Mindustry

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Mindindustry is an open-world factory-building game with tower defense and RTS elements, offering single-player, co-op, and PvP multiplayer modes. Create intricate supply chains, generate resources, build defenses, and command units to conquer enemy bases and protect your core from waves of attackers. With challenging production management, hilarious gameplay, and fantastic replayability, this game boasts amazing visuals and masterful music, though it can be quite grinding.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

95%

Audience ScoreBased on 7,880 reviews

gameplay241 positive mentions

story20 negative mentions

Engaging blend of tower defense and factory building mechanics, providing a unique gameplay experience.
Active community support with mods and custom maps, enhancing replayability and creativity.
Affordable price for the amount of content and enjoyment it offers, making it a great value.

Awful difficulty spikes and frustrating mechanics that can lead to losing significant progress.
Poorly explained mechanics and controls, making it challenging for new players to learn.
Repetitive gameplay and lack of meaningful progression can lead to boredom over time.

gameplay
673 mentions
36 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Mindustry is a unique blend of tower defense, real-time strategy, and resource management, offering a deep and engaging experience that rewards creativity and strategic planning. While the mechanics are generally easy to grasp, newcomers may find the learning curve steep due to the game's complexity and lack of intuitive tutorials. Overall, players appreciate the addictive gameplay loop, extensive content, and the ability to customize and optimize their factories, though some express concerns about repetitive elements and balance issues in later stages.
- “Mindustry excels in its gameplay mechanics, seamlessly merging elements of different genres into a cohesive and engaging experience.”
- “The tower defense and factory logistics gameplay loops integrate seamlessly into each other, and with a level of depth I've only seen in a couple of other titles.”
- “Mindustry is a unique blend of tower defense, real-time strategy, and resource management, offering a compelling and addictive gameplay experience that stands out in the indie game scene.”
- “The game was a cool concept but the introduction of game elements was not at all intuitive, the menus were hard to navigate, and the gameplay feels clunky for this reason.”
- “Gameplay gets repetitive and boring very quickly.”
- “The gameplay loop is; pause, queue building, unpause, wait for a few minutes and do nothing as resources pile in, pause and queue building again.”
graphics
236 mentions
34 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally described as simple, minimalist, and retro-inspired, often likened to pixel art or 16-bit styles. While some players appreciate the clarity and functionality of the visuals, allowing for smooth gameplay even on low-end systems, others find them lacking in detail and polish compared to contemporary titles. Overall, the graphics serve their purpose in enhancing gameplay without being a focal point, with many reviewers emphasizing that the depth and enjoyment of the game outweigh any graphical shortcomings.
- “It's honestly a pretty fun game, and the visually clean art style makes readability very good.”
- “Amazing game with great visuals.”
- “The graphics look like something from an old Adobe Flash game.”
- “Compared to Factorio, the graphics aren't as good and the gameplay is much shorter; to be honest, Factorio is a much better game.”
- “The graphics are very simplistic, but for a factory game where you're building all the time, at incredible speed, it makes buildings and their functions immediately apparent and easy to manage.”
story
205 mentions
8 % positive mentions
82 % neutral mentions
10 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its minimal presence, with many users noting that there is little to no narrative depth or character development. While some players appreciate the gameplay mechanics and mission variety, they express disappointment over the lack of a compelling storyline, often describing the missions as repetitive and lacking in engaging context. Overall, the game is seen as more focused on gameplay mechanics than on delivering a rich narrative experience.
- “The campaign is the 'story mode', light on actual story, but it takes you through the different game types, structures, enemies, resources and everything else at a decent pace that leaves you feeling like you're getting somewhere every time you finish a level.”
- “The seemingly common story and mechanics of the game have been put into the hands of an incredible team of devs who have done the community immense favor by putting in the efforts they did on this game.”
- “It's fun like Factorio but it takes less time to complete missions... in time I hope it will be more popular.”
- “The game can be paused, in the mission I'm in as of writing, it is the 5th time I've played it, a grand total of 2 playthroughs that got this far, with 4 total playthroughs, it is level 10, and this mission by itself takes 2 hours just to get to 7 of 24 waves because the map is both so huge, and the waves can't be sent while enemies from a wave still remain (for no reason, just make the victory condition be that the final wave has been reached, no cores and no enemy units remain, actually simple) which means that it will effectively take you, this is including pauses because the pipe system and belt system on Erekir is not well implemented, approximately 7 hours to beat it.”
