Navigate an open world horror game in an old train, fighting with a monster train! : Choo-Choo Charles
Choo-Choo Charles is is a bloodthirsty train, and you need to destroy him.
In This Game :
1) Navigate a massive play area in your trusty old engine.
The developers describe the content like this:
Blood, gore, and people being eaten alive by a spider train.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- MINIMUM:
- OS: Windows 7 64-bit
- Processor: 2.5 GHz Quad-core Intel or AMD processor
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD
- Storage: 3 GB available space
- Additional Notes: The game includes graphics settings to aid lower end devices.
GAMEPLAY :
Gameplay consists of travelling across an open world map in a train, performing tasks for non-player characters, collecting loot, and using that loot to upgrade the train in order to fight against Charles, who periodically hunts for the player. The goal of the game is to collect three glowing eggs that will summon Charles to battle the player as a final boss. The game takes players around three to five hours to complete.
The map is an island lined with interconnected railway tracks, which carry the player's train to a series of locations where quests can be completed for non-player characters. There are four main non-player characters that progress the main quest. Besides Charles, the player also faces armed human enemies, who guard the three glowing eggs needed to complete the game. The game encourages players to use stealth to sneak past these guards to steal the eggs and escape without notice, although it is also possible to simply run past them. The game's optional quests generally consist of fetching objects for non-player characters.
PLOT OF THE GAME :
The player controls an unnamed archivist and monster hunter, who is summoned to the island of Aranearum to deal with Charles, who is described as "half train, half giga-spider" by their friend Eugene. Upon arrival, Charles attacks them, killing Eugene, but not before he tells the player to find Charles' eggs, which the player can use to summon and fight Charles.
Eugene's son Paul and the miners of the island have formulated a plan to defeat Charles, but they need the player to execute it. The player is let loose on the island with a train mounted with a gun, with the goal of traversing the island to meet with various non-player characters. These characters give the player keys to the mines where Charles' glowing eggs are located, scraps with which to upgrade the train, and weapons to better fend off Charles. The player also comes into contact with cultists led by Warren Charles III, who plan on using Charles for world domination.
After collecting all three eggs, the player summons Charles, who transforms into "Hell Charles" and kills Warren before attacking the player. After a grueling battle, the player successfully lures Charles onto a bridge that they and Paul rigged with explosives, and detonates it, sending Charles plummeting to his death, and he is impaled head first on a large metal pole.
In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Charles has multiple eggs hiding in a cavern, indicating his return.
DEVELOPMENT AND RELEASE :
Choo-Choo Charles was developed by Gavin Eisenbeisz on his own using Unreal Engine. He recorded the development process in blogs on YouTube.
Choo-Choo Charles was inspired by Charlie the Choo-Choo, a 2016 children's book written by Stephen King as part of The Dark Tower series, as well as Thomas the Tank Engine.
The game was released for Windows on December 9, 2022, although Eisenbeisz has plans to port the game to consoles as well.
RECEPTION :
After the first trailer was released in 2021, it went viral on the internet, provoking reactions on websites such as Twitter and Reddit.
Choo-Choo Charles received a 53/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Steve Hogarty of Rock Paper Shotgun described the game as "shonky, very short and frustrating to play for any length of time". He said that the game had a good concept, but that the concept was stretched too thinly. Zack Zweizen of Kotaku criticized the game for its reliance on "bad stealth sections", a lack of scares, and the short length of the game. Travis Northup from IGN gave the game a score of 4/10, describing it as "janky", "barebones", and "more dull than [he] thought possible". He also described the on-foot stealth sections as "aggressively not fun". Zoey Handley from Destructoid scored the game 6.5/10, describing it as "alright".