Recommending SpaceChem

[@thestorythief]

something feels so dirty about youtube choosing to run a clash of clans preroll on this video in particular.

[@klumpos]

I bought SpaceChem after seeing this review, it's only 70p on steam atm, and I'm loving it. Thanks for this recommendation!

[@c6Rostyslav]

Thanks for mentioning the price. Just got it. Love it.

[@artman40]

klumpos You should also get Infinifactory. Its Spacechem but with an extra dimension.

[@HalcyonSerenade]

"In a sense, sometimes I'm not even solving a puzzle; I'm just following their train of thought to a conclusion." I feel that exact way about some so-called "adventure games" that get their monikers because their settings are large and exotic, even though "large" often means aesthetically open areas that are experienced as a long corridor. If a game's levels are linear, I'm not having an adventure--I'm walking along a heavily-themed zoo pathway. If there are specific obstructions that I can climb on or parkour on to progress in a level, I'm not actually nimbly overcoming obstacles--I'm following the developer's cues for what I'm "supposed" to be doing. Some games even try to make the area you're exploring *look* big, and the only thing preventing you from taking other paths is all the rubble and destruction in the way--but that still makes the level design completely linear. Not that I particularly dislike games that do this, for nearly all "adventure" games are guilty of it in one way or another. After all, most such games are heavily based in narrative, and it's hard to have open-ended level designs without completely removing all sense of urgency from the plot. It just pains me to see these claimed as "adventures" when the only adventure I'm having is sympathizing with the characters in the story, which only *might* be interesting. Even then, I might as well be watching an adventure film or reading an adventure book rather than playing an "adventure" game. This is probably why I found the dungeons and caves in Skyrim to be the most boring part of gameplay. In a game where you can take almost any path for yourself and even serendipitously stumble upon interesting things, the dungeons and caves are almost completely linear. Maybe some longer ones loop around for convenience. What's annoying is that they're not aesthetically designed that way, with other hallways and passages blocked by rubble and debris as if the game is pretending it's not just one big hallway. I think that's why Zelda Skyward Sword was so lackluster, too (at least, my biggest personal reason). Zelda dungeons still have the "follow the developer's whim" feel, but their layout is at least generally designed to make you think about things and feel like you're exploring an open environment. Skyward Sword's dungeons were heavily partitioned, treating dungeons as a series of smaller, self-contained puzzles rather than one huge self-contained puzzle. Even worse, the outsides of dungeons felt the same way. There was always kind of an alternating balance between a Zelda game's more-open world and more-closed dungeons. The between-dungeon scenarios out in the world felt like somewhat open-ended puzzles, like it was up to you to explore the world at your disposal and find the right way to progress, and that complimented the more straightforward "this is a puzzle" focus of the dungeons. I couldn't really state it better than Matthewmatosis did in his Skyward Sword review, but I felt like his description of "other" puzzle games in this video was related in principle to one of Skyward Sword's biggest issues.

[@noseman123]

I'm at 26 hours, and I bought it last week. This game is digital crack. I think it's also a pretty neat way of visually demonstrating how I work out a problem when programming. A wall of text only says so much. I would be lying if I didn't say this is one my favourite games of all time. Thanks for introducing me to this shit, man.

[@Matthewmatosis]

Kind of a mix of things, I've been pretty motivated lately and shorter videos are a bit easier to produce I think. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up though, I don't think I can keep this kind of release schedule up. I'm interested in doing a few more smaller videos before doing another long one so maybe there'll be more from me in the near future but I couldn't say for sure. I feel like these shorter videos are helping me to recharge.

[@Alkerae]

This was the third video of yours I watched aaand subscribed. The first two were Mario64 and Wonderful101, and the quality of these videos just completely blew me away. You have a fantastic speaking voice and use your accent well as opposed to being difficult to understand for it, your visuals and demonstrated expertise at actually playing the games leaves me somewhat hypnotized, and your conclusions and thought processes are very agreeable without feeling anywhere close to common sense. I can't believe I haven't heard of you before, I hate how quality isn't necessarily rewarded, it's so rare.

[@TheStolken]

I'm very glad you're introduced this game to me. The puzzles are extremely fun. I wouldn't say they lack the "Eureka!" moment, I've certainly had my fair share of those when playing just the demo for this game. All together though, you hit the nail on the head describing this game, a puzzle game with multiple solutions and multiple challenges to open up. Plus, you're given unlimited time to test out your projects, so you can see the error you could meet with a puzzle and never have an "in hindsight" moment when playing. Once again, thank you very much for introducing this game to me, I'll do what I can to spread the word about it.

