SpaceChem Review

[vvav]

Zachtronics games are my favorite puzzle games to play halfway through and then realize that I'm not smart or motivated enough to finish the rest of the game. I still love them for what they represent, and I don't regret supporting these lovely little puzzlers by buying them all, but I doubt if I'll ever see the end of SpaceChem or Infinifactory.

[Toastrz]

It's not quite the same without the opening of, "Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is the first in a series of X reviews that I'm doing on the Zachtronics collection."

[MCRogueHaven]

"Stop laughing." You caught me.

[salokin]

I'm loving how you're covering more niche games over the typical major releases, so refreshing!

[MenacingSnail]

Been following you for years, Matt. I watch all your videos multiple times as they give me some great insight on how to be a more observant and analytical person. Usually when you drop a video, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and watch it 2-3 times back to back. This was the first review where I got 5 minutes in, stopped, and actually bought the game. I guess you did your job, then. cya in a bit Matt.

[uyaratful]

Matthew throwing dem fluor-uran-carbon-potassium bombs

[anlumo]

First I thought that the developers of Opus Magnum clearly copied this game, and how that sucks. Then I actually looked up who developed both of them… doh.

[linguica]

I remember buying this game back in 2011 when it came out and told friends it was my game of the year and they all thought I was insane

[Lucios]

I was actually planning on using the review as an introduction to Spacechem's gameplay, thanks for the redirect

[ThekadaWr]

Finally some much-needed love for Zacktronics. I personally classify Zacktronics games as having their own genre of the same name. As games created by mostly one person they stand out as very unique. Can't wait for the video about the latest game!

[DiglidiDudeNG]

I remember getting SpaceChem randomly from a key that was sent on a stream's chat, which I was lucky enough to redeem first. I was surprised by how much it hooked me. I think it helped cement my career as a programmer.

And that soundtrack. I still listen to it to this day.

[lupusgirl]

I beat the game and never had the idea of running a waldo in a wall to make them run an action perpetiually

I love this game so much

[alexjohnson]

Would love to see you do a video on factorio or dwarf fortress if you're a fan of either. Certainly alot of mechanics to explore in both

[pinkfloyd]

i have never and likely will never play this game, but i fully support your decision to make videos on games you care about and want to discuss. im glad you havent succumbed to the pressure of just halfheartedly talking about the next big game of the week like so many others.

[dotanuki]

"One player created a brainfuck interpreter ..., demonstrating .. Turing complete". I'm a programmer as well, so I know what that means, but you could have slipped an extra sentence in there to explain it, and its implications, to the layman. Otherwise great video, as usual.

[TheEpikak]

"Ugh, matt...stop presenting challenging, underrated material that requires me to think about it and post a review on a big release that's already been talked to death on YouTube."
-comments section

[davidoftheport]

Your vids are becoming like some low key gem on late on BBC 2. That’s a good thing

[artey]

Really great video. First, I would like to thank you for showing me SpaceChem, although that was with the video you did a few years ago. I can easily relate to you saying it's one of the best puzzle games ever made. I love it so much that I feel bad for buying it for less than 3€.

I didn't know there was so much about SpaceChem I had yet to learn. I didn't really care about how bonders and waldos prioritize stuff, but I'm also not sure whether I should appreciate the way they work. It seems odd to me that bonders behave differently while they look identical.
Also, I gotta say, I really like the reactor at 2:36. I never thought of having loops which only use two direction-changing commands.
The Brainfuck interpreter also looks interesting. I might want to look into that deeper the next time SpaceChem grabs me.

Leaderboards may not be as bad as you say. I don't know if people really were motivated to cheat, but it surely is an easy game to cheat. (I would like to believe that the best reactor designers are responsible enough not to post their solutions, but I'm skeptical about that. And don't worry, I don't consider this video containing your solutions to support cheating.) But I doubt the best solutions are always known, so maybe it's not a big problem anyway. And even with cheaters, you could still tie the world record. Cheaters don't make that any harder or easier. Anyway, there are at least two upsides to leaderboards. First, drastically optimizing your reactor and thus seeing how far you've jumped up the leaderboard might give you some more of this insane sense of satisfaction when completing a level for the first time. I don't think histograms accomplish that. Seeing a line having moved a bit isn't really rewarding for me. Second, you usually can't see the world record with histograms, but leaderboards allow that. Although it could just have been displayed separately.

I think the visuals of the production levels look quite nice. They probably could look a bit better, but I do like the contrast between nature and industry. Maybe that was something they were going for. But I agree that the music, while sounding good, can be distracting. I think it's fine while executing a plan, but coming up with an idea of a reactor design while listening to music can be hard. It probably isn't easy to make music for a game that requires intense concentration. Maybe a collection of somewhat relaxing sound effects without any recognizable melody would fit better with this type of game. Or just dead silence. I think TIS-100 works out really well in that regard.

Oh, and you're one of those few people who managed to beat SpaceChem? You have my respect. I wish I was one of them, too. I got to the last level maybe 3 years ago, but I eventually gave up. I basically restarted the entire game some time ago and had to find out I wasn't as good anymore. Maybe I was more creative back then, I don't know. After failing a level I had already beaten, I eventually looked up my old solution and was stunned by what seemed like witchcraft. Maybe I'll be good enough to finally do it one day.

[kirbymaster]

I always consider any game you make a video on, but this one looks like a full-time job

[CustardCream]

This combined with the Zachtronics video did a much better job of explaining SpaceChem to me than your original video, but I did need to watch this one twice with pauses to google some of the terms used. I understand that most people interested in a game such as this might know what a histogram is but I haven't used one since I was 15 years old and looking that up breaks up the flow of the video. Your wit is a big reason I enjoy your work and I think if there was a video that needed more "Sacre bleu" moments it was this one. At the end of the day, SpaceChem isn't for me, but now I know that for certain. Looking forward to your next video x