alien beasties on your adventures, from squeaky little irritating ones that leap at you, dog-like creatures and bipedal teleporting aliens, with other-worldly charged attacks and the ability to teleport behind you. The more animal like ones can be taken down fairly easily, and will become your primary source of food in the early game, even if it is a little bit radioactive.
Where those beasties come from of course, is part of the plot, and probably the largest nod to Half-Life beyond the overall presentation. Again, without spoiling too much, there are other worlds out there, portals from experiments gone wrong that lead to strange places, filled with even stranger resources for you to utilise. I won’t go over too many of the different worlds you can find, but there’s a mix of idyllic and downright terrifying out there. One dimension was a world that was just a ‘perpetual motion’ train that from what I read on one of the computers, couldn’t stop – or it would unleash a potential catastrophic amount of energy. One world was overrun with terrifying giants.
Don’t get lost out there – you might not make it back.
Eureka!
I have fallen in love with Abiotic Factor in the time I’ve managed to spend with it. Again, I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface, both in terms of what I’m able to craft, to the story beats and additional worlds and areas I’ve not yet discovered, and that excites me. The little touches, from the in-game voice chat, with all its hilarious facial animations and growing faintness as you get too far away from your fellow scientists, to the many quality of life features that make crafting and managing resources simple – even if it’s not perfect on a controller. It’s all clearly made with a deep love of the genre, from a team that really care about what they’re making.
If you fancy moonlighting as a budding scientist battling for survival against other-worldly forces and scientific experiments gone wrong, you’re going to love Abiotic Factor. It’s a refreshing and charming take on the survival genre, full of great mechanics and systems, an engaging story and world and importantly it’s an absolute blast to play with friends. Go in as blind as you can, because like with all scientific endeavours, the joy is in the discovery.
Abiotic Factor
Played on
PC
PROS
- Wonderfully imaginative
- Mixes humour, intrigue and horror well
- Addictive
- Fantastic in Co-op
CONS
- Combat feels wonky
- IDEA System is a bit pointless
- Voice Acting is...poor? (But also funny)