[@superdudeman666]

Definitely. Not only is this the best puzzle game ever, it's the ONLY puzzle game I like. It's more of a programming challenge than traditional single solution puzzles. What's also great is that I still to this day have not beaten the entire game. I remember playing the demo first and even THAT had enough content that it was almost worth paying for.

[@sligordaoust573]

Being someone who beated the game and all the achievements, I can deffinitely agree that the game was amazingly satisfying. Knowing about chemistry isn't needed but as someone that completed the game, I was glad to have some onderstanding of chemistry. It helps throught the journey of the game. For exemple, Hydrogen can only have one bond to another atom. So, if you happen to have an Hydrogen molecule on some bond spaces in the game, they won't gain an extra bond wich would of created an incorect molecule in game. Just wanted to point that out.

[@3george7]

I've only seen a few of your videos before this one, but your level of analysis is so impressive that I already trust your judgement immensely, so I stopped this video a few minutes in and bought Spacechem. Nicely done.

[@Matthewmatosis]

I sometimes talk about what I'm doing next on twitter. I like to keep my cards close to me chest though most of the time because announcing stuff beforehand just puts pressure on me and there's a risk of stuff being cancelled. I said on a previous video I might want to do a TLoU/Infinite comparison and now I'm not sure if I will. By talking about something in advance I've run the risk of disappointing people which is not something I enjoy.

[@smokey0111]

Man this game can be such a ballbuster, but you are absolutely right in saying that it is immensely satisfying when you've a) found that these intimidating problems are solvable by YOU, and b) your solution is better than others, whether its faster or requires less parts/reactors. As for your point about the lack of resemblance to chemistry, I believe this has similarities to initial reactor design done by chemical engineers. I think its called process engineering. Thanks for the vids.

[@nameless-user]

I just bought this game because of this video. The game and the DLC came in under two bucks.

[@sludgeypop]

I'm glad I finally came back around and watched this. The chem part really did spook me a bit. It even spooked me off of watching this video. But it actually looks pretty fun. and you seem so amped about it I gotta give it a try.

[@johnjackass461]

You are one truly awesome person. I hope you never stop getting enjoyment out of youtube for my (and your subscriber base's) sake. Selfishness aside, I really enjoy what you put out and I hope you get the recognition you deserve some day. I hope I don't come across as an arse - I wish the best for you. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.

[@hostilefork]

Good review. When differentiating this from other open-ended "puzzle games", one thing I really think puts SpaceChem over the top is the accountability element, where you can't really solve a puzzle "on accident" and move on. One of my girlfriends and I used to play The Incredible Machine (the PC remake)--and it was entertaining--but since it was a one-off solution you could just wait for things to bounce around the screen long enough that the goal was met. SpaceChem's production quotas and cycle deadlines put the kibosh on that. So I'm one of those people who thinks the "boss monster" levels putting the pressure on your cycle counts to allow you to pass (vs. just making the quota without any collisions) is actually a critical part. I'd love to see this game remade by a big budget studio--Infinifactory is good in its own right, but to me it's not as "special" as SpaceChem.

[@KuruSeed]

I'm definitely going to give this game a try after watching this video. I've had the game on my steam library for awhile now but mostly avoided it due to not being in the mood to play puzzle games most of the time. Watching this video and your description of the game, it looks very reminiscent to electronic labs I had in College, and that kind of problem solving was always a very rewarding experience for me.

[@deft0k]

I agree with this one. My brother, who is studying engineering right now, LOVES this game. Mostly because of how you have to create the lines and commands and solve the puzzles. As for me, I like the game, but the difficulty of it really put me off of it. But like Matthew said in the video, when you solve one it actually satisfying. Not to mention that the music is quite superb.

[@c.m.9369]

This is why people like molecular chemistry. Or programming. Stuff like these topics can have a really „gamy“ feel to it. To the degree that you can actually make games out of it. You say it doesn‘t have „much to do with chemisty“. Which might be true in regards to it being scientifically accurate. But the concept of connecting a lot of small steps to get to a big, automated solution is EXACTLY the stuff that people like about working in many scientific fields.

[@thehelloman0rs]

Cool to see you giving focus to my favorite puzzle game of all time. Hardly anyone has heard of SpaceChem and that's a damn shame.

