Melt Them All Reviews

An automation game that pulls it down to the root: conveyers, furnaces, and the monsters we melted along the way

Very fresh take on the genera with a whole lot of potential. Looking forward to see the growth with the engaged developer!

A mash up of basic automation/base defense and rogue-lite shooter with progressive unlocks. Given the cost of the game is under £2 it's very understandable that none of the above is nowhere near as in-depth as their respective big brothers. That said, the synergy works well and you get the constant pressure of enemy attacks with the building of automation and defensive structures. There's a little jank in the gameplay, nothing serious and easily resolved so I hope the developer comes back and applies some love and polish to the game. Yet, I again fall back to the price, I enjoyed my first hour and will come back for more which is enough for me and hopefully will be enough for you (Dev deserves a bit more exposure and sales for their efforts).

I want to like the game. It's just so buggy, and the only mechanics that seems to work are the combat and power generation. Mining drills don't do anything unlike what is shown in the trailer. Conveyor belts get stuck, but that might be because they get clogged up since the crushers and smelters won't accept any items from the belts. I really can't tell because there are so many items on the ground since I have to do everything manually. Maybe there is something I am doing wrong, but I wouldn't know because there is little information on how to actually play the game. If the stated issues are fixed and the game becomes fun and playable, I will change my review.

I hesitate to recommend this game, because either most of its mechanics don't function, or the tutorial does a very poor job of suggesting to you how they might work. It looks like it could be, at some point, a very interesting blend of a survivor game, a tower defense game, and an automation game. It currently is mostly a survivor game and tower defense game. This game isn't marked as Early Access, but it should be. OTOH, the game is very cheap. And I got it on sale as well. Is it a tower defense and survivor game that's worth $2? Probably. Could it be a better game that's worth $15 or $20? Definitely. If the automation mechanics actually worked, and it had a better way of teaching you how the game worked, and a good artist spruced up the graphics considerably, this could be a very interesting game. Also, I played an hour of this game on the Steam Deck, and I couldn't figure out how to destroy a building. I think I could now that I see that using keyboard and mouse, it's basically what happens if you hold down the rotate button. That could be made clearer in the window that tells you what the controls do on the Steam Deck. If this game goes up to being more than $2, I will change my review to negative.

[h1] A Factorio-like Tower Defense [/h1] [i] The creatures are swarming in, but little do they know what defenses I have in store for them. My turrets mow them down, while the conveyor belts sweep their bodies off to be ground down to fuel my turrets further. The beautiful circle of life... [/i] Melt Them All is a tower defense game that borrows heavily from games like Factorio. While the game doesn't have the in-depth mining/crafting of Factorio, it instead presents a stripped-down/simplified version that goes like this: Kill monsters, monsters bodies can be mined for ore, ore can be smelted to generate power and give you money, money and power are used to create various buildings and keep them running. You won't have every building type unlocked right away. After every wave you'll be given the option to select an upgrade, and certain waves bring about an option to unlock the next building. For a quick rundown: Pros: Simple to learn, difficult to master: The game offers an easy to pick up rogue-lite style of gameplay where you start off fresh, and then power up as you go along. While there's no meta progression (the dev notes in the about section they might look at adding it if interest arises), it's a simple enough style of game with enough depth to keep it interesting from what I've seen so far. Smooth gameplay: The gameplay is smooth, and the upgrades are not only clear on what they do, but offer substantial increases. The good gameplay keeps things from being frustrating, even while you are getting your death-factory set up. And the upgrades further add to it by not being really incremental, but being pretty big increases. Whether you focus on efficiency for mining, combat, or what have you, you'll be happy with the upgrade you choose. Cons: Barebones tutorial: The tutorial is incredibly barebones. It takes the time to explain the basic controls and a handful of the starting buildings, but really doesn't offer much more. There are, even after a little bit of time playing, still some numbers, figures, and symbols that show up on screen that I'm not 100% certain what they mean. While it's not a huge detriment, it is a bit frustrating as I'm certain some of these icons are supposed to explain why certain things are happening or why I can't do certain things. Overall I'd recommend it. For 2 bucks it's a fun little game. I could easily see myself coming back from time to time to build up a new death machine and shoot some baddies!