SHOCKING: Dr. Incompetent Foundry Review for 2024

Hello everyone how’s it going Dr incompetent here and I’d like to do a very early review of Foundry and I say early review because this is based on the Alpha version of the game it’s not even in Early Access yet but I thought I’ve been playing the game a bit and I

You know checked it out and I just wanted kind of to share my feelings and see what your impressions are so far based on not only gameplay footage I’m going to feature in this video but also I’m going to be posting a couple of episodes of a let’s play so you can

Really see me go through the tutorial and do some automation so first when I think about a review I’m going to give it a a letter grade based on its Alpha State and the potential that I see and then I’m also going to see you know

Recommend it if it’s the kind of a game that maybe you would want to play in the second portion of the review the first thing I like to do in a review is to talk about what kind of a game Foundry is it is very much if you took satisfactory and

Factorio and Dyson Sphere and put it in a voxo world allaha Minecraft I know that seems really simplistic but it’s in that wheelhouse now that could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your love of automation games and voxal games but that’s where we’re at so you see that

You have a Mech here now as far as I could tell you’re pretty pretty much in first person mode for this game I believe there is multiplayer so it’s already different from some of these automation games because they don’t quite have multiplayer but that is

What’s going on so you can like build a giant Factory in a voxal world and grow baby grow your factory if you want to do that multiplayer and that seems to be on the table here for Foundry so it’s a factory building automation game you gather resources you craft stuff you

Build a sprawling Factory and that’s what you’re doing in Foundry well what about the fun Factor the first thing I always want to talk about in the review is for me probably the most important bit which is is the game fun so far Foundry seems to be pretty fun it’s

Again everything I say here has to be taken with such an immense you know not even a grain of salt like a mountain of salt because this is the alpha build like so much of this could be overhauled streamlined fixed but just based on these Impressions and given that caveat

The game is fun if you like satisfactory you know tectonic Dyson Sphere factorio then you’re going to see that here and you’re going to get that it’s it’s so intuitive and straightforward if you’re used to those kinds of games and I think that everything is working like

You would expect and it seems pretty fun now that being said there really isn’t much in the way of a progression system in the game beyond the tech tree and there’s not too much I don’t know how big the actual area is in the Alpha version but so far I think it’s pretty

Fun now what about the controls in a game like this the controls are very important you’re going to be building it’s going to be massive scale it’s fine-tuned you want to be you know ergonomic economical efficient and you know put things exactly as you like them or if you’re like me organize your

Spaghetti in a spectacular fashion and so far the controls seem fine like I used mouse and keyboard and everything was working pretty much as expected there’s some nice quality of life stuff about placing directly from your inventory instead of having to hot bar at first things like that and again even

The key bindings themselves are like right in the domain of other automation games that you might be used to so it it is like very much if you’re if you’ve played that one of those games you can pick up and go that being said there is

Still a this stage a little bit of clunkiness with some of the the menus and the key bindings and things but I’m sure as we get closer to release they will be fine-tuned and Polished I didn’t have any big stumbling blocks but I felt like it controlled fine now what about

The systems and the UI so this is a subset of controls that I always like to talk about so for the systems you’ve got building you’ve got automation you have crafting and interaction with the environment in this first person Mech with a drill arm and all of these seem

To work pretty well I will say I don’t even know like where to put this necessarily in the review but One initial hesitation I have is you know things might need to be balanced a little bit in order to build anything you have to build platform and you need

To build these platform blocks you know which okay that’s fine but they take more resources than I wish that they did I I I almost feel like you should be able to build platform blocks for free or at some kind of unbelievable discount because you need them and it’s tedious

To just not be able to expand like in satisfactory you just put stuff down on the ground yes you can build foundations if you want it to be really level but at the beginning of the game when you don’t have that many resources you just throw it on the ground same thing with

Factorio you just put it on the ground but here it’s like because almost like tectonica the power system for you don’t have to build power lines which is awesome but it all connects through the platform which is a cool design idea but the problem is that it just takes too

Many resources for me and then also I just I don’t know of a better way to do it necessarily unless that you could build the platform almost at ground level because I don’t like the fact that I build a platform I put something on it

And then I have to jump up there to use the panel for the or to flip the inserter around or whatever you know I I don’t I don’t want to have to jump every time I get onto my platform I I know that might just be a me thing but it you

Know it’s just a it’s a small thing I I’m not even like trying to say that it’s a game breaker or anything like that but I’m just throwing suggestions out there and things that you know might need to be balanced in terms of the systems of the game and building is a

System and having to deal with a you know one brick tall platform as your ground is a thing and now that just if that doesn’t seem interesting to you then maybe that’s just me but that’s where I’m at with it and then so far like Yeah The Tech Tree it’s fine but

You know I’m not sure like I didn’t get any gamebreaking stuff again this is Alpha like I’m not getting any major improvements to myself with the first few that I built but I didn’t go that far so maybe if you go really really far you know you’re going to get those cool

Little things it’s interesting because you start out in Foundry with drones like right out of the gate they are kind of what do your mining for you which is awesome I love that design choice I really like that and Dyson does that as well to a degree but like you know for

Example at vorio it takes quite a while to get drones online but anyway I don’t want to be too harsh on this because it is Alpha it’s early and the balancing and the fine-tuning will happen I’m just trying to reveal where I’m at now with it and then what about oh actually

Another thing I want to say about the systems inside the UI there is a full breakdown of like tutorial windows and menus that explain some of the stuff which is very good obviously as we get closer and things polished those need to be made plain to the player in a more

