Unrailed 2: Back on Track It arrives and with great details. There is one thing I always keep an eye out for in the news of new video games: the release of multiplayer games, especially if they can be played locally. The ability to be able to play video games with anyone in the world at any time online has undoubtedly been revolutionary, but nothing compares to the chaotic energy that results from a group of friends playing in the same physical space.
Among my fondest memories with this hobby are those afternoons and evenings I spent surrounded by friends, playing together, competing or working as a team, laughing and shouting with excitement. Therefore, when the Indoor Astronaut team invited us to try a preview of their new cooperative title, Unrailed 2: Back on TrackI took the opportunity immediately.
Unrailed 2: Back on Track – The details you can’t miss
What do you have to do?
Unrailed 2: Back on Track is a cooperative game where you take the role of an employee of a very poorly organized train company. Their trains do not have brakes, so it is your duty to put the train tracks on the go to prevent the machine from derailing. To achieve this, you have to collect wood and iron from trees and stones found in the area, transform them into rails and put them in place to connect your train to the next station.
At the end of each station you can get multiple upgrades for your train or for yourself. Your machine can receive cars with special abilities: There are some that allow you to attract objects lying on the ground to your train with magnets while others allow you to build missiles so you can destroy whatever you want. Likewise, the wagons can receive power-ups such as expanding their carrying capacity or allowing you to pass through them as if they were not there, while your characters can get chips that allow them to chop or chop faster or respawn in less time.
He Unrailed 2 has elements rogue-like: The levels are automatically generated and if your train crashes, you will have to go back to the beginning of the game, having the opportunity to buy upgrades that you can take with you to the start of a new game depending on how well you have done. This encourages replayability and helps each game be different and have varied challenges. This way, you can build your strategy based on what appears and the type of maps you have.
Although I find the concept of the game good and entertaining, during my time with Unrailed 2 I couldn’t help but think that “something” was missing. The difference in the difficulty of the levels does not seem to be more than including a greater or lesser number of obstacles. This is where the auto-generated maps work against the title. Mainly because, except for boss encounters, the differences between the levels of one world or another do not seem to be that significant.
Boss battles include additional challenges that add excitement and variety to the game. For example, the first boss is a group of giant moles that will constantly attack you with dynamite that you will have to avoid while you try to continue building the tracks for your train. I would like to see more chaotic levels like these, because in my opinion, having the challenge limited to dealing with more rocks or more trees is not as fun.
In-person or online fun
This game is, by design, a multiplayer title. It is true that there is the option of playing individual games where you can take care of all the tasks alone or recruit the help of a bot to which you can give commands, however, the gaming experience is not nearly as fun as playing it with other people.
Although I played online co-op for this Preview, it’s not hard to see that the greater potential of Unrailed 2 lies in the local cooperative. Not only will it be easier to organize yourself for tasks and missions, but it will probably also be more fun because of the same atmosphere that these games promote. Although, as I already said, it is not as chaotic a game as rivals like OvercookedMaybe I think it can make you have a good afternoon with friends.
Be the engineer of your own adventure
And if auto-generated levels aren’t your thing, Unrailed 2: Back on Track! includes a game mode that allows you to create your own maps. You can include elements from all the levels you have discovered and create your own challenges. The creative freedom that the level editor gives you is considerable. According to the developers, the maps you create can be uploaded online to share with players around the world. Of course, you can also play levels that other people have created.
This function of sharing levels and accessing community levels was not yet available in the version I tested, however, if incorporated correctly, it can become the main attraction of this sequel. After all, if other games like Super Mario Maker They are proof of something, the amount of quality content that a group of passionate fans can create is infinite.
That said, the level editor included in our version needs some improvements to make it easier to modify the elements that are added, fix errors and manipulate the objects already placed. However, the idea is very good and clearly has potential.
Go down the road in style
Visually, the game is very charismatic. The blocky aesthetic keeps the character design simple but adorable. The characters you can choose are different animals and a robot, to whom you can add accessories such as hats, glasses and backpacks. This helps personalize your experience and help you identify your character quickly in the middle of the action.
Another advantage of the game’s visual direction is that it is very easy to read the map. The minimalist style allows the different elements that you have to take into account not to be confused. Although this comment comes with an exception: visuals that tell you what you’re selecting to grab or interact with could be more obvious, as this, combined with some control issues that still need to be refined, results in your character not doing exactly what you want.
Construction work ahead
In my time with Unrailed 2I experienced a single crash and minor details such as some dialogue overlapping others. Considering the game is still in Early Access, it’s not surprising. But technical details aside, the thing I most want to see change with the official release is the fact that you can’t save your game and continue it later.
I can understand this decision in online games with strangers, but that There is no way to pause your local game and continue it later seems unjustifiable to me. If for any reason you want to stop your gaming session, your only option is to end it and start a new one later. Considering that games can last several hours, wanting to suspend the game for later is not an unreasonable request. I hope that for the official launch the Indoor Astronaut team manages to polish these details.
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So what do we think of Unrailed 2?
Unrailed 2: Back on Track It is a conceptually solid game, but it still has a way to go. The developers have promised to add new game modes as time goes on, which I believe will be essential to combat the monotony that the main game can fall into.
Unrailed 2: Back on Track will be available on Steam through Early Access on November 7, 2024. According to the developers, they plan for the game to remain in that state for approximately a year. During that period they want to receive feedback from their players on game modes, balance and features that they want to see. I hope the developers continue working and perfecting Unrailed 2since the game has the potential to become one of the must-see recommendations when someone is looking for cooperative games.
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Let’s play Unrailed 2: Back on Track on PC with a code provided by a Kepler Ghost representative in the region.
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