shapez 2

Shapez 2 has what seems to be all the pieces to be a good factory game, it has room for min-maxing your production and somewhat complicated requirements for progress, but it definitely doesn't have the sauce to be a truly great game. It has a couple glaring problems that stop it from being enjoyable as a sheer factory puzzle system, but these are hard to say distinctively because it's all sorta interconnected in the game's DNA. The tasks/objectives system is flawed. The game requires you to do many series of tasks to get more upgrade points, but the shapes you produce for these lose all usefulness as soon as the task series is complete. These series's of tasks build upon themselves, so when you complete stage one, you then often use the shape from that first stage to make the shapes for the following stages in the series... But once you've finished the Task series, that's it, there's effectively no reason not to simply tear down everything you built for those tasks. Now, the game is fairly generous, you have nigh unlimited building supplies so there's no cost at all to putting up a huge base and tearing it all down when you don't need it anymore, but good factory games thrive off the sense of the factory GROWING, not constantly shifting and contorting, which is what you have to do to complete this game. This is exacerbated by the 2nd core issue of the game, which is that your throughput to submit objective shapes is limited for most of the game. Even with maximum upgrades on the "vortex inputs", you have 12 platforms worth of input lines at a time for basically the entire game. This means the vortex can only chew up THREE full space-belts worth of items at a time. The description on Steam would have you believe that Shapez is all about min-maxing your production but in reality, you will set up a factory to make 2000 shapes per minute of the shape that you need and wait 40 minutes for all of them to pour in. Not to mention that, because of the huge scale of the map, you can reshape/contort a factory to change the output shape, and then it will take 10 whole minutes for that changed output to make its way to the vortex since the space belts and buildings all move so slow. This is a problem when it also takes 10 minutes WORTH of production to fill out the objective/task! And it discourages you from truly thinking at huge scale, since maxing out your production will allow you to maybe double your output from the same "ore" veins, but the difference between 10 minutes worth of shape production and 5 minutes worth of shape production is meaningless. Combine that with the fact that there's very very little sense of friction in the game (everything is free, all the belts behave exactly how you would want/expect them to, whereas in a game like factorio the belts are really weird/quirky which adds a little friction to how you deal with them and makes you feel smarter for being good at it) and there's just not a ton to chew on I think. To some degree, I think some of my problems with the game could simply be solved by giving the player Train Delivery way way earlier... Train Delivery totally removes the production CAP that's on the player for most of the game. But Train Delivery doesn't address my biggest most fundamental issues with Shapez 2: Required quantities for just about anything are pretty small, and shapes rarely get "reused" and there's no cost for putting up and tearing down buildings, so there's no feeling at all that you are GROWING a factory, you only ever just shift bits of it around, and that's substantially less gratifying. TLDR: The balance of objectives are totally wacked out, you build a huge factory to make 1000 shapes per minute, and it takes 15+ minutes for the 8000 required shapes to get swallowed up by the vortex. Then you tweak the factory real quick and wait another 15 minutes for the next shapes to make it to the vortex. Most importantly: There's very little sense of growth because of how often you are redoing stuff or tearing old stuff down. Of course, this is noting that my complaints are seemingly about the flow of the "main game", but for real factory heads the REAL game starts at the Post-game, so I'll update this when I've sunk my teeth into that a little bit...

