Abiotic Factor's not really a Game I'd consider playing on my own. It's a creepy Survival-Horror game that's incredibly easy to get lost within, which checks all my boxes for 'Raccy Disenjoyment Simulator'. I've dropped games in the past for similar reasons (coughs heavily in Don't Starve) or otherwise avoided them (coughs heavily in Dying Light) because I just don't gel with the typical Open-World or Semi-Open-World genre. Most trend too much toward 'Here's twenty-eight different sub-objectives, only one of which progresses the plot', and after a period I get bored and overwhelmed.

Starbound Frackin' was my big epiphany moment for why I stick with some games over others: I require a feeling of Progression that I simply don't get from completing three of twenty-summat objectives in a single Stream. During that project, the worst-feeling Streams I had were the ones where I had an objective in mind and did not meet it because I got distracted by exploring planets and gallivanting, and it left a foul taste in my mouth. I often felt I made zero progress outside sating some wanderlust. Comparatively, the Streams I felt most satisfied were the ones where I puzzled out systems or got to fighting tough enemies; I felt accomplished building an entire Liquid Conversion System, I felt accomplished fighting and defeating the C'thulhuan Elder Gods. It's the same reason why I enjoy Terraria over Minecraft, Enshrouded over Skyrim: it feels less like aimlessly meandering and more like... well, an adventure. And I do get that me bashing Skyrim like that will piss someone off, but when was the last time you played Skyrim without Mods, ah?

I'm digressing... more to the Titlecard, one such exchange I had with Dreamy and Auxe to assess what to draw went around the lines of 'If you wanted to represent Abiotic Factor properly, it should be Raccy Gets Lost Simulator'. I broke laughing; if I had a dime for every time I uttered the words 'Where are you?'/'Where am I?'/'I'm lost.', I could fly out to the UK, buy the three of us dinner at a michelin star restaurant AND still have enough to give an adequate tip. So many places feel same-y, despite the game taking place in a pretty varied lab building, and I've demonstrated time and again I have the propensity to get lost in a straight line. If it weren't for Dreamy's practically eidetic memory for locations, I would have dropped this game an hour in.

But because I have her to rely on, and Auxe as well in the cases where Dreamy and I are both operating blind, it's become a lot more enjoyable~ I can't really recommend Abiotic outside playing it with close friends, though; too much of a trust exercise for randos, and the sheer amount of things you have to memorize by yourself (the maps, my gods. You are not shown where you are on the maps, and they are as featureless and nigh worthless as you can get) might evoke positive emotions from an Open-World buff, but I am the antithesis of that.

If you like that Genre, or otherwise want an expanded iteration of Half-Life, give it a go~