Pandemic Train

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• DEVELOPER: Trigger Labs
• PUBLISHER: Games Operators, PlayWay S.A.
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Survival
• RELEASE DATE: October 19, 2023
• STARTING PRICE: 16.49€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Pandemic Train is a survival game with roguelike and strategic elements where you manage passengers on an old, steam-powered train. The action takes place in an alternative 20th-century timeline when a catastrophic virus epidemic ravaged the world. Don’t expect too much from this title; it offers exactly what the game advertises. It is very shallow in terms of content, progression, variety, and gameplay.

The sequences where we are on the train are just quick interludes, so everything boils down to a very average third-person exploratory shooter. The story holds up and has its own plot developments, from playing as experimental soldiers, each with their own special skills who can be revived when they die, to every character in the game having their own story. I don’t know the developers’ plans, but they will really need to add a lot for the game to become appealing.

Lack of Progression

What definitely works in the game is the idea itself: exploring the world while managing passengers on a train. You will feel like you are playing two games; first, you are in the main base, where you can meet all the “protagonists,” take special quests from them, and get a better understanding of the game’s backstory using various newspaper summaries. In addition, you can upgrade all characters (some must be purchased) and improve the start of the playthrough by upgrading the storage, hospital, etc.

Secondly, you ride the train and choose which areas on the map to stop at. Each area provides different resources and benefits, whether it’s water, food, scrap, safe zones, interaction with special characters, etc. However, all these areas are the same and identical with every playthrough; only three regions change. Perhaps the region where you need to survive the winter offers the most variety, but even then, there isn’t much that can influence the gameplay itself.

In Pandemic Train, you have five chapters that follow the main story: finding a cure to heal from the virus. Every time you finish a chapter, you will literally return to the start and begin from zero. All the extra train cars you obtained, the people you had who had progressed, simply vanish. The design should have aimed for everything to remain, with only the game’s difficulty increasing.

As it is, there is no point in replaying everything, and we are saved by the ability to skip regions; that is, you don’t always have to do everything from the very beginning, but can appear closer to the end. What I highly recommend is to simply skip playing yourself and simulate everything, because you will get more resources, you will almost never lose, and the game does not reward you at all if you choose to explore the map manually.

Shallow Train Mechanics and Balance Issues

The train’s gameplay seems interesting at first, but unfortunately, you’ll quickly realize there are only five main upgrades you need to take every playthrough, and that’s enough to beat the game. Food is the priority here, and the best way to handle it is to get a henhouse and a vegetable garden for fresh produce. The second thing you need is a workshop to craft bullets and a kitchen to cook food. Finally, it’s best to take the infirmary to treat passengers.

That is practically all you need; forget about making alcohol, grenades, cakes, and similar items. Not only will the schematics for them be difficult to find, but they are also not useful because they require diverse resources and activities from your passengers, who are limited in that regard. That’s right, workers operate in shifts; they can generally perform two activities, and each one specializes in something, whether it’s crafting, food, or animals. It will also be important to make medicine from the corpses of enemies you’ve killed to at least somehow counteract the virus.

All of this, however, falls apart because even your main protagonists have their specialties, and your goal will always be to take Ana or Zhang. Ana, because you can get a henhouse from the start and can kill enemies very quickly with her sniper rifle; Zhang, because he is a specialist in many things, moves fast, doesn’t use bullets, and throws knives.

This gives the impression that the game is completely unbalanced, which is true, as you perform the same tasks every time. For instance, there are timers for every action, and there is no multiple-selection and planning system, so if you need to make five meals, you have to repeat the same action five times.

Repetitive Gameplay and Shooting Mechanics

Regarding the shooting elements, they are generally very well executed. Aiming is quite simple; you don’t need to be perfectly accurate. You can also use knives for close combat and roll to evade enemy attacks or bullets. The enemies are varied but constantly repeat across regions; you’ll always have those who shoot at you, you might run into a jumping monster, or flamethrowers will try to set you on fire.

The stealth elements are a disaster. It’s not worth approaching an enemy to try and kill them from behind because they will almost always spot you, they will chase you to the ends of the earth, and they have a vision advantage, while you don’t, because your field of view is very small. There are also three bosses in the game that constantly repeat, which is disappointing. Only the story-specific bosses are slightly more challenging; otherwise, everything can be killed very easily.

Exploration is also simple and boring; everything you can pick up will glow. There are locked crates that require a crowbar to open, and sometimes you will have to walk through infected fog to get something valuable. Don’t worry, you have an injection that prevents you from dying from the virus. When you successfully return to the train after exploration, the same actions inside the train begin again; everything repeats, which definitely spoils the entire gameplay experience.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know if you’ve ever played those mobile survival games, where you have to survive a zombie apocalypse and play in real-time, meaning you have to wait for some things to be completed. This game gives me exactly that same feeling and atmosphere. The graphics are quite solid, the music is good, and the concept is good, but the repetitiveness, the gameplay, and all the other elements are very poor.

Pandemic Train starts as a solid game, but it quickly buries itself. The more you play, the more you will only see the flaws, of which there are many. I believe that the developers will fix and change this game, making it better than what it currently is. At this moment, I absolutely cannot recommend Pandemic Train, despite its low price.

Review copy provided by the publisher