Trainline Express is a new train-building survival resource management hybrid by developer Bubblebird Studio.
Trainline Express is a fairly interesting game. It’s essentially a survival game, in which you are escaping a fire slowly crawling towards you pushing you to the coast. Your method of survival is your trusty train, and your job is to keep it stocked, maintained and upgraded so that it can safely make it’s journey to your destination, whilst picking up survivors along the way.
First impressions of the game, are extremely good. I really like the graphical style. It features fairly simple 2D art, set against a mixture of 2D and 3D background elements. The art design meshes together very well, and gives it a quirky style that honestly just looks really pleasing to me. I’ve also recently started using an ultrawide monitor, and the game seemed to support the resolution just fine with no apparent stretching or missed imagery, something that is a bit of a rarity amongst indie titles especially.
The basic gameplay loop works like this. Each stage introduces various new obstacles you have to pass. The main way to progress is by riding the train, which requires coal. To get coal, you have to seek out mines and extract it. To extract it, you need to build a pickaxe, and to build a pickaxe, you need to build a blueprint which requires coins. And to get coins you need to find them around the world or defeat enemies. You get the idea, resource management and extraction is the key mechanic.
There is a large array of resources that increases as the game goes on, and a large amount of different blueprints and things to build, from various train and carriage upgrades, to weapons and other tools, to different things you can place around the world to make progression a little easier. You also have to make sure your players are kept hydrated too, by finding water, which can sometimes be a little tricky.
The core mechanics here mean the game will be received very difficulty depending on the type of gamer you are. If you generally like survival type games in which you have to constantly collect things and manage resources, you’ll probably really enjoy this one. Personally, I’ve never quite got on with the genre, it just isn’t for me. That isn’t to say I didn’t have fun with the title. Trainline Express just presents itself so well, that the grindy nature of it sort of feels somewhat lessened, and it does to a great job of easing you in, introducing each new resource and blueprint slowly over the course of your journey.
Ultimately, I think you’ll know if Trainline Express is for you from the way I’ve described it. If it sounds like the kind of game you’ll enjoy, then you can pick it up for £11.51 on Steam currently which is a fair price. If you don’t like the sound of the gameplay, perhaps pass on this one. Though, the developer has provided a demo, so you do have the option of trying it out first.
You can purchase Trainline Express on Steam here. If you’re looking for a 2D game with 3D backgrounds with no resource management, why not check out Outer Terror.