Shapez 2 is a captivating and brilliantly executed sequel that takes the addictive factory-building and automation gameplay of the original shapez.io to exciting new heights. Building on the minimalist yet elegant design philosophy of its predecessor, Shapez 2 expands the scope and complexity of its puzzle-solving and logistical challenges without ever losing sight of accessibility or player creativity. The core gameplay loop revolves around constructing intricate factories to process and combine various geometric shapes and colors into increasingly complex patterns, demanding careful planning, efficient layout design, and mastery of conveyor belts, splitters, and mergers. What sets Shapez 2 apart is its remarkable balance between depth and clarity—while the puzzles grow significantly more sophisticated, the user interface remains clean and intuitive, ensuring that both newcomers and veteran players can enjoy the gradual ramp-up in complexity. Visually, Shapez 2 retains the clean, vector-style aesthetic of the original but introduces subtle enhancements and more vibrant color palettes that make the sprawling factory layouts visually engaging without overwhelming the player. The animations are smooth and satisfying, turning the act of watching shapes flow through the network into a mesmerizing experience. Complementing the visuals is a soothing, minimalist soundtrack that fosters focus and immersion, making extended play sessions feel both productive and relaxing. The sound design also smartly integrates functional audio cues that assist in managing factory flow and alerting players to bottlenecks or errors. One of the standout features of Shapez 2 is its open-ended sandbox mode alongside a more structured campaign, which introduces new mechanics and shape types progressively, allowing players to build their skills and experiment freely. The campaign mode is thoughtfully designed, with increasingly complex challenges that test not only your technical skills but also your ability to optimize and scale your production lines. The game encourages experimentation and rewards ingenuity, offering multiple ways to solve the same problem, which significantly enhances replayability. Additionally, the inclusion of mod support fosters a vibrant community where players can share custom content, extending the game's lifespan and variety. While Shapez 2 is largely successful in its design, it may occasionally present a steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with factory simulators or puzzle games, and some players might find the repetitive nature of conveyor belt management taxing over time. However, these potential drawbacks are offset by the satisfaction derived from designing elegant, efficient factories and solving complex logistical puzzles. The game's performance is generally smooth, though very large factories can sometimes challenge hardware resources, a testament to the depth and scale of the systems at play. In conclusion, Shapez 2 is a thoughtfully crafted and deeply satisfying evolution of the original game, delivering a rich blend of puzzle-solving, strategy, and creative freedom. Its polished presentation, clever mechanics, and scalable difficulty make it a must-play for fans of automation and factory-building genres, as well as anyone who appreciates clean, minimalist design combined with complex gameplay. Whether you’re a methodical planner or a creative problem-solver, Shapez 2 offers hours of engaging and rewarding gameplay that continually challenges you to think smarter, build better, and refine your factories into works of engineering art. Rating: 9/10

For Shapez 1 owners. Buy this without hesitation. It makes everything you loved about Shapez, even better. Excellent factory and automation game without the stress of defending your base or limited resources. Great difficulty ramp as well. Appropriately introduces new concepts at a good pace and never feels overwhelming. If you've played any other factory games, like factorio, satisfactory, and the sort, do yourself a favor and pick up this game. Highly recommended!

I love this game, it is great while I can actually play it. It has been crashing constantly after zooming, copying, pasting. Please fix it!

Not too difficult for someone who enjoys automation games but cant sink their entire life into one single game. Recommend for technical minded people who enjoy a balance life.

Never played any similar games but the puzzle + automation is definitely a genre I am enjoying!

Very intelligent game. Loved the style and the feel. Cut out all the junk no one wants to deal with in a factory game and made it great.

This is one of the best automation games that somehow lacks a basic "goal" to strive towards. It feels aimless yet so addicting. I rate it slightly lower than satisfactory however this is the best FEELING games ever played and that is among other genres too. Each click and 'vump' of the UI is just TACTICAL. It also is reasonable priced and also has nice visuals/ along with low file size so ultimately the best game (automation) that money can buy right now. BUT this is for players who like to relax more rather than tinker endlessly.

This is a good game, but I don't know if I would recommend it for people who are really into factory games. It's definitely not as complex as something like Factorio, for many reasons. There are no enemies to deal with, but personally I never like dealing with enemies anyway. What I think are much bigger reasons to maybe skip this game is just that its so simple. You don't have to worry about creating new buildings, you have infinitely many of them. You don't have to worry about anything taking more than 2 ingredients per step, because that's literally what every single building does. It takes two inputs and gives you a single output. Nothing more complicated than that. Shapes required to progress are not used throughout the entire game. You'll make a shape, get the required amount of them, and then you can just delete that whole part of your factory and never worry about it again. That means a lot of the logistical challenge a game like this normally has is just not present here. You don't need to worry about how to get something like green circuits to a lot of different assemblers, because nothing like that is required. Every set of shape goals are pretty self-contained. But the fact that the game is so simple means I think it would be a game that people can beat even if they don't have much experience with factory games. I've heard people say they have hundreds of hours in Factorio and never beat it, for instance. I don't think that would happen in this game. One other small problem I have is the pacing in the early game. You don't have a lot of ways of increasing production. You can't expand out to find more shapes, you don't have trains or anything unlocked, and so your production is going to be very low. There are a lot of times in the early game where I finish making a factory and then I need to wait for around 10 minutes or more because there's nothing else I can do. I think it's one thing to have high shape requirements in the late game, since that incentivizes you to actually make a big factory. But in the early game you can't do that, so the high shape requirements just waste your time for no reason. So this definitely isn't a bad game, but if you're looking for something more complex than I wouldn't recommend it.

