SHENZHEN I/O

game is so good that it makes me me want to go to a province, away from electronics and society, plant a tree, build a farm, take care of animals, start a family and drink a coffee on a peaceful warm place

TL;DR: 7.5 / 10 Unless you're super into (a) old-school circuit hardware programming or (b) Guangdong city names, this is not the game to start your Zachtronics journey. If you've already gleefully set out on that journey of engineering optimization, Shenzhen I/O is a worthy trail to follow. There's no logical justification for my complaints about the work-like nature of Papers, Please but celebration of Shenzhen I/O, considering it's the workiest Zachtronics game yet. It lacks the fun visuals and implicit programming of SpaceChem/Infinifactory or the weird directional coding of TIS-80. I mean, the game strongly encourages you to build an IRL binder with dozens of realistic component datasheets, for fork's sake. But crucially, if it's work, it's the exact sort of work I cherish doing. Plus, unlike real work, there's no corporate red tape or impending deadlines. Just interesting problems to solve, and a frustratingly limited (ergo rewarding) toolset with which to solve them. As is the Zachtronics way, even though the game could get by on the strength of the puzzles, the corporate plot and characters layered around them pull me in closer. Nothing extraordinary, but the exaggerated personalities are funny, believable, and relatable. I imagine anyone who's worked in tech [read: the only people who might play this game] will see their colleagues in the caricatures. I found myself chuckling far more than I do with games that make comedy a priority. At least until the *SPOILER ALERT* second act, where all the fun personalities disappear. For many, that dwindling fun will be compounded by a colossal jump in difficulty in an already challenging game. Players who weren't accumulating design patterns, hacks, and ways to cheese the easy levels into using fewer components and less code will find themselves entirely unprepared for the space limitations. For me, four of the last ten puzzles are among the hardest I've encountered in a Zachtronics endeavor, maybe even the hardest I've ever come across in the mainline of a video game. It's easy to see why less than 1% of players finish the whole campaign, and I suspect that tiny fraction is propped up by achievement-seekers following walkthroughs. For those without the patience or coding experience to face the challenges, the package at least includes an escape: a minigame that's, honestly, the best original Solitaire variant ever.