- Core train-based survival crafting gameplay.
- Innovative void setting and atmosphere.
- Excellent narrator and voice acting.
- Content feels unfinished and repetitive.
- Weak, incoherent story with rushed ending.
- Poor combat and enemy design.
Emotions
This emotion primarily stems from the game failing to deliver on its promising concept and not meeting player expectations, often due to an unfinished or rushed story with a disappointing ending. Players also express frustration with repetitive gameplay, a lack of meaningful content and depth, persistent bugs, and clunky, unengaging combat mechanics. Many feel the game did not improve sufficiently from early access or provide good value for its price.
Players are generally satisfied with the game's unique concept, immersive atmosphere, and high-quality voice acting, particularly for the narrator. Enjoyment often comes from the core gameplay loop of building, crafting, and exploration, especially when playing with friends, and a feeling that the game is technically polished and provides good value. The sense of progression, customization options, and charming creature designs also contribute to a positive experience.
This emotion arises from a combination of repetitive and tedious gameplay loops, including boring combat and resource management, alongside persistent bugs and technical issues, especially concerning multiplayer connectivity. Players also express annoyance with clunky UI, unresponsive controls, confusing design choices, and an intrusive narrator, often leading to a feeling of wasted time or an inability to progress.
Players experience joy from the game's fun and engaging gameplay, particularly when playing with friends, and appreciate its unique humor, charming narrator, and delightful animations. The creative aspects of train building, the presence of adorable Rofleemo companions, and the game's overall atmosphere and music contribute to a highly positive and immersive experience, often leading players to call it a favorite.
This emotion is generated by the game's engaging story, unique mechanics, and the thrill of exploration in its distinctive world, often drawing comparisons to other beloved survival games like Raft. Players are excited by the potential for future content and improvements, enjoying the co-op experience, and appreciating the quality and originality of features like train building and character customization.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 55% · Negative 45%. Score: 45 / 100
Positives:
- Players overwhelmingly praise the game as fun, engaging, and a unique take on its genre. The co-op experience is frequently highlighted as enhancing the enjoyment, making it a great title for both solo and group play. Many consider it a hidden gem and worth the purchase.
- The game's unique concept of traveling through a 'Void' on a train is highly praised, offering a fresh twist on the survival genre. The Void itself is described as visually stunning, mysterious, and creating a deeply immersive, often calming yet sometimes eerie, atmosphere that sets the game apart.
- Reviewers appreciate the game's impressive and intriguing storyline, which adds significant depth to the survival experience. The narrative progression keeps players hooked, providing ample content and things to do that prevent the game from feeling dull.
- The game's narrator is a standout feature, praised for their charismatic voice, humor, and engaging commentary. The overall voice acting quality is consistently high, particularly the Russian localization, greatly enhancing the story and atmosphere.
- The game receives widespread acclaim for its beautiful graphics, unique art style, and overall aesthetic appeal. Players find the visuals pleasing, stylish, and effective in conveying a sense of awe and scale within the game's world.
Negatives:
- Many players found the game to be boring and repetitive after only a few hours, lacking significant content or depth. Despite a long Early Access period, the full release didn't introduce enough new features or polish, leading to a strong sense of unfulfilled potential and disappointment regarding its value.
- The narrative is widely seen as poorly written, incoherent, and lacking depth or engaging characters. The omnipresent and often annoying narrator further detracts from immersion, while the ending is consistently described as rushed, unsatisfying, and leaving too many questions unanswered.
- Combat is frequently described as clunky, unengaging, and inconsistent, with players often struggling with janky gunplay and poor hit feedback. Enemy AI is criticized for being either too easy or having 'aimbot' accuracy, with very limited variety and predictable behaviors, making fights often feel like a chore.
- Players are frustrated by the restrictive inventory system, small stack sizes, and the constant, manual, and unrewarding process of gathering and sorting resources. Crafting is similarly tedious, requiring too many clicks and often lacking clarity on weapon parts and effects, making item management a chore.
