Flazm’s Train Valley 2 has you building a railway network in order to transport materials through picturesque landscapes. It looks like a quaint, casual game that might just evoke some childhood memories if trains are your thing. However, this little puzzle tycoon game can be quite challenging – if you want it to be.
You start off with your main station, which has certain demands that need to be met. “Bring us four units of wood and six units of cows!” And off you go, connecting your station to resource-producing buildings scattered all over the landscape with some fancy rails. Once you got a route set up, you can manually order your trains to and from these buildings.
If this sounds too easy, fret not: it gets complicated quite fast, with multiple production steps necessary before you can haul the goods back to your station. You’ll need to extend your rail network and delegate your little trains – all of this without causing an accident.
Depending on how efficient you’re trying to be, this is either a relaxing or a horribly stressful experience. You see, there’s a scoring system attached to each level. If you want to earn the highest amount of stars, you need to play extremely efficient and execute your planning without any hiccups. Some of the target times are incredibly hard to achieve and require perfect planning and impeccable micromanagement.
Currently, this is purely intrinsic, without your progress being tied to performing well. Just finish a level and you can play the next one, no “you need X stars to advance.” This makes Train Valley 2 incredibly accessible and at the same time offers a high challenge for players who strive for perfection.
The game just entered early access, so all of this might change quite a bit, but I’m hoping the way it handles difficulty stays just the way it is right now. There’s also a level editor and more levels, trains, and other stuff planned for the near future.
You can purchase Train Valley 2 from Steam Early Access for $ 9.99. For more information, visit the game’s website and follow developer Flazm on Twitter.
