#IndieSelect: Factotum 90 (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Factotum 90 from publisher Rainy Frog and developer TACS Games for Xinthus' #IndieSelect event last week.  The game was given and received without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played within the allotted time and that the experience is shared through social media channels.  All of the words, descriptions, and screenshots unless otherwise noted were from my own playthrough.

Factotum 90 is a puzzle-based game that was first released back in 2016, but was recently received a release on the Nintendo Switch this last Thursday (March 19th, 2020).  The gimmick here is that the player controls two different characters to get both characters through environmental puzzles and into the next room and the next set of puzzles.

Wait, so I have to go where and do what now?

The overarching story here is pretty simple, in that there is a spaceship that has been hit by a foreign object shutting down various systems shipwide and it is your job to repair those damaged systems.  You control one to two small boxy utility robots throughout the ship, solving environmental puzzles and just trying to get from Point A to Point B.  But to get to Point B, there is a lot of switching back-and-forth between robots, pressing weighted buttons, back-tracking, using lasers to both activate and destroy, traveling through quantum tunnels, and recently, using bombs to access new areas and destroying barriers.  Thankfully Factotum 90 has done a great job of introducing new elements at a pace that makes approaching new puzzles manageable and never like the game is throwing too much at the player too quickly.

Connecting each stage is a human passenger, who kind of acts like you handler, giving you a little bit of context for why you are in a particular part of the ship and just background flavor.  The wonderful thing about this human is that he is fully voice acted in a soothing and charming British accent.  Where I am at in the game, I am a little afraid that he is either going to be captured (assuming that the impact of the ship was caused maliciously), or killed, but being killed seems like a long shot and a direction I do not see this game going in.

The puzzles have sometimes felt overly complicated when I first started out in a room, but then halfway through I can figure out what the solution should be and I am able to figure out the solution.  I was eternally grateful when I found out that the robots have the ability to run and I have yet to find a need to walk slower than the default speed.  There is no jumping ability so there is no real platforming perse since you have to wait for your partner to raise the platform you are standing on.  I was a little surprised that there was no option to play co-op, either local or online since this seems like it would be perfect for that format, but perhaps there is additional coding required or that the developers simply wanted to craft a more concise experience. 

At present, it looks like there are 30 levels and that honestly feels like a perfect amount for this game.  And I love that in-between levels you are shown your progress, how it relates to the geography of the ship and that the path is not just a linear one.  Although I did have a bit of a mental disconnect when I started Level 03, being above Level 02 after traveling down the service elevator.  I could see a publisher of AAA titles wanting a developer to cram in more levels so that the price of the game could be increased, or be able to tack on additional stages as DLC, but what is here feels perfect.  There is no excess that feels shoehorned into what is already a well developed and produced game.

As far as price points go, my first inkling is that $7.99 seems a little high considering that the game is regularly sold on Steam for $3.99 and maybe you could chalk that up to the Switch Tax.  I honestly feel that if the game were sold between $4.99-$5.99, that would be the sweet spot.  But the game is very well made and as previously stated, the voice acting is well done, so people do have to get paid.

You know, that is kind of it, or at least as much as I have experienced as of the writing of this article.  The game is solid, the controls are more-or-less intuitive, switching back-and-forth between the two robots is seamless.



~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
And Pull Us Through

P.S.  While writing this article I did find out that "Factotum" translates to "one who does all kinds of work" being derived from the Medieval Latin word for "do something."  Seriously cool, but then about 10 years ago I had some friends come over to the house I was living in and we stayed up until around 2 am getting drunk and discussing various etymologies.  That's the kind of person I am.  And I like it.