Allie<p>April 7, 2024 - Day 463 - NewPlay Bonus Review<br>Total NewPlays: 491</p><p>Game: Techtonica</p><p>Platform: XBox Game Pass UItimate<br>Released: Aug 16, 2023<br>Installed: Apr 7, 2024<br>Unplayed: 0d<br>Playtime: 11h6m</p><p>Techtonica is not in the Humble Bundle. If it was, I'd be torn between yelling "BUY IT IMMEDIATELY", and "RUN AWAY, SAVE YOURSELF!"</p><p>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.</p><p>You're a "breaker", who's been woken up from artificial hibernation, because something has gone in this mission to colonise an alien planet.</p><p>The design and lighting and music are all utterly gorgeous, and I wish I'd never met it.</p><p>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).</p><p>I lovehate factory automation games. I own several of them, and I shouldn't play them.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>They built a damn Skinner box that was specifically tuned for my brain, and I locked *myself* inside.</p><p>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.</p><p>I hate to say it, but I must; escape while you still can, don't do what I did, because Techtonica is:</p><p>5: Excellent</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Techtonica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Techtonica</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FirstPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FirstPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FactoryAutomation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FactoryAutomation</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Adventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ProjectONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ProjectONG</span></a></p>