[@Hyperionv2]

Another really good problem solving game is Factrio. You go from smelting iron to a massive continent sprawling factory that launch satellites. I really enjoyed Spacechem and I got the same vibe from Factrio.

[@Skriak]

You've succeeded in getting me intrigued in a game I don't recall hearing of before. Thanks and bravo.

[@CaptainHammerPants]

I've gotten through a bit of SpaceChem before, maybe a couple dozen or so levels, and yeah its great. I'd have to say though, its probably the most difficult puzzle game I've ever played, each new stage kinda requires me to take a break for a while and come back fresh, but the feeling of beating another one is immensely satisfying, more than any other puzzle game. Also Matt, I actually went out and bought Ghost Trick based on your recommendation, wow that game is fantastic!

[@knightstormbringer]

The game only looks complex and intimidating, and that aggravates the initial learning curve for a lot of ppl. Trying to understand the mechanics for the first time is akin to doing so for a complicated boardgame, and thus can put ppl off. I had a hard time introducing it to my friends, but once you get what's going on, the resultant unbridled joy from looking at your machines work is unrivalled. I wish I could somehow let my friends feel that satisfaction without having to learn the game, but unfortunately that's impossible.

[@michaelmaverick1185]

Hell, I never heard of it until now, and now I'm gonna play it because you're awesome. Thank you and please keep updating the channel. It's the very first one where I just told myself "fuck it, I'm finally gonna subscribe to something after all these years."

[@Leonrez]

Great video on a great game. It really is a brilliant game, pacing and satisfaction are excellent, but I think the amount of time it takes to set up and complete later puzzles is what holds me from playing it more often. Early levels whiz by, and later levels are exponentially more intense.

[@Wadastream]

What you said about other puzzle games compared to spacechem was exactly what I thought about Braid when I had finished it, only slightly differently worded. I'd maybe try spacechem but it does

[@zanefriedman2032]

I'd like to see your thoughts on Infinifactory.

[@KnightCrown]

Zane Friedman it only took 2 years

[@kal6957]

Thank you for showing me this game!!! I checked it out and fell in love with it. You are always bringing us creative and well crafted videos Keep it up "thumps up"

[@KillerKingMusic]

Gaming needs more Matthew's and Yahtzee's. Honest, detailed criticisms and more trust worthy than IGN's constant spouting of 7+ scores

[@KillerKingMusic]

***** Average length, little vocabulary used, GOTY - IGN

[@RMarsupial]

Matthew, yes, Yahtzee... not so much. His "reviews" feel more like novelty to me. He almost always completely ignores good points. He slightly annoys me.

[@KILLKIDspeedrun]

Plot twist he fucked SpaceChems developer

[@mutesenscans]

R. Ringshifter it's comedy first with yahtzee, and he's fucking hilarious. if you don't find him funny then i doubt you'd enjoy his points either. he critiques and is necessarily harsh, but will make his points absurd just to be entertaining.

[@MobiusFun64]

Glad you made this, I agree 100%. Best puzzle game I've ever played, but its so hard to sell other people on it.

[@craigmcpherson1455]

I just added this to my steam wish list. I can see why this didn't get much attention as it doesn't look like something for everybody.

[@Carlitonsp1]

I've owned this game for a while because of the Humble Indie Bundles, but I never played it. Thanks to this, I'm already downloading and installing the game.

[@mulecaxem]

Thanks for the extensive exposition! . That sold me on installing it for the first time!

[@S-Nova0]

Definitely. ElderGeek are my most trusted reviewers actually, they're always impartial and never sell out, so I would definitely recommend you to check them out (sorry if it sounds like an advertisement, I'm just a fan).

[@ManFromTheFizz]

SpaceChem, aka programming 101.

[@manuelsalazar5257]

Its amazing how hard this was to convey to people, they would just shake the game off by saying they dont like science game and I couldnt convince them otherwise.

[@frymastermeat]

If this type of puzzle solving interests anyone it's actually a lot like the type of logic one uses in software programming.

[@Peippy1]

Thank you for this video. I would never have heard of Spacechem otherwise, and, after you recommendation, have now sunk in two days worth of time into it. When you finish the Dark Souls Commentary, you should try to cover Infinifactory.

[@five666666]

Brought this game because of this video and I'm loving it a lot. Thanks for the recommendation.

