It’s nice on occasion to find a little puzzle game that has just that extra something that allows it to completely decimate your free time. The kind that, if on a mobile, makes you smile when you need the toilet just so you can play another game. Never mind people asking why you’ve been to the toilet 18 times that morning already. This week I’ve been wasting my time on just such a game although not on the loo but at my PC playing Train Valley.
When I started up Train Valley I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, as is so often the case given the list of games in my Steam account, and I started with no expectations. Slowly but surely my interest deepened as the handful of concepts were gradually introduced and my focus shifted from my TV to my PC. Train Valley is similar in some respects to games were you arrange segments of pipes to allow water to reach a goal (plumbing simulation games?). You will start with at least two train stations, although more will develop as you progress through a level, and you must link them together. Periodically a train will spawn at a station with a predetermined destination to reach and you must build and use your track to guide the train there.
It starts very simply with two stations and your trains crossing paths using a loop, a lay-by system or even just sending them one at a time; although you earn more money the earlier a train arrives. Soon it becomes a mess of junctions and crossings as you guide multiple trains to their destinations and the appeal of sending trains early soon becomes second to your ability to keep up. A train will only wait in a station for so long before it leaves on its own. For what seems like a slow game things get surprisingly frantic. Particularly given that a single mistake often escalates into mass panic extremely quickly.
If a train should arrive at the wrong station it simply turns around and keeps moving. The problems arise when you didn’t notice because you’re dealing with 3 other trains and altering signals faster than a set of traffic lights and the other train is now in the way. You may need to build extra paths to solve the upcoming collision, but resources are limited so there’s only so much that will help. There’s a wonderful contrast between the satisfaction of a smooth running service and the chaos of trying to recover from a mistake.
The difficulty peaks fairly quickly once the tutorial is finished and I soon found a level that took multiple retries for me to pass. There aren’t all that many levels like this in the early stages but there are a few that should have been placed later in the game. Generally the difficulty is appropriate and stages provide a real challenge that can only be overcome with skill. Each level also has 3 extra optional challenges for you to complete such as sending extra services out, netting you more money in the long run but having to deal with more trains, or earning a certain amount of cash. There’s a satisfying passport stamp awarded for each on completion too which everybody likes.
Upon completing each level you also have the option to carry a level on infinitely or move to the next area which is very welcome. There’s nothing worse than building an area up successfully only to have it snatched away in ‘victory’. There’s a sandbox mode too to really let you have some fun if you’re in the mood for a more relaxing session. Don’t be fooled by the sedate visuals, Train Valley can get hectic.
Photorealism obviously wasn’t the choice for Train Valley but still it hasn’t reached the potential of its own style. The aim is certainly to create a blocky wooden train set appearance but ironically there is too much detail in the levels and in the train designs. The result unfortunately is the appearance that Train Valley has aimed for realism and missed. It really needed to be much more confident in its art style and use blocks and primary colours much more predominantly. Shadows and detailed rocks are great but it doesn’t allow Train Valley to create its own style properly. It certainly doesn’t look bad but I would have loved for the train set style to have really stood out.
As far as UI is concerned all is well. There are very few controls available as with all the best puzzle games. You can basically build track or flip switches and even then you can flip switches while creating track. Laying track is also very simple and very rarely did I make a mistake – when I did it was my fault. It’s easy to get what you want and there are no unnecessary and complicated controls to interfere with usability.
Train Valley surprised me not because I though it was going to be bad but because I had no expectations of it, sadly I have missed the team’s previous work. Luckily Train Valley is one of the best puzzle games I’ve played in recent memory. It’s addictive and simple to play yet challenging which is the perfect puzzle game formula for me. I will definitely be playing a lot more of Train Valley in the foreseeable future. Train valley is available now on Steam and is well worth your time. I really hope they get this game to Android and iOS so I can spend more time playing, it would be perfect for a mobile platform. Great fun, great challenges and originality make Train Valley a great little puzzle game.
All of this is pretty impressive when you consider the game is effectively running on a ten-year-old engine, but the achievement of a native 1080p resolution at 30fps throughout the campaign and 60fps during multiplayer is laudable. Where the original Xbox 360 version spit and spluttered with torn frames consistently, the Xbox One version’s consistency is an absolute joy – with dropped framed occurring very rarely –you’ll hardly notice it happens, if at all.