Sixty Four is a strategy idle game by Oleg Danilov that lets you turn simple machines into a beautiful and thriving factory. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Sixty Four Review Overview
Sixty Four Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Great Art Style Creative Idle Game Design |
Music is Nonexistent Creative Storytelling Falls Flat Major Pacing Plateaus |
Sixty Four Overall - 72/100
Sixty Four is a creative and stylish approach to a genre that is, by design, not the most engaging. While it certainly has more substance than most idle games, it feels like a hollow construct—beautifully crafted and well-designed to boot, but completely soulless. With its amazing aesthetics and middling game design, I’d better appreciate this as a work of art than as a video game.
Sixty Four Story - 6/10
Sixty Four’s story earns some points for being somewhat creative in its presentation, although its actual content leaves a lot to be desired. Moreover, the necessity of a story in an idle/factory game is questionable at best, and I’ve half a mind to think that it’d have been better off without one.
Sixty Four Gameplay - 8/10
Sixty Four is an isometric 3D idler that utilizes its medium to its fullest potential. It blends the factory and idle aspects of its mixed genre extremely well without using a single conveyor belt—a feat that I think warrants some praise. If you have the patience to overcome the game’s massive plateaus in progression, this might just be the perfect factory/idler for you.
Sixty Four Visuals - 9/10
Sixty Four is a unique visual experience through and through, providing a sleek and stylish look that I haven’t seen used for this type of game before. It’s reaching Monument Valley status in cubist design, and I’m all for it.
Sixty Four Audio - 5/10
I’d say that Sixty Four’s audio isn’t the best, but calling it nonexistent is a better way to describe it. The complete lack of background music eats into this game’s experience, making the game an auditory disappointment despite being a visual feast.
Sixty Four Value for Money - 8/10
Sixty Four has no microtransactions, ads, or any other pricing gimmick that its idle game brethren seem to rely on. Instead, it asks for a small, one-time payment of $5.39, which is well worth its value despite its less-than-perfect story and audio. Tens of hours of stylish, factory-style idle game for the price of a burger? Sounds like a good deal to me.
Sixty Four Review: More Style Than Substance
Factory and idle games will always be special in my heart because I enjoy planning and efficiency. Although there are a few standout cases, games from these genres tend to look the same. Factory games almost always have an industrialist look with snaking conveyor belts and vaguely futuristic machinery. Idle games usually have minimal game mechanics apart from the ones that make the numbers go up, and—if you’re lucky—you might even get a mini-game.
Sixty Four fits both of these genres, though I’d be lying if I told you that I knew that right away. With a complete lack of conveyor belts and barely any numbers to speak of, this game tests the limits of what is and isn’t considered a factory game. So, with all that out of the way, let’s sink our extractors into the earth and refine these muddled thoughts into a review of what I think is the most visually stimulating factory/idle game of our time.
Sixty Four’s premise is rather simple…or at least it starts that way. You press down on a lone extractor to cause massive cubes to erupt from the ground. After doing this for a bit, you can break the cubes, which turn into Charonite, the first of Sixty Four’s oddly-named currencies. You’ll be using this, along with a whole color wheel of cubes, to buy additional machines to refine this simple loop of digging and breaking. As far as game mechanics go, this is about as simple as it gets.
Eventually, newer and newer cubes will pop out from the ground, granting you a new currency to work with and a whole slew of new machines to go with them. These new machines will automate mundane parts of the loop that required your attention previously, but a few of them also transpose certain cube colors into others. As you’ll see much later, this will be a necessary step in expanding your factory.
After a while, your automation will reach critical mass, and your factory will be completely hands-off, allowing you to roam the white void surrounding your initial starting point. While a white void usually spells laze and/or lack of quality when it comes to game aesthetics, it oddly works for Sixty Four, serving as the antithesis to the sleek, yet visually noisy, look of the cubes and machines. Certain points of interest can be seen far in the outer reaches of this void. I won’t spoil what they’re for so you can experience it for yourself, but rest assured that they’ll be important for the game’s progression.
There is currently no end in sight for Sixty Four—exactly what I expected for an idle game—although it isn’t such a smooth ride that I’d want this to keep going forever. While the game does pretty well as an idler, some of its "factory" mechanics aren’t the best. For one thing, due to the game’s isometric view, machines can often overlap each other, making it darn near impossible to interact with a smaller machine when a bigger one is built closer to the player’s POV. They have a tool just for this, though it isn’t that helpful from an overseer’s view because it only highlights an overlapped machine when moused over. A machine could be running on empty without you ever knowing.
Another aspect that Sixty Four falls flat with is its story. Honestly, it was a bold decision to have a story at all considering this game’s genre. I’d appreciate it more if it were more engaging. This game’s story is told through phone messages shown at the bottom left of the screen. Nothing is happening here, lore-wise, you’re just a guy who was teleported from the real world into this empty space. Your friends are looking for you, and time passes faster here, but apart from that, it’s pretty much just filler text.