- “Every time I come back to this game, get to one of those missions then alt F4 within 2 minutes of playing them since the enemy has a full base set up sending wave after wave of enemies 30 seconds apart to the point I can't even build a simple factory quick enough. I cannot stress enough how insufferable these missions are, it's so bad to the point I'm tempted to go to the GitHub and just tear out this garbage myself.”
- “There is no real story or anything of sorts.”
music
104 mentions
42 % positive mentions
49 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received a mixed response from players, with many praising the soundtrack as incredible, atmospheric, and well-suited to the gameplay, enhancing both tension and relaxation. However, some users noted issues with repetitiveness and occasional silence, suggesting that the soundtrack could benefit from more variety and length. Overall, while the music is often described as catchy and engaging, there are calls for improvements to avoid monotony during extended play sessions.
- “The soundtrack complements the gameplay well, creating a tense atmosphere during waves and a calming ambiance during downtime.”
- “The music paired with the gameplay is something fun and relaxing.”
- “The music is designed well; if robots could sing by themselves, it would sound like this, not to mention that there are a number of tracks in intervals.”
- “I wish though they had better music; it's kinda lame listening to the 4 tracks over and over again.”
- “My only criticism of the game is that the music soundtrack is absolutely awful.”
- “I get the feeling that there's about 15 minutes of music, but about 80% of it is repeated few second loops.”
grinding
99 mentions
3 % positive mentions
10 % neutral mentions
87 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it tedious and time-consuming, particularly in the new campaign mode, which has been criticized for its monotonous progression and resource management. While some enjoy the grind as part of the gameplay experience, others feel it detracts from the fun, leading to frustration and a sense of repetitiveness. Overall, the game offers a blend of enjoyable mechanics and significant grinding, which may appeal to fans of the genre but can be off-putting for those seeking a more streamlined experience.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “There is no grinding.”
- “No grinding whatsoever.”
- “The new campaign mode makes a once enjoyable game extremely grindy and disappointing.”
- “It's extremely tedious and the game doesn't pause either while you program the processors or give you time to learn.”
- “The first campaign is really fun, but the new campaign relies on tedious monotony to drive it forward so far.”
replayability
85 mentions
45 % positive mentions
52 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
Mindustry is widely praised for its exceptional replayability, attributed to features like procedural map generation, a robust modding community, and the ability to create and share custom maps. Players appreciate the game's depth, variety of challenges, and the engaging mechanics that encourage repeated playthroughs, making it a great value for its price. While some reviews note that replayability may diminish after completing the campaign, the overall consensus is that the game offers countless hours of fun and strategic gameplay.
- “The procedural generation of maps and the ability to design and share custom maps with the community significantly enhance the game's replay value.”
- “Mindustry is a masterclass in how to make a game with serious replayability.”
- “With its sheer complexity (without being overwhelming), replayability, and intuitive controls, you'd have to be crazy not to at least give it a go.”
- “There isn't lots and lots of content here - there's enough to have fun, but once you've finished the campaign I don't think there's an awful lot of replayability.”
- “The game has a lot of depth but not a lot of replayability after you finish the game, but it will take you 60 hours or so to do so.”
- “It does however have a flaw, with it being mainly tower defense (games that get more and more difficult each wave) the replay value takes a hit but that's a matter of opinion on the genre of tower defense games.”
optimization
69 mentions
30 % positive mentions
65 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance across a wide range of devices, including lower-end PCs, making it accessible to many players. While some users noted that certain updates introduced performance issues and a lack of depth in optimization mechanics, the game still encourages creative factory design and resource management. The balance between tower defense and optimization elements is well-received, with many players enjoying the challenge of building efficient systems.
- “It is a very optimized and easy to run game, so performance should not be an issue even on lower-end PCs.”
- “Mindustry is an excellent factory & resource management sim which scratches the itch of optimization and tower defense planning alike.”
- “The mechanics encourage creativity in designing efficient production lines and defensive layouts, rewarding players for innovative strategies and optimization.”