---{ [b]Gameplay[/b] }--- ☐ Excellent! ☐ Very Good! ☑ Good! ☐ It's just gameplay! ☐ Mehh! ☐ Watch paint dry instead! ---{ [b]Graphics[/b] }--- ☐ Reality looks disappointingly ugly in comparison! ☐ Gorgeous! ☑ Good! ☐ Decent! ☐ Bad! ☐ Bus Simulator 16 Ultra Low settings! ☐ $1 Budget game! ---{ [b]Audio[/b] }--- ☐ Eargasm! ☐ Very good! ☑ Good! ☐ Manageable! ☐ Bad! ☐ My ears! ---{ [b]Audience[/b] }--- ☐ Fresh out the womb & up! ☐ 8 & up! ☑ 13 & up! ☐ 18 & up! ☐ 30 & up! ☐ 60 & up! ☐ You will never be old enough! ---{ [b]PC Requirements[/b] }--- ☐ Potato! ☐ Smart toaster! ☐ Decent! ☑ Fast! ☐ Ask your employer if they can give you a 500% pay raise! ☐ Invest in a Quantum computer! ☐ Get into a rocket flying at 50% the speed of light. Wait 3 months, return to Earth, then play the game! ---{ [b]Game Size[/b] }--- ☐ Floppy Disk! ☐ Old Fashioned! ☑ Workable! ☐ Big! ☐ Will eat 20% of your 4TB drive! ☐ You will want an entire drive just to hold it! ☐ Ask Google if they have a spare mega-datacenter! ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data! ---{ [b]Difficulty[/b] }--- ☐ Just press 'W'! ☐ Easy! ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master! ☐ Significant brain usage! ☐ Difficult! ☐ Learned to code in Brainfuck and wrote a whole OS in it! Playing this game is the hardest thing I have done in my life! ---{ [b]Grind[/b] }--- ☑ Nothing to grind! ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks! ☐ It isn't necessary to progress! ☐ Average paid game! ☐ Average Free-To-Play game! ☐ You'll need to clone yourself! ☐ Invent anti-aging technology and time travel! ☐ WarThunder! ---{ [b]Story[/b] }--- ☐ No Story! ☑ Some lore! ☐ Average! ☐ Good! ☐ Lovely! ☐ It'll replace your life! ---{ [b]Game Time[/b] }--- ☐ The speed of light is slower! ☐ Short! ☐ Average! ☐ Long! ☑ You'll die before this game runs out of content! ---{ [b]Price[/b] }--- ☐ Worth the price! ☑ If it's on sale! ☐ If you find some spare money behind the couch! ☐ Not recommended! ☐ Burning your money is better! ---{ [b]Bugs[/b] }--- ☐ Never heard of! ☑ Minor bugs! ☐ Can get annoying! ☐ Cities: Skylines II at launch! ☐ Developers showing off their bug implementation skills! ☐ Cyberpunk 2077 at launch! ---{ [b]? / 10[/b] }--- ☐ 1! ☐ 2! ☐ 3! ☐ 4! ☐ 5! ☐ 6! ☐ 7! ☐ 8! ☑ 9! ☐ 10! ---{ [b]Authors[/b] }--- ☑ [url=https://bigflubba.github.io/steam-review-template] Big Flubba [/url] ☑ [url=https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template] Vojtěch Struhár [/url]