Audio-wise, I think this game’s sound design is passable. It’s nothing special and it works for the setting, though it does get a bit grating the longer you listen to it. Trust me, it’s constant. Turning for the worse, however, this game has no background music to speak of. All you hear is blocks breaking and machines humming. It’s fine for some discount ASMR, but honestly, it becomes annoying before long.
And that’s Sixty Four in a cube-shaped nutshell. It’s a great-looking game with unique visuals and simple, satisfying gameplay. Although it falls flat in terms of audio and story, its unique look and creative approach to the idle and factory genres make it a standout. As it is now, however, it’s more an art piece than a game.
Pros of Sixty Four
| Things Sixty Four Got Right |
|---|
|
Great Art Style Creative Idle Game Design |
Great Art Style
I’ve said it before, but this game stands out with how it presents itself. The "machines" aren’t just ramshackle creations designed to evoke some kind of industrial purpose, they’re also miniature art pieces that I could look at all day, even without the impetus of an idle game.
They look like they came straight out of Monument Valley and crashlanded into Factorio, which is an aesthetic that I didn’t even fathom until now. The game’s art direction is so sleek and homogenous that nothing looks out of place unless it was meant to—an observation that somehow extends to the game’s innumerable solid-colored blocks.
Creative Idle Game Design
Idle games aren’t hard to make, that much is a fact. If the goal of the game is just to make the numbers go up, any amateur game dev can make it happen. Sixty Four is unique in this regard because it doesn’t just focus on giving you that dopamine hit from reaching a million blocks for the first time. Sixty Four is also a factory game, meaning resource management is the least of your worries. Due to the non-stackable nature of machines (outside of upgrades), knowing how to space out your machines to increase productivity is also key.
There are also a few gimmick blocks like Hell Gems that interact with the cubes in ways I’ve never seen before in an idle game. Simply put, Sixty Four fully utilizes the isometric 3D aspect of its design to keep its gameplay fresh and exciting in a genre saturated with unfun tropes.
Cons of Sixty Four
| Things That Sixty Four Can Improve |
|---|
|
Music is Nonexistent Creative Storytelling Falls Flat Major Pacing Plateaus |
Music is Nonexistent
I mean, this game has no music. There is no slider to turn it up or a way to mute it because there is simply no background track. That’s not to say that this game has no sound because it does, it’s just that these sounds come from your machines and WILL become annoying before long. Don’t get me wrong, I love how real the machines sound despite looking like public art, but if that’s all you’re going to hear for hours, you’re better off playing music in another tab.
Creative Storytelling Falls Flat
I, for one, enjoy it very much when game devs choose to get creative and break the mold because it keeps the medium fresh. What I don’t like is when these bold choices don’t pay off and make the final product look…incompetent, or at the very least unfinished. Sixty Four’s story, while creatively presented, is a nothing burrito that doesn’t really go anywhere. You’d think that it does because some plot points do start to develop, but the main character just shrugs everything off and carries on as if nothing happened.
I don’t think this game needed a story to go with it. I’d even go as far as to say that it’d have been better off without one.
Major Pacing Plateaus
Plateauing numbers is a mainstay of idle games because that’s where the game’s challenge—and by extension its fun—can be found. Although most idle games prefer to use meta-progression so they won’t have to plateau the numbers too hard, Sixty Four chose to do exactly that.
At some point, despite your efficient factory management, your production will come to a screeching halt in the face of an unreachable goal, and you’re going to have to spend an ungodly amount of time to reach it. Such is an idle game, I suppose, although I wouldn’t have been opposed to a mete-progression system instead of a massive plateau.
Is Sixty Four Worth It?
Yes, It Doesn’t Cost Much But Gives Much in Return
Idle games are usually free-to-play, relying on microtransactions, cosmetics, and/or ad revenue to turn a profit. Sixty Four only asks for a one-time payment of $5.39, which may seem like a lot for an idle game, but you won’t ever have to pay a cent more to keep enjoying its unique style. No boosts, time skips, or expensive meta-progression currencies are necessary. Sure, it’s not perfect in its presentation, but for the price of a quick snack, there are certainly worse games to play.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
$5.39 |
Sixty Four Overview & Premise
Sixty Four is an idle/factory game where you turn cubes into currencies and vice versa. Create a thriving factory full of unique machines and colorful creations to achieve maximum productivity in style. You’re not quite sure how you got stuck here making a factory, however, and a way out may be waiting for you yet. Until then, best you put these cubes to good use.
Sixty Four FAQ
How Do I Harvest Hell Gems Faster in Sixty Four?
Once you start unearthing Hell Gems, you'll soon realize that they take much longer to harvest. To expedite the process, save up enough Hell Gems to make a Hell Gem Destabilizer, which multiplies the harvest speed for cubes that have Hell Gems by 625.
Sixty Four Product Information
 |
|
| Title | SIXTY FOUR |
|---|---|
| Release Date | March 5, 2024 |
| Developer | Oleg Danilov |
| Publisher | Playsaurus |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Idle, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | N/A |
