Better Living Through SpaceChem Updates

For my money, überpuzzler SpaceChem is still the best indie game we've seen in 2011. You can read Wot I Think here, but don't just take my word for it- even renowned X-Men author Kieron Gillen said that it'd been a long time since he'd played something "so obviously genius".

As of this weekend, developer Zachtronics has just upended another frothing beaker of content into the deadly vat of entertainment that is SpaceChem. By which I mean they've updated it. I'm talking Team Fortress 2 tie-in items, I'm talking 12 new levels, I'm even talking about a new level editor and inbuilt sharing options to make sure there'll always be some hateful new puzzle that will paralyse your mind like a King Cobra. Details after the jump.

Here you go:

* A brand spanking new Level Editor, letting all our fans design their own research assignments
* The Journal of Reaction Engineering, delivering 12 all new levels for more mind bending challenges
* SHARE your levels with your friends through our built in web uploader
* Earn Steam Achievements if you use a Steam account, including Director of Moustache Research and Chief Executive Officer
* Compare your scores with your Steam friends Think you're better at optimizing for symbol count than your friends? Prove it!
* Three special TF2 item puzzles that grants Moustachium Alloy in TF2. What does it do? Who knows!
* Bug and Usability fixes, making it easier than ever to play SpaceChem

I already almost lost one of my friends forever after I he read my SpaceChem review. He has a mathematical mind, and the game took a hold of it and smacked it about like a ball between two cybernetically-enhanced female tennis pros. When I saw him a week later he was a pale thing, and gave off all the heat and motion of a piece of toast, but at least he'd completed the game.

I fear what this update, with its potentially unlimited supply of levels and competetiveness, might do to him. I should probably pop over to his house with some Mars bars and a tinfoil cloak.