March of Industry: Very Capitalist Factory Simulator Entertainments Indie Game Review

We at Geeky Hobbies would like to thank Archive Entertainment for the review copy of March of Industry: Very Capitalist Factory Simulator Entertainments used for this review. Other than receiving a free copy of the game to review, we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation for this review. Receiving the review copy for free had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.

Welcome Comrades. Are you ready to make some money in the weapons industry? In the new Steam game, that was released today, March of Industry: Very Capitalist Factory Simulator (that title is a mouthful) you play as a enterprising person who has decided to make his/her fortune by turning to the weapons trade. While the game has some issues,I had a lot of fun making weapons with March of Industry.

Let’s Make Some Money on the Black Market

In March of Industry you play as a character that is in charge of a weapons factory. You start the game with little money which you use to build your first simple assembly lines that manufacture simple weapons. You take raw materials and by putting them through machines they are turned into other materials or weapons that you can end up selling. Many of the weapons require you to take multiple steps which requires combining several types of materials together. You use the profit from these weapons to build more complex assembly lines which make you even more money.

When I first saw March of Industry two things jumped out to me that got me interested in the game. First was the theme of building a weapons factory for profit. As I will get to later I thought the theme was disappointing. The other main reason I was interested in the game is that I have always been interested in these simulation type games. I just find it interesting trying to create a system where a bunch of moving parts have to work together to create a final product. In this case March of Industry does a good job.

Looking at the trailer for the game you might think that the game would be kind of complicated. It really isn’t. You just put out the machines, conveyor belts, and materials onto the factory floor. You arrange the machines in a way that processes the materials into a final weapon that you can sell. The hardest part of the whole game is figuring out the recipes and how to make machines that can automate the whole process.

If you like these type of games I think you will enjoy March of Industry. I had fun with the game since it was enjoyable creating automated machines and figuring out the recipes to build new weapons and materials.The game kind of plays like a puzzle where you need to figure out how to place your machines so everything works correctly.

While I enjoyed the game there were a couple of issues that I had with the game.

The first issue deals with the movement of materials through your factory. If you set up your factories well the materials will usually flow pretty smoothly and if you think it through you can create pretty automated assembly lines to create some of the more complicated weapons. No matter how well you design your factory though you will encounter hiccups eventually. The biggest problem comes when goods get jammed in your conveyor belts. It would have been nice if the goods always moved smoothly through the factory but that is not the case in March of Industry. You will have to waste time unclogging your machines which is kind of a pain.

I think this clogging problem could have been resolved if there was a better way to control the flow of goods through your factory. I like the idea behind the box loaders and packers but I wish there was a way to control how fast/slow they unloaded items. Currently the game just unloads the boxes as fast as it can. This causes a lot of the congestion problems in the game since one machine will output goods quick than another which will clog up the conveyor belts.

Another problem with the game is that you pretty much need to make educated guesses to discover the formulas. I liked the idea of having to figure out the recipes yourself but the game gives you no indication on how to discover any of the recipes. The game would have been boring if it just told you what you needed to do but the game could have given players a clue/hint in order to figure out the different recipes. Naming the recipes before you discover them would have helped. To discover the last recipes I resorted to trial and error where I tried every different combination of materials until I finally found all of the recipes.

As I already mentioned I was kind of disappointed with the theme of the game. Despite never being referred to as Russia, the game “gently” hints that your factory is located in Russia or a “similar” country. Based on the character’s dialog and the weapon names the game tries really hard to be a clever/funny game. Unfortunately I thought the game wasn’t nearly as funny as it thought it was. While some of the weapons are kind of clever, a lot of them were not particularly funny.

Bang For Your Buck

How much value you get out of the March of Industry will vary significantly between players. It probably took me forty five minutes to a hour to “beat” the game the first time. The game doesn’t have much for “missions”. The missions mostly act like a tutorial that helps guide you towards learning how to play the game. Other than the couple simple missions the game doesn’t give you a lot of direction.

The meat of the game comes from just wanting to build a successful weapons factory. Since there really are no objectives other that becoming more profitable, you need to motivate yourself in order to improve your factory. When you “beat” the game you can move onto new game+ which resets your factory but gives you an additional component that usually makes your factory more efficient. The preferred path through the game appears to be making your factory successful enough that you can move onto the next factory which gives you a new toy to play with.

It is hard to pinpoint how long you can actually get out of the game. At this time I have played the game for around four hours and I plan on continuing to play the game but I am starting to get sick of it do to the lack of objectives after you have beat the initial “missions”. To get extended playtime out of the game you are going to have to want to build your own complicated assembly lines or otherwise the game could get kind of tedious pretty quickly. I could see some people getting sick of the game quickly while others could play the game for hours at a time.

The one thing about the game that could be interesting is the ability for any player to make their own materials and weapons and share them. If the game develops a good community this could provide for plenty of additional playtime as you create your own weapons or try to figure out other players’ recipes.

Currently the game retails for $9.99. For fans of these crafting type game I think they could get their money’s worth out of the game. If you don’t love the genre or you worry about losing interest in the game quickly I would probably recommend waiting to purchase the game once it goes on sale.

Final Verdict

I had fun with March of Industry. If you like simulation games I think you will enjoy the game. It was fun to build an interconnected factory. The factory mechanics in the game work well for the most part even though I wish there was a little more control of the materials since there is a tendency for materials to get stuck in conveyor belts.

I think the game’s continued success will depend on what weapons and materials that the community comes up with. While I could see getting a decent amount of fun out of the included content, I know that the game will eventually get repetitive unless you really like creating complicated assembly lines. If the community creates interesting content for the game though I think you could get a lot more time out of the game.

If you like “crafting” simulation games and think it might be fun playing a game where you make a weapons factory, you should have some fun with the game. Unless you hate these type of games, March of Industry is worth playing. If the idea of creating complicated assembly lines appeals to you I think the game is worth purchasing at full retail. Otherwise I would maybe suggest waiting for a sale.