I also beat #FactorioSpaceAge
231h (including previous games)
4/5 - Loved it
I played a lot of Factorio including a mod I liked that revamped the core balance and recipes of the game + added cheaper but worse bots early game, etc. It added things but still mostly felt the same
I learned before buying the DLC that it started off as a mod (or multiple, not sure). So I thought the DLC would probably mostly just add QoL or alternative equipments and feel like a tacked on mod. Something I'd enjoy playing with as we launch our first rocket but wouldn't fundamentally change the experience.
Wow was I wrong.
---
First, the DLC does not kick in until *after* you launched your first rocket:
Which kind of sucks tbh. I had already logged in enough hours (for me) in Factorio and I wanted to get to the new stuff asap.
Replaying through what felt like mostly the same again felt like a chore (Though thankfully making rockets is a lot more trivial than it used to be)
---
When you do have a rocket though wow the DLC delivers:
> Each planet has a different puzzle to solve (which I don't want to spoil)
The tried and true methods of conquering your home world Nauvis are just plain not applicable to them. Each have a different and sometimes not even self sufficient tech tree to unravel and nurture
We were excited with solving each planet one at a time before checking out the next one and accidentally getting stranded a few times.
I even ended up playing in creative mode for the first time so I could blueprint a (largely insufficient but good enough) solution to the planet we least wanted to deal with
The biggest highlight for me was figuring out space station travel in a glorious series of catastrophic, wasteful and deadly but oh so instructive failures as if I was both engineer and passenger of Kerbal Space Program
------
It felt like playing a proper, meaningful expansion, almost a series of delightful, small but interconnected prequels, well worth the time and money.