The Artifactory

Craft it, box it, ship it, before the conveyor belt jams again: The Artifactory is a $19.99 chaotic couch co-op game from Berries Studios, released 10 March 2026, dropping up to four players into a magical, constantly-malfunctioning factory. This review draws on a sample of 17 lifetime reviews, Mostly Positive with 13 positive against 4 negative, and reads the full sample in detail.

Genuine charm, reviewers agree on it

This review's sample was consistent in praising the game's presentation and tone. Reviewers independently called the visuals "really well detailed," the cartoon style "funny," and praised "lots of small visual jokes that make it enjoyable even when things get chaotic." This review reads that consistency as a real, reliable strength rather than a coincidence of a small sample.

Co-op that actually lands, across ages and relationships

This review's sample repeatedly confirmed the game delivers on its central promise of shared, chaotic fun. One reviewer described playing with their son, who "really enjoyed it also," while several others independently reported playing with a partner and planning to see the game through to the end together. This review reads that breadth, spanning parent-child and couple co-op alike, as evidence the appeal isn't narrow.

Standing in a crowded, well-loved genre

This review's sample repeatedly and directly invoked Overcooked and It Takes Two as points of comparison, generally to the new game's credit. One reviewer praised how the gameplay "stays exciting without becoming frustrating, which is refreshing," adding that "good local co-op games are rare, and this one is incredible." This review reads that framing as broadly earned: the factory-crafting twist on the chaotic-kitchen formula gives the game its own identity even while clearly following an established, well-loved template.

A specific, repeated complaint about item placement

Set against that praise, this review's sample raised a specific, recurring technical complaint about how crafted items are placed into boxes. Reviewers independently described items snapping "to another spot" instead of where intended, with one detailing a workaround of picking up the box before the item, since the default interaction order "discourages last second, clutch preparations because each delivery has to be put in a box and the box has to be closed."

Conveyor belts that break down too often

This review's sample also raised a specific, repeated complaint about the factory's central hazard mechanic: conveyor belts breaking down at a pace several reviewers found excessive and poorly paced. One reviewer noted plainly, "there's no cooldown timer for having to fix conveyor belts and it seems to break down at fixed times (very often)," a complaint echoed by other reviewers describing the belts as breaking "way too often."

Bugs a long-term player says never went away

This review's sample included one especially significant account from a reviewer with 22.8 hours logged, among the highest playtime in the sample. Despite continuing to enjoy the underlying concept, they reported that "the bugs are biblical level" and specifically noted that "basic control bugs aren't fixed" a full six months after their first session, ultimately changing their own review from positive to negative. This review treats that account as the clearest available evidence that the control and reliability complaints raised elsewhere in the sample are not simply early-access-style teething problems that patches quietly resolved.

A steady, real patch history that hasn't closed the gap

This review checked the store's own partner events feed directly and confirmed a genuine, ongoing sequence of post-launch support, including a "Locked Map and Localizations Hotfix" on launch day itself, a macOS release less than two weeks later, and an "Achieve More, Break Less" update named specifically after the game's bug situation on 17 April 2026. This review reads that title choice as the developer's own acknowledgment of the problem, and notes the sample's longest-playtime reviewer still reported unresolved control bugs months after several of these updates had already shipped.

A strong accessibility and multiplayer feature set

This review checked the store's own category data directly and confirmed a genuinely strong offering here, including full controller support, Custom Volume Controls, Playable without Timed Input, and Remote Play Together for co-op with friends who aren't sharing a couch. This review notes that feature set as a real positive independent of the game's other quality issues.

A steep drop-off toward full completion

This review checked the Steam global achievement API directly and found a real, steep completion curve across the game's 24 tracked achievements. While roughly 60 percent of players earn early milestones like crafting their first Epic item or completing a repair, that number falls off sharply toward the harder goals: just 1.7 percent have earned three stars on every level, and completing the full legendary-item and hero rosters sits at 0.3 and 1.2 percent respectively. This review reads that curve alongside the sample's own comments about wanting to keep playing to "secure 3 stars in all of the levels," suggesting genuine, if demanding, longevity for groups who stick with the game despite its rough edges, even as most players evidently don't make it that far.

Verdict

The Artifactory gets the emotional core of a good couch co-op game right: it's charming, genuinely funny, and reviewers across different relationships and age groups report real shared enjoyment. But the same sample is consistent and specific about the jank sitting underneath that charm, snapping item placement, overly frequent conveyor breakdowns, and, most tellingly, a long-term player's report that core control bugs remained six months after launch despite a real, ongoing patch effort. This review recommends it cautiously to co-op groups specifically chasing the Overcooked formula in fantasy dress, with the clear caveat that the bugs its own most invested reviewer describes haven't gone away.