[@dirigible3527]

You make every other game reviewer look like an idiot. People like Sessler, Yahtzee, TotalBuscuit, etc. don't put half as much thought into their entire review as you put into a critique of a single gameplay element. Your review of Demons Souls, in particular, was fantastic.

[@GuiltyBystander8]

Simon Walpole For 15 year olds yeah.

[@himme5156]

Well done video - thx, it was very informative and you hit the nail on the head in describing it.

[@BassShadow1]

So basically programming.

[@THB192]

It's constraint-based code-golf style programming, for people who are scared of that. It's also a bit like IOCCC in some respects.

[@Daniel-Rosa.]

Now, make that entertaining... You have a game.

[@yesimstuntdude]

The two most recent Zachtronics games (TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O) are literally about writing assembly. And they're just as good as SpaceChem.

[@ghgtare]

Thanks. It was very good inded. Not many reviews show all the complexity of the story and characters of that game.

[@ProtomanBlues87]

Never heard of this game. Just purchased on Steam after watching for $4.99. Thank you for informing me of this gem.

[@SolidSnake684]

I was content with your upload frequency, so this right now seems like a bonus. Don't push yourself though. The more you have fun with it, the better the videos will be.

[@Livingeidolon]

Didn't see it in any comments, but basically, waldoes are little robots. Love your work; your critical kung fu is strong.

[@VebseLover]

If I hadn't been absorbed by your other reviews, I would never have given this game more than a glance.

[@NestanSvensk]

I have thought a buying this plenty of times. Perhaps this I will follow through, Great vid as always.

[@freik7]

Love this game, so happy to see a review from you in my sub box about it.

[@Poklamez]

The developer has considered making it SpaceGem. With gems instead of chemicals. It would be more accessible, but I think it would have lost some of it's charm. I never finished the game, or even the second world, but that's mainly because I just don't have the patience for it. It's still a great game, and I can certainly see myself coming back to it over the years.

[@uripatootie7064]

going to send this video to my chemistry teacher and force him to pull strings and make spacechem a part of the chemistry curriculum

[@MrDekuKnight]

Already had this game, but you showed me why I should go and actually play it. Thanks!

[@TheBioDrew]

Your very thorough when analyzing games.

[@TreuloseTomate]

I wish I had watched this video before the big holiday sales.

[@VebseLover]

I love to see you do a Mother game or OddWorld game, too!

[@adampawlenty]

You're on fire man. Great video, I'll be sure to pick this game up.

[@Charnaille]

SpaceChem if definitly one of the greatest puzzle games ever made. But I prefered the very similar TIS-100 - basicly the same sandboxy programming puzzles as SpaceChem, but in a fake old computer, in fake ASM.

[@Poet482]

I'll have to check this out. Nice video, Matt.

[@matilyn_rf]

This is one the few games I have that I'm actually pleased with my solutions. It's like the Dark Souls of puzzle games.

[@SoDaRa1]

If you have a DSi or a 3DS & u want a puzzle game that is similar to Spacechem, I recommend u check out Art Style Zengage (or Art Style Nemrem in PAL regions). The way u talked about Spacechem reminded me of how Zengage introduced it's mechanics similarly & near the end of the game the puzzles bcame so hard that u will probably feel like a god 4 figuring them out. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but some of the puzzles par number of steps r more than 40. It's cheaper than Spacechem too.

[@SyskoTheCat]

I love how your uploading so much

[@Fujhiton]

I have to say, you're one of my favorite reviewers. I can only hope that your popularity continues to grow. Also, you're releasing games much more quickly now. Why is that? A spout of creativity? Less workload? Became more efficient with video editing? Smaller videos in general?

[@Daniel-Rosa.]

7:02 to 7:30 had me craving to play this game myself :) Now, what if that gameplay was also delivering an abstract message, or a character arc, while it does that? I love how you call my attention to these game-y games (they are gaming at its best) and I always end up looking at the ceiling and thinking "How could this be art at its best"?

[@pinkgnu]

you can save individual reactors in production levels tho. a whole level save feature would be nice, but probably the biggest issue with saving in this game is how steam cloud deleted my entire profile twice

[@PunCala]

I wonder how many people (me included) quit in the "Prelude for a Headache" level.

[@genewatson100]

Just picked this up in the steam sale based on your recommendation.

[@Centrophy]

So they essentially made the factory minigame from Rogue Galaxy into a full game. Huh... looks interesting enough but I'm not into puzzle games, thanks for the break down.

[@muhammedabdul-ghaffar8765]

This game looks fascinating.

