Is it already strictly better than Shapez 1?

[ÆtherNomad]

I haven't played Shapez 1 and am wondering if I should go straight to Shapez 2 without any regret. I know Shapez 2 is in early access and that's why I'm wondering if anything in it is still missing that Shapez 1 already has. Thoughts?

[tasadar]

I grabbed Shapez 1 knowing 2 was coming out. The UI and responsiveness of the game just weren't doing it for me having had however many years of updates and QOL going into Factorio and everything else. Shapez 2 was immediately very responsive.

Shapez 2 is already quite fun and I've burned 28 hours on it already, and I look forward to burning out on it, coming back in a year or two and finding the game even more polished and developed.

[Filter62]

You may see Shapez 1 as early prototype for Shapez 2, I would say you don't lose anything by playing second first. But I guess if you want to check them both, play Shapez 1 first, because I doubt you could play it again after playing second. XD

[wake]

they're very different games. I view Shapez 1 as more of a puzzle game, not a factory game. You're doing lots of the same things, but yeah, this one is just leaps and bounds better. It's a fundamentally different game, not really a sequel. I get why they titled it as one, but this is definitely not one of the types of games where there's any reason to play the first before the second (and you're not missing anything, like there's nothing in the first game that's yet to be implemented or something like that)

[Ookamiko]

If I can suggest something since I played the 1 and 2, if you want to buy one, buy the 2. Like wake said, those games are different even if the "goals" seems to be the same and the 2 bring some complexity in your factory making than the 1 don't have.
An other reason for buying the 2 rather than the 1 is because the 1 is available online for free on the creator website (shapez.io). You can go with this free version until the final milestone but you can't unlock the cables (use for automating your factory).

[Vesperion]

Main difference is of course the view where Shapez (got it for free at Epic a good long time ago) has only a top down view while Shapez 2 has 3D with additional layers we now can build our lines on.

Also another main difference is that we no work with platforms where Shapez had an infinite building ground so we are a bit more "restricted" due of the platform sizes while still have enough to try and find optimal placment for best efficiency in each line for the shapes we need to build.

Aside from that both games play mostly the same just that Shapez 2 has some additional stuff like the Pin Pusher and trains for transport. The ultimate challenge however in both games is at the end to build a so called MaM (Make anything Machine) that basically can produce any shape the Base/Vortex asks you for.

[Hanover]

It's less tedious. The platforms let you separate multiple factories in a more organize way. You can blueprint the platforms/factories. The tasks and milestones are more progressive so you don't constantly wipe-out and start over.

Space trains. Yes, space trains! They can transport and unload stuff from your platforms/factories. It's seems to focus more on the fun part of building which, to me, is assembling the parts you've already made into different things.

Did I mention the space trains?

My biggest gripe with Shapez 1 is that it was on us to really come up with a system and find a area to store your blueprints. This gives you all the tools you need.

[GrandfatherBones]

Shapez 1 is a great game
Shapez 2 is 37% better

[Shabazza]

1 was and is good.
2 is not so different really, but more fun for me due to the excellent blueprint system
and thought through controls and overall smoothness of the interactions.
It still needs some QoL updates for world view mode, labels and a bit more flexibility for trains loading and unloading, But hey. We will get there.

[Hanover]

Platform-based organization is nice.

[DeckardTrinity]

I tried Shapez 1 and couldn't really get into it... it was a nice concept but not too engaging (for me). Shapez 2 adds so much to the concept that it's a completely different game and better in every way.

[Nauskills]

The visual simplicity of Shapez 1 has its own charm and can run on a toaster, but overall I'm having way more fun with Shapez 2

[禾果子 Kakashi]

I'm having more fun on the platforms in Shapez2, also the extremely fast trains.
Other base elements are not far different from Shapez.io, only flippable machines are extremely handy compare to the fixed machines in vanilla .io while mods are needed for flipped machines.