Enjoyable fashion than just like opening up and reading windows I know that might just again be a me thing but I I like more interactive tutorials than reading menus uh but that’s just me so then they do have an interactive tutorial so far with an AI but it’s obviously it’s Alpha

So it’s pretty barebones what about the story in Foundry there’s no story and you don’t really need one in a game like this it’s about building and having fun and and growing your factory and being in a beautiful voxal world and you know having fun Solo or multiplayer all right

And then now after the story now we get into the visuals and this is one of the areas that Foundry does so well I was blown away with how amazing the voxo world looks given the scale like the size of the blocks versus the size of your Mech it’s interesting they’re

Smaller than Minecraft blocks it appears and when you see the mountains and everything it just looks fantastic it has a cartoony feel to it but at the same time I think it looks crisp vibrant I enjoy it a lot so I think the visuals are very strong in Foundry and that’s

Good to see and by the way as far as the performance went it’s great the performance for me in this game like I’m playing Alpha I had no issues at all with frame rate lag anything it was is really smooth what about the Audio I think the music is really cool in this

I’m vibing out to it the sound effects on the voice for the AI were fine the overall sound effects are just fine it’s it’s fine the sound and the audio are fine so how does this all come come together in terms of style like if you take all these elements does this game

Seem like it has a sense of style that’s unique that gives it a soul that helps it stand apart is it just like taking highlights of existing games putting them together in a formulaic way and then it’s empty well for me there is a little bit of that but that’s because

It’s Alpha so it’s like it hasn’t had time to really lean into its style and develop its identity but even with that being said I think it has a firm identity I think you’re clearly playing what it’s like they executed they told you we’re going to make you know an

Automation game in a voxal world and they did did that and it’s great so there is no confusion there is no MISD delivery or anything like that with the the vision of the game and it can only get better I think that it has its a

Feel to it it is highly inspired by other games in this space however a lot of the times you don’t need to you know reinvent the wheel if you just make a a well executed version of a of a genre that people expect and then give them something like multiplayer and Vox on

Top then I think you might be doing something right now it remains to be seen as we move into Early Access in May and then as we get closer to release what direction this takes but I like the art styling in Foundry I like the music I like the direction that they’re going

So I’m optimistic about the style the identity and the vision of the game so overall given the fact that it’s an alpha given the fact that it’s so early and I only have a limited amount of play time with it how would I grade Foundry I’m going to be very optimistic and give

This game a b so far I think it is just like a well-made game it does what it wants to do and it does it nicely I’m not like absolutely captivated like I can’t put it down or anything like that but I’m also really impressed with how

Smooth and Polished I’ve played a lot of games in Alpha and they are you know the performance is a problem the functionality is a problem and that’s not the case this is a paradox game and I have had great luck and enjoyment with Paradox games games I think they are a

Fantastic you know Development Group all the games that have that Paradox logo that I’ve played I’ve enjoyed so I’m I’m leaning into that because I trust Paradox I’m leaning into the fact that I just like automation building games and I also like boxal games so given that I

Think it’s Charming I think it’s chill I think it’s cool I am very optimistic and I give it a b even though it’s just an alpha and doesn’t have a lot of its features hasn’t been balanced on and on and on so I’d love love to know what you

Think of it based on you know what you’ve heard about the game if you’ve played any of it or if you’ve seen other people playing it or even the gameplay footage I’ve featuring what your impressions are and now I’d like to just offer a recommendation should you buy

You know this when it comes out or you should should you be putting this on your radar and wishlisting this well first of all yes wish list this to support the developers if you like what you see always but if you like factorio satisfactory Dyson and you want to do

That multiplayer voxo 100% this goes in your this is a no-brainer this is like a well-oiled Mech machine of an automation game it looks really good so I think yes Nob brainer difficulty it’s not challenging it’s not supposed to be that’s not the thing maybe if you want to pull off some

Like incredible sprawling factories it gets to be a a logic mind puzzle that melts your brain sure but it’s not like there’s enemies at least I haven’t encountered any many enemies it seems to be entirely peaceful so there’s no difficulty it’s just your own imagination in a sandbox that being said

That could totally change I haven’t even looked at the road map for the game so that could be this experience could be not indicative of the difficulty later but for now not difficult what about the value these games are like home runs for Value because if this is your bag you

Will just sink dozens if not hundreds of hours into it optimizing and growing your factory that’s just what you do it’s so satisfying to build up a huge Factory to get a big operation going to develop a tech tree to get new technology it’s just a super fun

Experience so I think the value is there and for replayability that’s also there because you can play it solo you can play it multiplayer you can start again with a fresh Factory with the knowledge that you’ve learned on a new map and try again and just see where you go so

Overall I have no problem recommending this to fans of the genre and even people who aren’t into or haven’t really tried that many automation games it seems to be more friendly and easier to get into than some you know like it’s not maybe you can dive into you know the

The voltage and the production cues and the timing of all of your elements and get that far into the Weeds on the numbers like you can in factorio and satisfactory but I didn’t do that and I was having fun with it so I think that this could

Be fun for even casual people who just want to build and play a game together but if you are fans of that the genre of automation then I think that this would be certainly something you should check out so that’s where I’m at right now with Foundry and I’m going to eagerly

Check this out as more updates drop and I’d love to know in the comments below what are your thoughts and feelings about it so far what are your impressions of it are you excited for this title have you heard about this please let me know I read all the

Comments and I’d love to chat with you about the game thank you so much for watching everyone take care