It’s such an overcrowded genre isn’t it? I mean it’s ridiculous how many top down games there are out there… I’ve played so many now, they just blend into each other.
Are there any top down games that do something different (or the same but really really well). For example, my last really positive experiences with this format were Desperados 3 and Shadow Gambit The Cursed Crew.
The game defined the factory builder genre. Everything that followed (Dyson sphere project, satisfactory, shapez, etc etc etc) came after factorio (nicknamed cracktorio because of its addictive qualities) was released.
Gameplay wise it’s a top down with some vehicles and weapons, which is not unique at all, but the core of the gameplay loop was unique and spawned an entire sub genre of build games.
For the akshuallys in the room, it is possible that there were factory line builders before factorio that I’m not aware of, but none had the depth and breadth and definitely none were as popular/iconic.