[@Cool_Hand_Luke]

Now do TS-100!

[@AcceleratingUniverse]

I bought this for 50 cents like 4 years ago. Maybe I should install it.

[@matilyn_rf]

Also the OST is amazing in this game.

[@buzzmusic100]

I really enjoy your videos! There's a certain game I play all the time called Marble Blast (particularly Marble Blast Platinum) that I haven't seen many reviews of. Do you think you could check it out and maybe review it? I think Marble Blast Platinum is the one you should get because the original Marble Blast and Marble Blast Gold aren't legally for sale, if I'm not mistaken.

[@TimmyK916]

I'm going to check this out. It looks a lot like Trainyard to me which is the best iOS game I've ever played.

[@THB192]

Matt, get into computer programming. You'll like it.

[@hostilefork]

I am thrilled with how this managed to take thread safety and deadlock, interprocess communication and queueing, and boil it down to such essentials that people could appreciate the concepts in machines with no hidden state. Your debugger is all right there in front of you. The choice to have each "process" have exactly two "threads" is perfect. In terms of envy, my hat's off to Zach...if I had made this game I would be able to die proud and happy. I evangelize it to everyone, especially friends who are in need of some exposure to procedural literacy.

[@THB192]

Hostile Fork Yeah, pretty much. If anyone tells you threads are easy... Spacechem.

[@joebailey8294]

pretty sure that's literally his job

[@987viewer]

i describe it as a programming game about chemistry. i've felt since first playing it that it's a great game, but as i'm both a programmer and a science nerd i may be somewhat biased.

[@jsh357]

It's also 50% off on the Steam sale right now. Timely.

[@lukie-world]

Never heard of this game! I trust your opinion Matthew, so I think I'm going to buy it. :)

[@admangoe]

Me after watching this review: Meh, looks alright I guess, might as well buy it. I might get a few hours entertainment from it. Me now: I. fucking. love. SpaceChem.

[@TheSlothJesus]

You are the only reviewer I trust.

[@Sam567784]

hey Matthew, do you plan to do a full review of any of the oddworld games? especially since there's an HD Remake of Stranger's Wrath

[@SurrogateActivities]

I saw SpaceChem on steam before, like, everywhere. A little bit in tf2, too.

[@Nax38]

A short video per week and maybe a long video per month would be a good schedule IMO.

[@DarkLitUniverse]

If you enjoyed this game, then might I suggest the Codex of Alchemical Engineering? It's a free flash game developed by the same person and plays off similar principles.

[@kirbyza]

Hey Matt, I love your vids and your capacity for critical thinking. I'm sure someone already bothered you about this, but I was wondering if you would do anything with the Mother series?

[@xXHyperMarcXx]

I may get this game myself, it so interesting that I might explode if I don't get soon!

[@LIES666]

I played the demo ages ago and really enjoyed it so I went and bought it just now. It's on sale so I only paid £3 something.

[@Daniel-Rosa.]

I would be... so happily addicted :O

[@TheBroski]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on Quantum Conundrum.

[@ResistReact]

This game's only €0.99 on GOG right now

[@Whatever4690]

Great game but very very hard later on, i lost my game progress at fireworld and just couldnt do it all over again. Would be great on mobile devices and the music was awesome.

[@matilyn_rf]

I've heard this described as visual programming.

[@v1ncn7]

This was only 1€ in the Steam sale!

[@MehdiHusain]

Bought it. Love it. Thanks !

[@S-Nova0]

You should see ElderGeek's "review" of it, it's very good.

[@am4htomorrow]

My mind just exploded.

[@DaranDragon]

Of all the reviewers I've seen, you seem to love Ludology the most. I was wondering if you enjoyed games more from a ludological view or simply a experience/immersion based view.

[@DrRESHES]

speaking of dark souls. would you mind giving some review or a critique to it ? im watching your reviews only because im interested in what you have to say. and what are your thoughts about something.

[@LiarraSniffles_X3]

Oh hey, other people have played this game other than me. Wow. Still only got like 3/4's through before the problems started getting to complicated for my 15 year old mind.

[@phuturephunk]

You know, I own this game and I tried to get into it and failed. I need to go back and try again. Thinking about it...the impression I got is that programmers and other people with a comp sci background would really get a kick out of this title.

[@BoeserOverlord]

you somewhat learn programming, you get data and have to output it differently with the commands you can use. You won't learn chemistry but it still is very stimulating