Originally released in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive Factotum or Factotum 90 as it's now called makes its debut on the Xbox One. But has this Indie puzzler been worth the wait?
When you're travelling in deep space the last thing you want is to have something collide with your spaceship and knock all primary systems offline. Realising you are up shit creek without a raffle you put out a ship wide call for help and by a stroke of luck there is someone else aboard who agrees to help you. This is the basic premise for Factotum 90. It's not the most unique story but what comes next is.
As I said above what happens next is unique and as far as I'm aware a one new kind. You're presented with a dual screen setup. In each screen there is a robot that you must use to solve the game's puzzles so you can progress to the next level of which there are 30. The thinking behind the dual screen layout becomes clear once you realise that you can only control one robot at a time. This might sound complicated but TACS Games have set the controls up simply so switching between the two robots is just a matter of pressing Y. When that is used the robot you are currently using shuts down wherever it's standing. Other commands allow you to pick up boxes with a press of the X button, pressing the A button activates terminals and if you get your robot stuck a quick press of the B button will respawn your robot to the starting point. Unsurprisingly the left quick controls movement while the RT increases your robot's speed with LT decreasing speed. That's as complicated as the controls get.
Each level presents you with a puzzle that may involve moving boxes around to trigger switches or deflecting a tight beam to blow something up and even travelling through portals. How long each level lasts you will depend on your ability to look at a situation and work out the easiest and quickest way to solve it. Hidden around each level is a a data thingy that you can collect. They don't really add anything to the gameplay and they are easy to spot.
The engine running Factotum 90 has been rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of the extra grunt the Xbox One provides. I must admit to laughing when I first booted the game up. Factotum 90 isn't going to win any beauty contests. It's wasn't until I'd played the game for a long time that I started to appreciate what TACS Games are trying to do here. You remember what happened to old video tapes when they started to wear out? Anytime you watched an old tape after a while it would become fuzzy and would pop and crackle with noise. This is used to great effect here and adds to the feeling of being stuck aboard a ship with failing power. As I've said time and time again, good graphics don't mean anything if the gameplay is garbage. The soundtrack is bloody annoying though and it becomes annoying very, very quickly. It's just a string of robots beeping and whistling on repeat.
I have to congratulate TACS Games on what has been achieved here considering everything has been done by a one man team. It may be short and the puzzles might not be the most taxing but what is here is great fun and for the bargain price of £4.79 you would be missing a trick to pass this sedate puzzler up.
Formats Reviewed: Xbox One
Publisher: TACS Games
Developer: TACS Games
Factotum 90 is available now for £4.79
Review code supplied by XCN.