Recently indie games have very much been on a complete tear. A goofy drug dealing simulator made by one developer launching to overthrow Ubisoft’s tentpole release of it’s year. Small teams crafting viral sensations for friend groups all around the world.

It seems like every which way you look, indie games are very much dominating the palate of gamers’ attention.

However one game that has released recently that stands out more than many others is Abiotic Factor, a survival-crafting experience with rich cooperative features.

In many ways, it shares similarities to hits like Lethal Company and Content Warning, in which you are thrust unwittingly into an extremely hostile environment and left to your own devices for survival.

Monsters lurking within. Science experiments gone terribly wrong. Hints of greater evils at play in the world. Paired with the immense depth of the game’s systems and -again- rich cooperative features, you would think Abiotic would skyrocket to success just like these other fun romps, right?

Well, sort of. By no means does the game seem like a failure. It peaked at 29,000 players on Steam when it released in July of last year and was positioned as not only a PS plus ‘freebie’ upon it’s launch, but was also binded to an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Also, it has consistently been receiving updates ever since last summer and has a full story DLC on it’s way in the fall.

So the game certainly isn’t a failure. However I do feel the game never truly blew up like the other games did.

Perhaps it’s because the retro-style graphics. That is certainly what most people diagnose when assessing the same question.

However I think it’s always necessary to dig deeper than this. Yes, the game very much has a nicher art style, but that hasn’t stopped games like R.E.P.O or Lethal Company from finding their nitrous.

So why does Abiotic Factor still remain underrated after nearly a year out in the wild? I think it mostly comes down to the great things that separate it from the viral sensations we’ve seen emerge in the last couple years.

Instead of snappy, cyclical thrills and edge-of-your-seat tension, the game very much pushes you to slow down and go at your own pace. You aren’t going to see excitingly terrifying monsters the first time you play. You aren’t going to discover the most breathtaking or interesting environments.

However, you will be be crawling through vents, assembling yourself an assortment of tools in order to progress deeper into the facility and piecing together exactly what it is you must do.

From the storytelling, to the exploration and combat, the game is very much built around the design and ideas of improvisation and further immersion.

You grow and evolve to master the game’s levels, to construct cozy homes that only grow livelier and industrial as you pour more and more effort into the world. The once terrifyingly confusing environments become walks in the park.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. Full credit to u/oldschool_potato on Reddit.

Growth, patience and experience. These are all the things that make Abiotic Factor so great. But they are also exactly what keeps it from catching it’s own virality.

And yes, the retro-style graphics. Ultimately when a game like this has such an emphasis on leisure paired with an initial hurdle such as this, it just does weaken it’s market potential in the whole ‘online world.’

Also, I do think it’s worth mentioning that it’s position as a survival crafting experience has dealt some damage in this regard as well. It is an extremely crowded genre, with troves of games attempting to do very similar things.

They have of course found only varying levels of success and meet differing levels of quality, but it is a genre many have at least attempted before.

At the end of the day, I think Abiotic Factor absolutely masters so many areas in which it undertakes. Survival. Crafting. Cooperative quirkiness. Atmosphere. The game truly is a marvel.

And although it’s reasonable to believe Abiotic would course the same paths other coop hits have traveled, it’s all the more clear to see exactly why it’s carved it’s own.