Trackline Express [Review]
Trackline Express is a 2D paper-styled strategy game. You take care of and operate a train, and the goal is to continue moving forward while escaping a raging wildfire that follows you. As you move the train you will come across resources and supplies. The most important resources are water and coal. The water is how you keep your passengers energized and able to collect things. The coal is to make the train move.
As you continue you get more passengers, when filling up a trailer you get an extra person to use. You can have multiple people to switch between, each having its inventory of a toolset. For example, one passenger could hold a spear while another holds a bow that forces them to stay away from enemies and attack at a distance. The game is a lot more strategic than I was expecting, you have to anticipate what will be needed next and work on it before you need it. I made the mistake of not making a water reserve early in the game to put on my train. This made it hard for me later in the desert when none of my passengers had any energy. I got to the point where I couldn’t collect any more coal to keep moving the train. It’s almost rogue-lite in a way because of this. Having to start all over when you get stuck.
Spending a long time on a run for it to end because you simply can’t get any more coal is frustrating. I had to restart to continue again. This time I just went into quickplay, which is just an endless game. Rather than the campaign, which is short and can be done in one sitting. But, the quick play is better for just wanting to play for a bit and stop. Because of how slow the game can be and how frustrating, it would be nice to be able to have a person play with you.
The game is listed as co-op on Steam but I don’t think the feature is on console. So, I was unable to play multiplayer. I do like rogue-lites but this game is so slow which makes it get old after a bit. This game is best played in increments. This is why it’s best on Switch, so you can stop and play whenever you get the urge to play. It’s nice that the game has an easy way to save so you can even turn the game off if you need to. From my experience, I’m giving Trackline Express a 5/10. The game is now available on Switch and PC.