- The core gameplay loop involving the train is criticized for being overly linear, slow, and repetitive, with little meaningful exploration or variety in events at stations. Train upgrades often feel useless, customization is limited, and elements like the persistent 'shark' add more annoyance than challenge.
Gameplay:
- The game's fundamental premise revolves around building, customizing, and defending a train that functions as a mobile base. Players extensively gather resources from a mysterious 'Void' environment, craft upgrades, and research new technologies, drawing strong inspiration from 'Raft'-like survival mechanics.
- Players noted a linear, 'on-rails' progression as the train travels from station to station, which can lead to feelings of monotony. The gameplay involves a significant amount of grinding for resources, with typical story completion times ranging from 5 to 25 hours.
- The game features a detailed modular weapon crafting system, enabling players to customize firearms using various parts and attachments found in the world. Combat encounters with different enemies, including a unique 'shark' foe, occur periodically, with customizable difficulty settings available.
- While the game is playable solo, many reviewers emphasized that the experience is significantly more enjoyable and efficient when played cooperatively with friends. Co-op allows for effective task division and a more engaging journey through the Void.
- Players can craft and utilize a grappling hook to quickly collect resources and undertake limited exploration away from the train. Additionally, 'Rofleemos' are friendly creatures that serve as train crew, offering passive bonuses and assignable tasks to aid in gameplay.
Performance:
- Player experiences with game performance and optimization are highly mixed, ranging from stable 60+ FPS on high settings with modern hardware to significant frame drops, memory leaks, and crashes for others. While some praise the overall stability and quick bug fixes, issues like inconsistent frame rates and poor optimization on specific GPUs (e.g., 1650ti) are frequently mentioned, suggesting inconsistent performance across different systems. There are also mentions of DLSS needing updates and powerful hardware idling, indicating potential optimization areas.
- Players report a variety of minor bugs that impact the user experience, including UI and resolution issues such as screen resets, misaligned mouse pointers in fullscreen, and an unresponsive interface. Other common complaints involve unresponsive controls, object loading problems like disappearing trains or 'rofilims', and players getting stuck in environmental textures. While developers have shown quick responsiveness in fixing some issues (like view bobbing), a range of these smaller, persistent bugs affect gameplay flow, including non-functional crossplay and the game remaining active on Steam after exiting.
- While many players report smooth co-op experiences with minimal bugs, others encounter notable issues such as frequent reconnections to the host, problems joining games via the 'Play' button, and specific bugs like being unable to interact after certain events. Player feedback suggests that the host's computer and internet quality significantly impact desynchronization issues. Some specific instances of co-op bugs have also been reported.
Recommendations:
- Player opinions on the game's value are highly polarized, with many recommending purchase only on deep discount or during a sale, citing it's not worth full price in its current state. A significant portion advises against buying it or suggests playing other games, indicating dissatisfaction with the content or gameplay loop.
- Despite mixed feedback, a strong segment of the player base thoroughly enjoys the game, giving it high ratings and recommending it as a fun, engaging, and worthwhile experience. Some even suggest it's worth its full price, praising its unique qualities and aesthetic.
- The game is particularly recommended for fans of survival and crafting genres, especially those who enjoy games akin to 'Raft' for its building and resource management loop. Its unique 'train' and 'steampunk' aesthetic, combined with a relaxing atmosphere, are strong selling points for this niche audience.
- A consistent theme is that the game is significantly more enjoyable and recommended when played in co-op with friends. Many reviewers explicitly advise against playing solo, indicating that the game's design or experience falls short without multiplayer interaction.
Miscellaneous:
- While some players are hopeful, a significant portion expresses disappointment, regret purchasing the game, and has uninstalled it. This disengagement is often linked to the perceived lack of content, persistent bugs, and the lengthy Early Access period.
- Players have provided numerous specific suggestions, including advanced train customization options (e.g., rail switches, multiple locomotives), improved inventory management (e.g., item sorting, better storage), and quality-of-life additions like a photo mode or customizable HUD.
- Many reviewers draw strong parallels between this game and 'Raft,' often describing it as a 'Raft-like' survival game centered around a train. This comparison is used to frame both its strengths and weaknesses.
