If you’ve dreamt of being one of the Half-Life 1 scientists except that instead of a resonance cascade the situation is far more bleak then now’s the time for you. Abiotic Factor’s full release delivers universes waiting to be explored and a facility full of dark secrets to uncover.
Abiotic Factor has you step into the shoes of one of many scientists who have survived the initial assault and subsequent downfall of the secretive facility they’re working in. Soldiers, monsters, ratmen, and many other abominations lurk in both the corridors and through the other worlds that you’ll visit across your adventure.
The main crux of the game is basic survival exploration/. You slowly uncover more and more of the facility, unlocking shortcuts and brand new modes of transport as you play. The latter can help you get from point to point and allow you to breathe a sigh of relief as you slowly interlink the remaining facility portions back together.
You’ll come across all sorts of characters and creatures, some that will help, some that will fight you and some that are just downright weird (I’m looking at you ‘coffee in your coffee hole’ guy!), all of which will have their part to play on your journey to escape the facility alive, or at the very least intact.
The crafting that’s available is immense with an incredibly in depth set of materials and systems to help you make all manner of weapons, base elements, traps and some questionably strange items indeed that all revolve around you discovering the recipes or finding them on your adventure.
Abiotic Factor features a day/night cycle, which is surprising considering most of the game is based underground — however, as night crawls in, the power goes out. Security robots begin to roam the halls, it becomes extremely dark and inhospitable and if you’re not prepared you could wander into somewhere dangerous and not even notice so be careful.
I think the combination of exploration and story telling is great throughout. The more you explore, the more you can read or listen about the facility and the many creatures that exist there and events that happen there. I cannot stress enough that you should actually take time to read some of the terminals that are scattered around as some hold crucial information for inventions or progress that can pretty easily be looked over.
I think the best way to describe Abiotic Factor, especially in the early game, is that it does come across as deceptively simple. Simple weapons, simple armour, simple enemies but you really do get out of it what you put in; The more time spent exploring the halls of the Cascade facility, the more the game opens up to you and gives you extra avenues of exploration.
One particular avenue of exploration comes with the DLC that came out alongside the release of the full game. The Supporter Pack was given to those who already owned the game before its full release and adds a homeworld called Torii which is basically a Japanese garden — but is easily missed. If, like me, you spent ages trying to find it, it’s surprisingly just in the main area, near the shortcut to the Wildlife sector. It used to just be a door you couldn’t access, but now with level 1 access Torii is yours to explore and — better yet — if you’re playing with friends then you only need one person with the content to enter.
If you’re searching for a similar adventure, albeit in a different universe entirely, then check out The Backroom Company. You’ll travel throughout different worlds trying to find the truth behind what’s going on but with a much larger focus on gathering items and selling them for profit rather than pure scientific discovery and survival.
If the future of Abiotic Factor is anything like the updates that it received before its full release then it is sure to be filled with lots of new content and we’ll see an ever expanding multi-verse. There is a roadmap for the next year with free updates all the way up to Spring of 2026, as well as some planned DLC on the way for other homeworlds and facilities. I’m keen to see what follows.
There is also already a crossover with Coreworld in the current release. I won’t spoil what it is, but it is a great example of how the game can include pretty much anything in it properly through its multi-dimensional world setting… So, honestly, I feel like nothing is off the table with potential future collaborations.
This is one of those games that has clearly been crafted with a lot of love and hard work. Everything from the interconnected world to the wacky characters have been well thought out and turned into something great. In my opinion, this is one of the best experiences you can have with friends.
Abiotic Factor is now fully released with its 1.0 version and you can find it on Steam, the Xbox Series and PS5.
