Main Assembly is great, it is a vehicle maker physics challenge game with co-op… but if you stifle a yawn and think “I have trailmakers/other equivalent and meh do I need another?” the answer is yes, you definitely do!
Main Assembly is fundametally different, what makes it stand out from the pack is that you can easily mold 3d surfaces so the game ends up playing more like a powerful intuitive 3d modelling program than yet another iteration on a vehicle lego-style block building sandbox game.
Surfaces of wings are physically modeled in their contribution to lift, they arent just cosmetic, and it is this kind of thing that makes Main Assembly simultaneously a sophisticated simulation and and immediately tactile and intuitive experience.
Controls are superb on the deck, I recommend using fmCUK’s “Usable V0.2” as a basis for a control scheme, most everything felt surprisingly intuitive given how generalist and powerful the tools are in Main Assembly.
Seriously good game, take advantage of the fact that it flew under the radar, pick it up for cheap, heck buy a copy for a friend so you have someone to play with!
Main Assembly’s (in game accessible) workshop has some seriously good stuff, like someone modeled a realistic, working Nissan gtr skyline!
The build is set up with race track rock hard suspension, but it feels really fun to drive and you can absolutely powerslide and oversteer like you would expect.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2363306440&searchtext=
Here is a sports car fully set up just waiting for a model to be built around it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196401528
This Rock Crawler is a surprisingly faithful recreation of a real life rock crawler and honestly I would believe I was playing an offroading sand crawler game if you just had me drive it with no context what game I was playing.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2381297215
Check out these other buggies, every single one of these must represent so many hours of tinkering and tweaking work because each one of them feels alive and dynamic in handling in a way most dedicated racing games fail to really capture.
Links to more buggies, there are too many good ones!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2236913323&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2366127995&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2358409325&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2377088937
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2540179178
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2276338225
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2191187219
How about an x-wing with a cockpit view?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2397845618&searchtext=
This monster truck handles REALLY good
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2170574251&searchtext=
This car is tuned to drive like a trackmania car, and it drives awesome, it is a blast to drive at high speed.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2759012431
Here is another arcadey, high performance f1-offroader hybrid, really nuanced handling with some cool suspension
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2434054909
This rally racing/small trophytruck-like vehicle doesn’t have a skin/aesthetic panels but the handling and suspension is butterrry and the workshop description indicates it has autopilot and different modes. Amazing stuff! Ridiculously fast too.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2355543998
hot wheels hot rod, handles good
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2258992409&searchtext=
Finally here is a nice, simple forklift because you always need a forklift.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2181182790&searchtext=
Or maybe a fullsize, functional truck crane!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1947787434&searchtext=
Neat! I’ll check it out. Thanks!
My takeaway here is that I need to play Trailmakers if I haven’t already.
Trailmakers is definitely very solid too, the building philosophies between the games are quite different but they are both great games.
I think it is a testament to trailmakers that it doesn’t feel hamfisted in comparison to main assembly, rather it feels like an intentionally limited construction set carefully tuned to environmental challenges in order to make tweaking fun, feel approachable and give permission to make subpar monstrosities and just wing it, tweaking as you go.
It fits the theme of trailmakers better than I realized at first. You crash land on a planet while crewing a dime-a-dozen corporate freighter. The technology you have access to from the wreckage is extraordinarily powerful but functions in very rigid systemized ways partially to allow crafting a wide variety of interoperable and compatible components but also partially because a soulless space megacorp made them lol. That being said, it feels like a fun freeing limitation in a way that emulates the play of legos well.
Does it work offline now?
Good question, I think there is a bug maybe? Development on Main Assembly stopped in 2021 (which is why I recommend MA at this pricepoint) and the bug might have never been fixed. What a shame :( the game definitely wasn’t intended to do that.
edit so I did some testing, Main Assembly exits to the menu with an error if I go from being connected to the internet to being disconnected. The game plays fine in totally offline mode or when connected to the internet, the bug (at least on my deck) arises when switching between being connected to the internet to not connected while playing.
Definitely potentially pretty frustrating, worth tolerating for how cool the game is (and for $4) but frustrating nonetheless. It is a shame development on Main Assembly stopped it has some amazing ideas and vehicle mechanics!
