For those of you that have been wondering, I am still alive. It’s fine, the COVID bug has not got me (… sorry MrsPsycho, the life insurance is safe …) but I have been back to work and finally back in the most comfortable moving chair. What I have also been doing, is playing Production Line again.
If you have never seen Production Line, it is from Positech Games. The idea is to build yourself a car production line that is successful, and better than your AI opponents. The actual playing of the game is more complex than that very quick synopsis suggests and can have a steep learning curve.
If you are waiting for them to release Democracy 4, maybe this will fill your time for a short while before hand.
Since it’s release back in March 2019, Production Line has come a little of the way. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a little more development to it. This does not mean that I don’t like it though. I am really enjoying the change of pace from Grounded and Cities:Skylines.
A Starter for Ten
If you are just starting out with the game then you probably want to start with the basic sandbox. You battle the AI to research new features and keep your cars profitable as they sell through your showroom. Once you get the hang of things, there are scenarios where you have to complete for victory, like in the one above.
There are a number of game-modes that are available from the start, rather than locked behind a progression wall. This is something that I think is good from the offset, you are probably going to struggle for the first few attempts to make at building your car production line. You will certainly go close to bankruptcy in game number 1.
This game is a bit like Big Pharma, so you might know the routine. Optimise the factory layout, research quicker ways to do things. You have new machines, new upgrades and THEN, new models of cars and manufacturing your own parts.
Sometimes it’s just Rinse and Repeat
For me, the plan is usually the same, get the efficiency in place and then add the features. To be fair it is not usually a problem. Just because my car does not have central locking, I just adjust the price to make it more financially attractive. You might do it differently though, and cheating with the “Sandbox and Everything Unlocked” option might be your friend.
If you are OCD about making things symmetrical then good luck. This game is about getting as much in at the right time to get the cars flowing efficiently. This game is also about making sure you do not go bust and that your cars are priced just right… all the time. I find I am tweaking my strategy and pricing for cars every few game hours. Sometimes I am upgrading through two or three iterations of a car model in a day.
You are constantly looking through the detail, the must have items in your cars to make them attractive, compared to the must have items that the AI competitors have made essential.
This is a big difference to the slower life games of Cities:Skylines, Transport Fever (1 & 2) – you will not always have time to think and running the game on the fastest speed will constantly having you itch for the pause button. If you watch my Twitch stream then you already guessed; Slow does not do pause.
What I Like about Production Line
This is a micro-management game for when I want to lose myself for hours into mind-numbing, in-head, number crunching. I want my production line to not get backed up with cars because the lads in the paint shop take 20 minutes to wipe away the fingerprints.
What I like more about that though, is that once you look like you are starting to win the war, the game starts to throw you curved balls. I won’t spoil the surprise, you have to buy the game to see what starts to happen. Don’t fix things and they can cause you a scenario loss.
This can be a rapid-fire micro-management game if you want it to be. I like the fact that I can spend half an hour tweaking the details of 6 or 7 different car models. I also like that I can just sit there for a minute and watch the machines working through a stream of waiting cars.
What I would Like to See Better
You know what this missing? A chance to expand even more. The game had a DLC where there were more elements to add to your vehicles. There does not seem to be much on the horizon in terms of new and improved stuff.
A bit like Airport CEO, you could have multiple floors. Maybe you would have staff rooms above the production floor. The workers then working the research offices and the production line could have some sort of working boost.
You then also have some of the “rot setting in” sort of things that could so much be in need of a re-work. The music playlist is small. I like the music, MrsPsycho likes the music.
The music has also been thought about; when you zoom out the music is set to sound like you are in the marketing office or on the showroom floor, but as you zoom in to the production line floor it much quieter so you can hear the machines working.
The problem is that by the end of the first hour you will have heard the same few tracks multiple times.
It’s Been Good for….
…. probably about another 10 hours. With no recent motivation to stream, Production Line has filled that hole nicely, alongside a few other games.
There is not enough to grab my attention more though. The last 18 months have had some updates, there has been a DLC that I am not motivated enough to buy, and my brain was challenged but not enough.
I really would like to see more development on Production Line. It needs something to keep my attention and maybe get me buying the DLC I missed.
Production Line from Positech Games is around £20 and available on the Steam Store