- “In addition, in the last major update of the game, Erekir's performance was not satisfactory, with some behaviors of designing new content being careless, like shoddy values.”
- “Maybe I'm just not good at optimization, but I'll spend up to an hour just waiting for my resources to fill up so I can start the next level without getting screwed over immediately.”
- “The game is less about optimization and more about retrofitting.”
humor
25 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely appreciated, with players finding it both entertaining and quirky, often highlighting the amusing interactions and chaotic elements of gameplay. Many reviews mention the game's ability to evoke laughter through its silly mechanics and funny visuals, especially when played with friends. Overall, the humor adds a delightful layer to the experience, making it enjoyable and engaging for players.
- “The game is really great; it combines harmony and chaos, a calm and at the same time exciting game. You can create a lot of interesting and funny things in it.”
- “11/10, funny logistics game.”
- “It's really funny game when you play it with friends.”
monetization
14 mentions
21 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The monetization model of the game is highly praised, as it is free to play on mobile with no ads, microtransactions, or paywalls, offering a refreshing experience compared to typical mobile games. Players appreciate the developer's commitment to providing a fun, ad-free environment, which has led to positive word-of-mouth promotion despite a lack of traditional advertising. Overall, the game is seen as a genuine effort by the developer to create an enjoyable experience without exploiting players financially.
- “A game with fun gameplay, no microtransactions, battle pass, etc., just plain old fun.”
- “Io and even free (with no microtransactions or ads) on Android/iOS.”
- “In-game purchases”
- “There are no microtransactions or adverts.”
- “Originally played this on my phone (free app, btw, with little enough ad content I literally couldn't tell you for sure there were ads lmao).”
stability
12 mentions
25 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while it runs well on various systems and has minimal glitches, users report significant issues with multiplayer functionality, including desynchronization and interface bugs. The developers are actively working on updates to address these problems, but the experience can still be frustrating due to the buggy interface and resource management.
- “The game runs great, even on my old laptop, making it perfect for playing on the road with minimal internet connectivity.”
- “The game is small, runs smoothly, and does a lot with the 100 MB it takes up on your PC.”
- “Runs great on Linux.”
- “Slinging resources is buggy, extremely electricity consuming, and a pain to manage.”
- “Only problem with the game that I can spot is that there are some pretty weird glitches in multiplayer (things on your screen the other players can't see, unit production failures, other desync issues).”
- “The game itself is great, it just has a terribly designed and often buggy interface.”
atmosphere
8 mentions
38 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
25 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its effective use of music and sound effects, which enhance both tension during gameplay and a calming ambiance during quieter moments. Players appreciate the immersive setting, with elements like "spooky space music" contributing to a sense of unease and community dynamics that can create disparities between experienced and new players. Overall, the atmosphere is described as lively and engaging, making the game enjoyable and accessible.
- “The soundtrack complements the gameplay well, creating a tense atmosphere during waves and a calming ambiance during downtime.”
- “It is very atmospheric, and did I forget to tell you that the music is lovely!”
- “Also, the entire atmosphere and setting of the game makes it very enjoyable, especially when paired with the 'spooky space music' that occasionally plays in the background.”
- “This behavior reinforces a distrustful atmosphere, encouraging veteran players to band together while pushing out newcomers who might not understand the game’s unspoken rules.”
- “This atmosphere creates inequities rooted in proficiency, with newer players often struggling to match the efficiency and strategies developed by the community over time.”
emotional
7 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight a strong emotional impact, with players expressing feelings of distress and frustration, particularly in relation to gameplay challenges and thematic elements. The game evokes a sense of existential dread, portraying players as detached machines in a relentless struggle, which can lead to intense emotional responses. Overall, the emotional experience is marked by both highs and lows, reflecting the game's challenging nature and grim atmosphere.
- “I am distressed both emotionally and physically.”
- “Take all the grim thematic material of Factorio and distill it; you are a soulless machine scavenging resources from worlds afar, and unemotionally eliminating threats to your ongoing operations.”
- “You'll go 30 waves without the enemies touching your defenses and then suddenly you'll have a god wave that destroys your entire base.”