Shapez 2 is a game of industrialized geometry.
The premise and setup are pretty simple. Your task is to feed various shapes to the vortex in the center of the map, a ravenous maw that, for some reason, has a ceaseless hunger for circles, squares, and various other configurations of lines and corners. The geometry required to satisfy the vortex varies in size and complexity, becoming increasingly more difficult to produce over time.
To feed the vortex, you are given access to conveyors, extractors, and shaping machinery to physically create and then mold the shapes needed to satisfy your production quotas. These machines all have their own purpose but must be connected to each other in specific ways, and the whole process is pretty intuitively designed to shape and snap together freely and in satisfying ways.
Conveyer belts can freely turn and attach to existing belts and can even stack multiple layers high, allowing for complex production lines.
An example production line goes like this: you begin by placing an extractor over a shape mine, which only produces squares or circles. Depending on your production quota, you can then conveyer line these directly into the vortex, but often, you will have to run these shapes into cutters, rotators, stackers, and even coloring machines to create more specific shapes. Circles can become half circles, pressed into squares, and even formed into pyramids as you run them through the production line and eventually chuck them into the vortex.
Calling the entire process satisfying would be an understatement. Paired with the game’s relaxing, lo-fi soundtrack, you can easily spend an hour or more just finagling with your production lines and producing shapes. I appreciate the developers for making the game start with the music at 70% volume, too; many games seem to struggle with their audio mixing, and this was probably the perfect setting to enjoy the game’s sounds.
Shapez 2 is definitely a puzzle game, but not your typical kind. It’s more of what I would call a factory puzzle. There is really no wrong way to play the game, so long as you eventually produce the shapes you need to progress, and while figuring out how to make some shapes can be a little confusing at first, it isn’t exactly what I would call a brainteaser most of the time.
Instead, the puzzle element is not in producing the shapes but in figuring out how to constantly increase the proficiency and speed of your factory once you have the production figured out.
Different machines operate at various speeds, with stackers being especially slow. In production lines for shapes of even moderate complexity, you will often find them grinding to a halt, with large backlogs of shapes waiting far longer than they should to be cut, rotated, stacked, or painted. The puzzle, and therefore the fun, becomes how you can get things moving faster, adding more conveyor belts and optimizing routes to ensure your shapes never get stuck in traffic. Then, when you see how high your quota is and how long your production will take, the game becomes about doubling, tripling, or even quadling your production speed.
It is a unique kind of puzzle game where there are, really, no wrong answers. It is entirely up to you to create a production line that is as fast and efficient as you feel it should be.
For a game as simple as it is, Shapez 2 certainly doesn’t need to look as good as it does. Even though you’re never looking at anything more than conveyor belts, squares, and simple machinery, everything is modeled very cleanly, and the game uses some gorgeous colors. The vortex is especially lovely to look at, being a swirling vortex of color that sucks up your shapes and swallows them in a satisfying to-watch manner.
The game’s menus are animated, sleek, and, most importantly, run very smoothly. The whole game runs incredibly well, which is an issue I worry more and more about with each new release, with even simple-looking games sucking up a ton of memory these days. Shapez 2 most certainly doesn’t, which is great because this is a game you’re probably going to want to play with a YouTube video or movie on in the background.
Shapez 2 is currently in Early Access, which as far as I’m aware is just a formality, because from my first impression of the game I’d say it seems pretty solid, maybe even ready to release. As the developers say, however, the success of their first game was due in large part to the feedback of their players, and they want to collect more of said feedback before fully releasing the game. I can respect that, and I’m eager to see how Shapez 2 evolves throughout its Early Access development.
Shapez 2 certainly isn’t going to be a game for everyone. For all the praise I give it for its solid gameplay, smooth UI, and pretty graphics, it still fills a sort of niche spot as a factory-style puzzle game. Some players (me included) are sure to find some of the nuances of creating a fast-moving and efficient production line confusing, and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Shapez 2 was created for a very specific audience with specific interests.
For that specific audience, however, Shapez 2 is sure to satisfy your interest and serve as a phenomenal new, relaxing factory-style puzzle game.
Pros:
- Unnecessarily good graphics
- Satisfying and mechanically deep factory production gameplay
- A relaxing vibe aided by a pleasant soundtrack
- Smooth, easy-to-navigate UI that’s easy on the eyes
- Very low memory/CPU/GPU impact that makes it easy to play the game while running other programs
Cons:
- It is a very niche kind of puzzle game, but one that will satisfy its intended audience.
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