Satisfactory - PS5 Review

Futuristic factory scene with industrial buildings, smokestacks, and lush green landscapes under a pastel sky, featuring the game title "Satisfactory."

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Well, here’s a treat for console fans! Satisfactory, originally released into Early Access in 2019 before its 1.0 release last year, was a huge hit on PC. Garnering over 120,000 reviews and sitting at a “Very Positive” rating on Steam, it certainly seems to be a fan favourite! In fact our very own Jordan gave the game a Platinum Award in his PC review upon release!

Now, developer Coffee Stain Studios has released this open-world, base-building, automation title onto consoles! Satisfactory is available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with added features for anyone who owns a PS5 Pro. In this review, we’ll be checking out the PS5 version, which is out now and priced at £32.99.

Much More Than Just Satisfactory?

As always, my main focus on games ported to console is to see how well they fare using a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard. That said, it’s been a good few years since I last played the game, so is it still enjoyable? Well, it’s time to get stuck in and start building in Satisfactory!

Several generators connected by pipes are placed alongside a river. An alien moon hangs in the clear blue sky. — It’s almost a shame to ruin such a nice view!

Gameplay

If you’ve never played Satisfactory before, you may find yourself asking, “What exactly is this game?” To put it simply, this is a first-person title that tasks the player with harvesting the resources of an alien world. To do this, you’ll need to build a series of machines in order to turn raw materials into usable resources. Sounds simple, right? Well, it doesn’t take long to learn that Satisfactory is anything but.

The gameplay loop, in simple terms, is thus: find, mine, refine, expand, repeat. First of all, you’ll need to discover resources such as iron and copper. Then you’ll extract these by hand (eventually using machines to do the hard work for you) and refine them into all manner of materials. This, in turn, allows you to upgrade your base, equipment, machines, and so on. Here is where you’ll be slowly automating processes, letting your blossoming factory function by itself. With no time restrictions or pressure to complete tasks, you’re free to do as you please. Which, in a game with so many moving parts, can make for a refreshingly relaxing time.

An alien creature soars through an evening sky, above the players created home base. — Fly free, giant, alien creature!

There is a point to all this, albeit not one that forces players to follow a set path. The main objective is to gather all sorts of items from the planet to send into space via a giant elevator. The more you send, the more milestones you’ll complete, and the more building blueprints and equipment you’ll unlock. This steady stream of new content made me want to push just that little bit further, and it was often a case of “Oh, I’ll turn it off once I’ve finished this milestone.” Which, more often than not, then had me playing for a while longer thanks to my shiny new unlocks!

Creatively Complex

Whilst the game may feel like you’re not progressing in the opening hours, it doesn’t take long for Satisfactory to really become your own playground. There’s no set path to take or specific areas to build in. Instead, it’s up to the player to decide how best to run their factories. Or, maybe just the one factory, if you prefer a giant mass of Smelters, Particle Accelerators, and the like. It may not be neat and tidy, but it gets the job done!

I would be here for hours writing down all the various things I got up to during my time with Satisfactory. The map is absolutely massive, with several different biomes, all with new flora and fauna to discover. Laying down tracks leading to the start of your very own rail network just to help you get around is one example of what you can see and do!

The player character driving a small four-wheeled car around their factory. — No need to pimp this ride!

All of this comes at a cost, unfortunately. On more than one occasion the game crashed, booting me back to my PS5 home screen. Luckily, the game autosaves rather frequently, but these crashes would occur even when there wasn’t much happening on screen at the time. It’s disappointing, certainly, but it was never enough to deter me from jumping right back in, albeit a few minutes earlier than where I’d progressed up to.

Graphics, Audio, and the Jump to Console

From the outset, the pristine, alien world of Satisfactory is wonderfully vibrant and detailed. Sure, eventually this stunning landscape will be less idyllic once you’ve got plenty of smoke-belching machines and a labyrinth of conveyor belts strewn across the horizon. And what a horizon it is, as the draw distance is very impressive indeed! Sadly, there’s a big issue with pop-in that does somewhat ruin the otherwise lovely vistas. Many objects in the environment will appear and disappear as you move further or closer away from them, and it’s instantly noticeable. A shame really, as it really is quite a lovely-looking game. Here’s hoping future patches will iron out these issues. Oh, and the crashing too, please!

I’d describe the game’s soundtrack with the same word used earlier to describe the gameplay: relaxing. The ambient, chilled-out sci-fi tunes go a long way in setting the scene. Sure, you’ll come across alien lifeforms that want you dead, but for the most part, it’s a stress-free title with audio that matches perfectly with it.

As with all titles that were originally released on PC, I do like to compare how well they’ve transferred to a controller. And, I’m pleased to say, Satisfactory does so very well! Practically every button is used really well, without making menus or the UI cumbersome to navigate. Not an easy task for any developer, but Coffee Stain Studios has had no issues whatsoever with this port. Phew!

Conveyor belts processing raw materials into a factory unit. — It’s smeltin’ time!

Longevity

With over six years of content updates, you best believe Satisfactory is a behemoth of a game! Not one that you’ll have all wrapped up over the course of a weekend, that’s for sure. There’s just so much to do here, no matter if you decide to just complete all the objectives or go off on your own to create something truly unique. You only need to check out this YouTube playlist from Let’s Game It Out to see how much creative freedom Satisfactory offers players!

Final Thoughts

Satisfactory is genuinely a marvel of a game. The idea of building up a factory and slowly making it automated didn’t really appeal to me on paper. However, playing this game has opened my eyes to a rather niche genre. Not that I’ll have time to go looking for something new, as I’m now hopelessly addicted to draining this alien world of all its resources and creating my own little industrial utopia!

If the issues pertaining to the crashing and pop-ins were a non-issue, the game would easily get a Platinum Award from me. As it stands, though, I’ll be giving Satisfactory a well-deserved Thumb Culture Gold Award!