Rail or Die

Really well made game!

The visuals are great, nice clean pixel art, the sounds are good, the gun sounds satisfying, yet I didn't feel that engaged while playing the game.

I think the primary inspiration for the game was "The Final Station", which is IMO a really fun game! Your game seems to switch up the formula of that game, and I dont think it works that well.

Your game follows a very simple yet proven formula of suspense and relief! We got the action packed train sequences followed by the mellow downtime of fixing up the train, craftin n' lootin! Same goes to The Final Station, except in that game, the train rides are the relief, and the on-foot sections are the suspense ones. And that works better.

Firstly, the train sequences. The gun sound is amazing, it feels satisfying to shoot, but it doesn't feel satisfying to kill. Its basically an aim-trainer like experience, where you sit in one spot, aim and click. I don't find that very engaging, especially with the aim spread. If the gun were 100% accurate, it would give some satisfaction to pull a nasty flick on a bird, similar to an aim trainer program.

There are more enemy types other than the birds, judging by the screenshots, there might be more gameplay scenarios where you have to do other things on the train other than the "aim and shoot", but thats not at the start, and thats where you wanna chain down the player with some interesting gameplay.

The bid shooting itself would be fine, if it were a second layer to a different, more engaging system. In it of itself I dont think it can hold up a game.

Even if this bird shooting was only for a first day, as an "introduction", it would still have the player feeling like this is what the whole game is gonna be about.

Secondly, the station sequences. I actually enjoyed those! Looting is really simple and monotone, but it doesn't feel like a hassle, its all good. The crafting is a mixed bag however. Upgrading the train and equipments are good, however the road to them is bumpy. I dont like the limited inventory system. Its a hassle to juggle items to know what you can and cant craft. While it isn't a huge problem with the limited number of items and things you can craft, its still a big chore in my opinion.

A simple fix which would remedy this entire problem would be the ability to craft from the train's inventory. Similar to how in Terraria, items dont need to be in your inventory to craft stuff, as long as the chest isnt too far off your crafting place. Just the simple act of using the train's inventory as the basis of your crafting would go a long way!

Going back to the first point I made, I dont really know what would make a good engaging "defend the train" type gameplay, while on the train. I think that "The Final Station" made a really good decision by putting the "suspense" part of the game outside of the train and onto the on-foot exploration, where its easier to create more impactful experiences.

Another game that this could be drawn parallel to is "The Last Stand". A "sit and shoot" zombie flash game. I rather enjoyed that one back in the day, mainly because the aim spread wasnt this annoying and you were presented with a lot more option to deal with the undead, a lot quicker.

Overall, the game looks and sounds great, even if the gameplay is a bit lackluster. Its important to note that Im most probably not the target audience of this game. Theres a whole genre of games where all you do is sit and shoot, and I dont really like those either. But even a simple act of removing a bit of the spread would go a long way of making it more fun.

how to get out of the inventory???

It is a very cool game! I liked playing it, but progression is a little slow. Also, it feels like there are no stakes when looting, which makes it a little stale to me, combined with the slow progression. I would like to see a module that makes turrets fire on their own and a somewhat steeper difficulty increase.

good stuff!!

Please continue working on it