Interesting Concept but Very Tedious
I was excited to try this game out, especially with the mysterious nature of the fog and the train. It seemed to promise tough decisions about bringing aboard passengers, and striking a balance between resource management and people management. In the end, the idea was interesting for a little while, but I quickly found it to be extremely tedious. One of the game mechanics is fast-forwarding through the majority of each day, which ended up working against the game. A few minutes spent doing something... Fast forward. Do another task for a few seconds... Fast forward. In no way did I feel connected to the game environment, which is a shame. I kept playing hoping for something interesting to happen. Unfortunately, I got more enjoyment from uninstalling it.
Pros
+ Scavenging missions are fun the first few times
+ Navigating the map (which is randomized each game) can bring up interesting dilemmas
Cons
- Everything feels unnecessarily tedious after less than an hour of play
- The lottery is an odd mechanic (I felt this always had to be rigged)
- Carriage management is less complex than it's made out to be
- Navigating around the conductor's cabin can be annoying, particularly if you run into some glitches
- The beeping during missions is awful (And once you understand how long you have, it doesn't create any tension)
- Once you have a few carriages of people, they're more like data points than individuals you want to help
- The dream attacks are not scary because you're not directly affected by them (It's more of a "Darn it!" moment)
- There are so many incoming messages once your radio is upgraded that you barely pay attention to most of them
- The ending
- Not enough train sounds! (Not actually a legitimate con, but I was hoping for more than screeching brakes and monotonous chugging)
I really wanted to like this game, but it fell very short for me. Maybe others will enjoy it, and I hope there are some who have a better gaming experience than I did!