Have you ever played a game that is so stupid and yet so fun? That’s pretty much how I describe a new title that I recently started playing called “Infinifactory,” which was developed by Zachtronics. In short, the game is a sandbox puzzle with sci-fi thematics and has an aura similar to “Portal.”

To be honest, there isn’t much to say about the game. The player is a human being that was abducted by aliens and forced to work on their numerous projects, which involves completing parts of a factory with limited resources and absolutely no schematics to guide them. In the beginning, the player faces what appears to be a council of aliens that are commanding them to work. The central alien speaks in complete gibberish, so one can only guess that it is talking about some kind of galactic empire and that the aliens wish to improve their military. 

The gameplay is pretty simple. The player selects a level, and is given an inventory to complete each project. The levels involve transporting products from a source to the deposit using conveyor belts, pistons, sensors and more. The exact product layout is shown at the deposit and each source deposits one type of block. There is no time limit and the background music is soothing. Other than that, good luck to the player!

What happens if the player doesn’t cooperate? Well, the aliens can always dispose of you and move on to the next person. Some of the levels contain dead bodies of previous subjects who have a “failure log” that records their final words. The things that the people say provide insight as to how and why the humans were abducted by the demanding aliens. However, most of them say things about their past or complain. It’s hilarious how much personality was put into each character considering they are dead and only speak for about one minute. There was even a poor dog who was forced to complete projects at some point and his failure log was just barking.

After a player completes one section of levels, the alien council rewards them with a trophy. The more sections completed, the more the player earns. The only issue is that the player still gets sent back to their prison and the “prizes” are random objects, probably because the aliens ran out of trophies.

At this point you might realize why I called the game stupid. The levels get you to use their brain and the creativity aspect is wonderful, but it’s the fact that the developers ironically put in no effort to the lore. If you didn’t know already, “lore” in a game is the story aspect which includes details about characters, the plot, motives, etc. “Infinifactory” has just a spoonful of lore which makes it interesting enough to play, but the main objective is to have dumb fun. Sometimes all a person needs to cure their boredom is some dumb fun, and the developers certainly understood that.

On the other hand, there are some games that are similar to “Infinifactory” but go deeper with the lore aspect. There are some titles where the developers wanted to tell an interesting narrative and structured a game around it. It doesn’t always make sense, but it can really enhance the experience. 

For example, another game I have played before is called “The Spectrum Retreat,” which is about a man stuck in a repetitive simulation of a morning stay in a fancy hotel. The gameplay has almost nothing to do with the actual plot, but there are bits and pieces hidden in each level that give players the thrill of uncovering a mystery and trying to figure out why they are stuck in a hotel. There is also a lady on the player’s phone who helps the main character escape the simulation while it slowly destabilizes from the player’s attempts to uncover more. Overall, it was a suspenseful and surprisingly creepy experience. The main point here is that it’s an example of a “Portal” type game with a truly compelling story.

I believe that these kinds of games in general deserve more attention. Most of them are just stupid fun, but a lot of them can be intriguing or at the very least a good method for exercising your brain. Some more examples of games like “Infinifactory” and “The Spectrum Retreat” that I have played include “Chromagun,” “Q.U.B.E.” and easily the best of them all: “Superliminal.”