I still remember, years ago, when the dev personally responded to my Shapez 1 negative review. I wasn't too harsh, but I did feel the game didn't have enough depth to keep me interested. A month or two after my review, the dev replied with something like, "If you were looking for more depth, you will want to check out the latest update that adds wires." Well, now Tobias is working on Shapez 2, which I've started playing and am enjoying. Despite it being in early access still, there is considerable polish, with an obvious focus on quality of life in the UI. The best thing about the Shapez games is how different the theme is from the other games in the genre. In Factorio, there's a considerable emphasis on the enemies, and there's even gross stuff in the Space Age DLC like needing to retrieve their eggs and enemies that can hatch inside your factory. Captain of Industry too has stuff like pops that can starve, and a chicken factory (I really don't want to deal with meat production in my relaxing factory game). Satisfactory does too: you have to collect and kill slugs to enable overclocking of buildings. Why include stuff like that? Shapez is nice because it's a pure, abstract, relaxing experience that can be as chill or challenging as you'd like (e.g. building a MAM ["Make Anything Machine"]). The only things I would request from the dev as the game continues through early access is keep adding more QoL polish and ensure there's enough challenge for factory veterans (I have 500 hours in Factorio).

I played many other industry and automation games, and Shapes 2 is very *boring*, feels like an idle game with its abstract shapes. Not much to do. Almost half of play time is just waiting for shapes to go to vortex. Small sizes of space platforms limit possible designs. No sense of factory progression, due to constant tearing of supply chains once the current shape is supplied.

Always a fan of production-type games. This one is easy to pick up, and hard to put down. I've spent more hours than I care to mention optimizing my output or just making things look more aesthetic and put together. Love love LOVE the new update!! If you're a fan of Satisfactory or Factorio.. you won't be disappointed. I really enjoy being able to zoom in and hear what's going on from all angles. The attention to detail, mechanics and keyboard shortcuts are top notch!! Once you get the general idea of what's going on, it's super easy to copy, paste, profit. The addition of multiple factory floors is *chefs kiss.* I easily lose hours and hours. HIGHLY recommend. Might be early access atm, but I can't even imagine what the full game will be like when it's already so great. Totally worth it!

Absolutely brilliant game, I play satisfactory and its just like it, just in space and a few extra things. Love it!

Good Game by gets laggy when started to build larger Factories. FPS also drops.

I honestly can not stop playing this game, I'm completely obsessed with it.

This is an incredible game for people who like to think and solve problems. I am really enjoying the relaxation calming effect I experience while playing. I am very grateful I purchased Shapez 2. Rom 828

This is an immensely satisfying and fun puzzle/factory game, and I adore the visual style to it all. I honestly forget that it's in early access, as it feels like a very smooth and complete experience. I really like that it's a top down sandbox to build in however you want without worrying about resources or navigating a map or fighting enemies like some other factory type games. The game still gives goals and allows you to unlock new features and tools over time to build more complex shapes and do so with more efficiency. You can check out the first game for free on browser, or cheap on steam (as of writing this review the first one is on sale for one dollar). The first game lacks the visual upgrade but at its core is largely the same concept of a factory game. If you like that at all I highly recommend this game.

It activates my brain and is good factory time. Because of the milestones, the game encourages tearing down the factory and making something different and better constantly. It's very fun that way, as you can see yourself getting better/using blueprints more efficiently to make better factories faster. You can also just over-spend on resources and not be efficient if you want to, and just scale as much as you feel like you want to!

sooo.... i tried it... after a 10 hrs session i can say its pretty good... its 6 am... i have work today.... .-.

What can I say that hasn't already been said. This is a very well put together game. Very enjoyable to play. Everything just works perfectly. Kudos to the developers because the attention to detail and just good game design is second to none. Just get it.

Great game, enjoyed it a lot, but it took a little to grow on me. It is a factory game with some puzzling worked in. I didn't love not building things for a purpose at first and even though there is no pressure to complete things in a specific time or before resources run out I always found myself trying to optimize. If you like Factorio, Dyson Sphere, Captain of Industry and stuff like that you will like this game.

