Shapez 2 has quickly established itself as one of the better factory sims to roll off the games industry's colossal imagination assembly line. A more focussed, yet still expansive game of automation and optimisation, Shapez 2 gives you the scale of Factorio, but removes concerns like building-destroying enemies and paying for structures with resources. Released into early access last year, it was already an accomplished affair, but now it has received a substantial update that lets you shape your factory in whole new ways.
The Dimension update relates not to the mysterious cosmic hole that your factory feeds an endless churn of LEGO-like studs into, but instead refers to the fact you can now build in 3D. This was possible to a limited extent previously—you could construct buildings on multiple levels—but the update extends this feature to foundational platforms, conveyor belts, pipes, and rails for trains.
On the subject of trains, the update improves these mechanical beasts of burden in numerous ways. Visually, it expands the colour palette for locomotives to help you differentiate them at a glance. At a mechanical level, the update adds transfer stations, which let you shift resources directly from one train to another, as well as two new types of train station. The first of these are "quick stops", which only stop trains that can load or unload instantly, while "wait stops" allow a train to load and unload for up to 30 seconds.
Other additions include a tweak to launchers—which fire your shapes over other assembly lines for more efficient factory layouts—to let you customise their range to a certain extent. There are also new platform types and a more efficient method for searching for shapes on the map. Finally, the interface has received a significant overhaul, with new hotkeys for game functions and improved contextual placement, such as launchers being laid out automatically when dragging the cursor across existing conveyor belts.
All this arrives alongside visual improvements and an array of bug fixes. It's a respectable extension of the game's systems, although developer tobspr Games stress that all this comes at a small cost. While savegames from the previous version are compatible "with a few caveats"—mainly requiring you to replace any tunnels you had in your factory, any savegames older than that will not be compatible at all. Tobspr notes that "you can load them into the 0.0.9 branch on Steam first and then import them into this update if you really want to continue them", but it sounds like you'd be better off just starting a new game.
To coincide with the update, tobspr Games is also running a 30% discount until Tuesday, June 10, bringing the price down to $17.50 (£14). So if you've been curious about the game up to this point, but decided 25 dollars was a little steep for an early access title, now might be the time to take the plunge.
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