ExoTrain Review Summary

Satisfying progression, exploration, combat, and deep crafting make it a promising foundation, though inconvenient storage crafting and unbalanced enemies hold it back.

Satisfying gameplay loop and progression: The gameplay loop is engaging and rewarding, with clear objectives and meaningful upgrades. Building up the train and unlocking new technology keeps players engaged and pulling them back for one more upgrade.

Enjoyable exploration and combat: Exploration is rewarding and combat is fun, with lively battles and challenging but fair encounters that require strategy. Riding, beating enemies, and drilling resources in co-op adds to the enjoyment.

Rich crafting and base development: The crafting system is solid, rich, and satisfying. Building and customizing the train, unlocking modules and workstations, and protecting deposits with turrets diversifies the usual survival gameplay.

Good game foundation and potential: The game has good bones and a solid groundwork upon which to build. There is a core of a good game here, and it is already fun and polished.

Good art style and graphics: The art style fits the game perfectly and is visually appealing. Some players may need time to get used to the low-poly graphics, but overall the visuals are well-received.

Inconvenient crafting from storage: Crafting requires rooting through chests for ingredients; players want chest-to-workbench connection to be default.

Unbalanced combat and enemies: Enemies are too quick and have lots of HP while the player is slow with low damage; boss fights are not fun and combat sucks.

Raw and unfinished game: The game is very raw, with incomplete story and multiplayer needing finalization; it feels more like a demo than Early Access.

Poor controls and sticky movement: Players report that controls are awkward and character movement feels sticky or laggy, making basic navigation frustrating.

Bugs and janky experience: The game has minor bugs and endless gameplay annoyances that make it feel unpolished and janky.

Exploration and resource gathering: Players explore both handcrafted and conditional locations, extract resources, and fight aggressive fauna. They explore abandoned buildings for useful loot, break boxes and barrels for loot, and find ruins to gather materials.

Progression via tech and upgrades: Progression involves exploring new areas, gathering resources, unlocking technologies, and upgrading the train, with a level-up system that includes a large passive skill tree and useful upgrades. Players unlock new technologies, modules, and workstations to make tasks easier, such as obtaining a hoverboard or a gun.

Combat and tower defense: Combat is a core system with hack-and-slash action, featuring enemies with varying speed and HP, boss fights, and strategic elements. Players protect drilling rigs from waves of creatures using turrets, adding tower defense elements to the survival experience.

Train as mobile base: The train serves as a mobile base, transport, shelter, and fortress, and can be transformed into workshops, warehouses, living quarters, and production modules. Players can build and customize the train, equip train cars with modules that only work in the cars where installed, and upgrade it for the journey.

Survival and crafting focus: The game is a sci-fi survival game with deep crafting and base building, where crafting is a central system requiring resources, workbenches, and energy. Players gather and craft, and the core loop combines survival, crafting, automation, and train management.

High-end GPU underutilization: A GeForce RTX 2070 cannot load half of its capacity, and the GPU is only utilized around 20% even while streaming. This suggests severe CPU bottleneck or poor engine optimization.

Missing FPS options: The game lacks any FPS display or configuration settings, making it difficult for players to diagnose or improve performance. This absence is noted as a usability issue.

Autosave performance speculation: One theory links the stutters to autosave activity or general poor optimization. No official confirmation exists yet.

Warns Others to Avoid: Cluster 2 warns other people to stay away from this game. This indicates a negative experience with potential issues that make it unenjoyable for some players.

Needs Crafting from Storage: Cluster 11 emphasizes that the developer really needs to add crafting from storage as soon as possible because crafting is unbearable without it. This is a critical quality-of-life feature that is currently missing.

Not Worth Full Price Yet: Cluster 3 states it is hard to recommend version 0.000001 for 5-6 hours. This implies the game is in a very early state and may not offer enough content or polish for the price.

Ideal for Survival and Exploration: Cluster 4 recommends it for players who enjoy survival, base building, upgrades, and exploration. These core mechanics are highlighted as strengths that make the game appealing to fans of the genre.

Worth Watching for Co-op Explorers: Cluster 9 says it is worth closely monitoring, especially for lovers of exploration, crafting, and cooperative adventures. This suggests the game has potential in these areas but may need further development.

Game completion: 12.0h.

ExoTrain is reported to become fun after an initial investment, with rewarding progression and co-op as key drivers, though late-game content is thin and early access features are incomplete.

Reported time to anchor: 3h.

Friction: Initial hours require investment before it gets good; Small map limits available content.

Unlock drivers: Rewarding progression; Co-op play; Level-up upgrades.

Co-op Survival Base-Builder: Plays in co-op, explores ruins, gathers materials, builds and upgrades a base, and levels up. Motivation: To enjoy cooperative survival progression with base building, upgrades, and exploration. Stance: buy.

Solo-Only Survival Player: Plays alone and evaluates the single-player experience separately from co-op. Motivation: To play a survival game entirely solo and have it be fun without co-op. Stance: no buy.

Early-Access Value-Conscious Genre Veteran: Compares the game to prior survival titles, checks EA content completeness, and weighs playtime against price. Motivation: To judge whether an early-access survival game offers enough fresh value and playtime compared with similar titles. Stance: buy.

Game is in early access: The game is currently in early access, with version number 0.000001 and a small map that does not continue past a certain point. It has a solid foundation and potential for growth.

Future updates planned by developer: The developer continues to work on the game and plans to expand story zones, improve co-op, develop the mining protection system, and add a large amount of new content. The game is expected to grow with future updates.

Comparable to other survival games: The game is compared to Volcanoids, Core Keeper, V Rising, The Riftbreaker, and Factorio, but with a train replacing the stationary base. It is also compared to Aethus, which is similar but of higher quality.

Game length is short: The game length is 5-6 hours, and it will likely provide a dozen or so hours of playtime. This may be seen as short for the genre.

Survey and patch released: A survey was posted in the main menu and the DC channel, and a patch was released two days after the survey.