Great update compared to the first Shapez, the 3D aspect is really fun

Great puzzle / factory game. The new update is stellar and made scaling up alot more enjoyable. I will say the endgame is only fun if you like logic/electronics puzzles, the factoryness of it takes a back seat during MaM creation.

I loved shapez 1 so as soon as i found out they made shapez 2 i had to get it. They took shapez 1 and made it look 10x better and add plenty new features. From what ive played so far this game is as fun as the last one. maybe even funner.

Loved it, they've distilled the essence of factory games into the base requirements. Was a ton of fun without any "extra story" to get in the way.

Excellent factory game, with tons of logic and judgment. No idle time.

If you stare long into the void, the void stares back into you (and asks you if you're stuck). As someone who prefers 2D games, and a big fan of Shapez, I very reluctantly bought Shapez2 after considering this for a long time, expecting that I may not like it that much because I had already gotten the best of the game with Shapez. But I figured I would give it a chance, and I'm glad I did. I was positively surprised that the 3D futuristic art style of the game did not make it off-putting at all to me, on the contrary, it's beautiful, the gameplay feels even more intuitive and smoother than Shapez, and there's more content. I'm enjoying playing it very much and I think if someone else who is a fan of Shapez has the concerns I had they should also give it a chance, there's a big chance they will not regret that.

I learned about 'City Block' factory design in Factorio but never pursued it myself. shapez 2 seems to have made this methodology core to their design. Every piece of factory is a replaceable part at scale. You can micro and macro manage everything and the interface is so snappy with copy/pasting components or full platforms. If you've ever felt it's tedious building big in Satisfactory - try shapez 2.

Absolutely amazing and chill factory game. Want to build some cool and colorful buttons? Do it. Want to optimize each shape production line for max throughput / minimal latency / fewest operations? Do it. Want to cover the observable universe in trains carrying colored squares and circles? Do it. The relaxed nature, coupled with the lack of immediacy concerning the "main objectives", allows you to approach this game with unrestricted freedom. You can choose to game-theorize the fastest way through every main objective, or just hang out and build whatever you want. This is my favorite factory game!

Chill factory and automation game. The vortex must grow!

Love the game so far. If you love factory games this should scratch that itch. I can't wait to see more creative and fun contents!

A beautiful game, bringing back the nostalgia of Shapez.io, while fixing a lot of the inconveniences, and adding quality of life machines. The pinnacle of game & chill, Shapez 2 delivers everything I hoped and more. With the massively expanded world, which is now inside another world, I have no shortage of hours to sink into this worthy adversary. Better than Shapez.io in every way, more content, same nostalgic and calm music. This is a steal worth every cent!

free to brainstorm different set-ups and not worry as much about the infrastructure like belts, and directions of product lines. I think the best part right now is how easy it is to make broad changes as I think of ways to implement them. I hope to see something like ratio to be included though I'm not sure how that would work with this game as far as shape manipulations.

This factory game trains your logic and planning skills. Once you have all blueprints set up in the insane scenario, you will be making a lot of plans. Definitely a good game!

Shapez 2 is a straightforward factory game that takes the concepts from the first entry and makes everything 3D. It's ironic then that to a novice like me the missing ingredient here seems to be depth. The premise is that you construct factories that take shapes mined from 'asteroids', break them up, rearrange them by quarters, and then deliver them to the middle of the map. Aside from trying not to tangle your conveyor belts you'll learn to manipulate paint, re-colour your shapes, and layer them up into specific patterns as requested. Once you've delivered x-thousand of that product, it's on to the next. A simple and linear process from start to finish that gets as complex as you make it. As the game progresses the scope also increases in a fractal sense. At the start you'll be splitting each belt between the different tools to try and get an even input / output ratio. A half-destroyer for example might require two machines per full belt so you have to figure out out to route everything in the space you're given for all four belts. If you get it all on one layer you can then multiply it to the other 3 as they unlock. Then later you might turn those platforms into modules that you feed 'space lanes' into, each carrying four belts of shapes across all three layers. That lets you create bespoke solutions with simple pipelines that process the shapes - eg. extract, cut, rotate, split, deliver. The required shapes gradually get more involved, incorporating the various tools that unlock and requiring more elaborate factories to deliver the result. At the same time you also have 'tasks' - sub-goals which offer mini challenges where each goal builds on the previous requiring you to upgrade your factory each time. In return you unlock research points that can be spent on unlocking tool variants, speed upgrades, and other little extras. Everything is easily unlocked by the time you reach the last few goals, but there's a seemingly endless number of tasks to do rewarding far more research than you'll ever seem to need. By the time I got to the end things got very routine. Most of my time was spent setting up my pre-designed module chains, then waiting for everything to be constructed and delivered. Meanwhile I'd work on a task which was the exact same thing I'd just done, setting up another module chain. I've seen others online creating 'make anything machines' or setting up far more elaborate resource hubs and train networks but nothing in the game tells you how to play that way. A whole section of unlocks is all about logic gates, signals, and switches that allow more complex automation but it never shows you how to use that either and I never made any use of of it because the challenges didn't ever call for them. I can't help feeling like there's a whole side to this game that it fails to induct you into, and unless you're ready to go spend hours researching on youtube it'll remain a mystery - seems weird for a game to gate-keep it's higher level gameplay. Overall Shapez is a game that offers the simple accessible path for those newer to the genre, but has all the features and complexity for those who seemingly know how to use it from other games - but there's nothing here bridging those worlds. The core loop is repetitive and ends up repeating itself recursively at different levels of scale throughout gameplay - first with belts and shapes, then with pipes and colour fluid, then on multiple layers, then in batches of layers. The game has a small amount of horizontal progression (options) then a lot of vertical progression (numbers); But it feels like the core loop is just being reskined and doesn't function any differently. Shapes on belts don't meaningfully differ from fluids in pipes, they just plug into different inputs. The end result was entertaining at first but tedious by the end, and the only reward to keep you going is... more shapez. There seems to be more there but I guess I'm out of the loop.

Pure factory building goodnes. There is no pretense of a deep story, enemies to fight or anything beyond raw, unadulterated logistics and thoughput. This is in addition to some beautiful graphics that make watching your solutions in motion a treat. This game supports a bunch of playstyles perfectly, you can custom-produce solutions to specific challenges or develop a handful of fundamental blueprints and combine them with no regard for compactness, both of them will see you through the game without feeling like you're fighting the game. There is also replay value if you want to do the harder modes, with an optional 5th level to make shapes with, or hex mode. Just be mindful that hex mode has a fraction of the community and correcpondingly less help. 10/10 factory building.

If you want Factorio but relaxed and easier, this is it! Though at the end, that's also what it's lacking, there is nothing to chase for except bigger numbers and random shapes.

i have just started play this but it is really good if you want a chill, puzzle, automation game

Easy to play. From discord can import blueprints, so its helping a lot. Worth to buy and play!

This is one cool factory builder. The fun to conveyor belt ratio is 1:1.

This game is pure, unadulterated logistics right into your veins

Exceeded my expectations. Very fun and addicting. Runs smooth, would totally recommend if you like puzzle games and building.

Casual, relatively complex factory game with no lose condition, you just build to your heart's content. A proper sequel to its predecessor, offering 3D visuals and verticality to building. You'd be surprised just how complex the building of shapes can get.

this game is very factory i love spaghetti i think this game could use more factory because the factory makes more sounds than

Solid game progression. Intuitive yet challenging objectives. Endlessly captivating. Factory automation at its best.

To me, even on insane its very relaxing. I love to pop in for a few hours, knock out some shapes, expand my factory, or find more effective ways to build. The sound track is wonderful as well! A+!!

This game is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Satisfying to play, all of the machines have wonderful smooth animations and the mechanic of creating shapes (Or Shapez if you will) is brilliant. Five Stars!

Fun game. Pretty polished for early access. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Super snappy and satisfying, it is super easy to reconfigure your factory, makes you feel like a logistics supermind. I am personally having more fun with this than with other big similar games I won't name