As early as more than a year ago, "Charles the Tank Engine" began to release live demos of promotional videos online one after another. In the live demos, you can see a monster that is a combination of a train and a spider. The author believes that everyone Everyone should be able to tell that the image of this monster is obviously based on a train character in the classic cartoon - Thomas the Tank Engine.
(The image of this monster is obviously based on Thomas the Tank Engine)
The source of the game’s image of “ruining childhood”
Why did you choose Thomas the Tank Engine as the inspiration for the horror game?
Thomas the Tank Engine has been added to the MODs of various games by major netizens before the game was released. For example, Tyrant of Resident Evil has a very interesting Thomas image module. This cartoon may accompany it. In the childhood of a generation, no one felt anything wrong with this image. When they grew up, they discovered that when they carefully observed Thomas the Train, they couldn't help but find that Thomas's facial structure was indeed a little bit underworld. This is why many horror game MODs will appear with the image of Thomas to replace the more powerful enemies in the game. From the actual demo of the game until its release, the author has been looking forward to this game, mainly because the casting of this terrifying object is relatively novel. Furthermore, this is an open-world horror game. However, after playing it, I was a little disappointed. Disappointed, the pre-release promotional video of this game is indeed "real and honest". I originally thought that the promotional video was only part of the game content, but I didn't expect that the promotional video is already the entire game content.
(Thomas the Tank Engine, if you look closely, it’s always a bit scary)
Game process content
In order to make everyone's childhood shadows come true, "Charles the Tank Engine" simply did not stop there. In order to satisfy everyone's taste, it directly rendered the image of this underworld train with a human head to the extreme, and also equipped it with huge spider legs. , giving players a huge sense of horror just visually.
At the beginning of the game, the protagonist we play is a museum owner who wants to turn around his bleak business and get some "big" things to exhibit and shake up the museum. Just in time, a man named Eugene )’s friend called the protagonist and said that there is a “big guy” we need on an unknown island, which is Charles the Little Train, a combination of a spider, a train, and a terrifying giant face. Therefore, we play The owner of the museum accepted the invitation and went to the island to hunt with his old friend Eugene, looking for Charles.
(The protagonist comes to the island and prepares to hunt Charles)
After landing on the island, we learned that the island was called Spider Island. Eugene equipped us with an old idle train. This small train will be the most important part of our game. Its functions include running charts, Fighting, upgrading, etc., and then we embarked on a journey to find Charles the little train. Just like most horror games, our partner Eugene went to get a lunch box when he confronted Charles for the first time. Here is the game It’s officially started. On the open map, there are a large number of NPCs that can be interacted with. Most of these are supplements to the plot and scraps used to obtain upgrades. You don’t have to complete all these side tasks, but this will lead to the BOSS battle. It will be more arduous in the middle, because the side missions can get a lot of scraps for upgrades and various new weapons.
(On the open map, there are a large number of interactive NPCs, which constitute the open world gameplay of the game)
If you only look at the main tasks, the game process is very short. Although with the side tasks, the overall game process is not long. In the main tasks, we can learn that the residents of this island have also fought against Charles, but Charles They are very cunning, so the villagers came up with a way: go to the mine to recover three of Charles' eggs, and destroy the three eggs in the central temple. This will attract Charles, but it will also trigger Charles. The combat power explodes, so that when Charles passes an unstable bridge, he will have the opportunity to detonate the bridge to completely kill Charles. Therefore, our protagonist "should" take over all these dangerous tasks.
In the process of exploring the map, we can gradually learn the truth behind Charles the Tank Engine. The owner of the mine on the island deliberately cultivated the existence of this monster, and also assigned people to protect the eggs of Charles the Tank Engine in the mine.
After completing all the above tasks, the final BOSS level is reached. The player uses the weapons in his hands to completely defeat Charles, and at the same time, the villagers cooperate to cause the bridge to explode. Charles will fall into the trap that was previously arranged, and the game ends here.
After the game is over, the game author also arranged a small Easter egg plot for the players. This animation shows that there are still Charles' eggs on the island, which have not been cleaned up, and there are more than one eggs, which may indicate that there is A bigger disaster is about to happen, and I wonder if there will be a sequel to this game.
(The ending animation shows that there are still Charles' eggs on the island, but they have not been cleaned up, and there are more than one eggs)
Brief analysis of gameplay
The author has mentioned before that the game's promotional video is very "honest". At least in terms of gameplay, the content in the promotional video is already the entire game. The first is the open world horror game that was previously promoted. Although The finished game is indeed an open world, but the side tasks in the open world are too repetitive. They are just visiting NPCs to complete essentially similar tasks, and the task time is relatively short. This is a regret for the game to the players. It's also a shortcoming. However, since this game is said to be completed by one person with very few financial resources, it is indeed beyond reproach that the content quality can reach this level, which is considered very good.
The game has a variety of weapons, such as a vehicle-mounted machine gun given at the beginning, and flamethrowers, rocket launchers, etc. that will be given after completing the mission. Moreover, all the weapons in the game have unlimited ammunition, but each weapon will lose its barrel after firing for a period of time. Overheating has entered the cooling time, and other weapons need to be replaced to supplement the firepower. If the ammunition of the weapon is set to be obtained through exploration instead of infinite ammunition, perhaps the gameplay can be improved.
The combat system of the game is to attack through vehicle-mounted weapons. In addition to the Charles train, the enemies in the game also include human enemies with strange masks. During the task of stealing eggs from the mine, these enemies will appear to attack us. During the game , the author feels that the creators of these missions intentionally designed them to be stealth content. However, because the protagonist’s blood regeneration speed is too powerful, and the enemy’s sunset red gun skills often fail to hit us, these missions can be rushed in directly. Even if you run out, you won't be controlled to death by the enemy. These masked enemies can also be killed, but we need to use vehicle-mounted weapons while the train is moving. It is still a bit troublesome to drive the car back and forth. Interested players can try it.
(Masks worn by human enemies in the game)
The game has a very rough accessory upgrade system. Players can collect scraps in the game to upgrade the armor, weapon attack power, etc. of their own trains. They can also repair trains damaged in encounters. The way to obtain scrap materials is also simple and crude. You can often pick up a lot of them in residents' houses, and you can also get them by completing side tasks. This accessory upgrade system feels like it is set up for the sake of setting. It is not fun. It is just a mindless pile of materials, and the improvement should only be a numerical bonus.
Finally, let me talk about something worth complaining about in the game, that is, when the speech CG is triggered, the character only has a rough face model, and even the lips do not move. It looks really weird and awkward. Maybe the game production funds are really insufficient. .
(When the character speaks, he only has a rough face model, and his lips don’t even move)
Summarize
Even if I am disappointed after playing it, I still have to give this game a moderate rating. It has good and bad qualities. Needless to say, the creativity has reached a new level. There is only one game like this from this perspective. In fact, in the future Various game manufacturers may be able to draw some experience from the inspiration of this game, and it is also an innovation to play tricks and play to a high level. Moreover, "Charles Train" is a horror-themed game, and the atmosphere of the entire game is also very good. The dark scenes combined with BGM give players a tense feeling.
The shortcomings are that it is too boring, and the duration is extremely short, and there are endless bugs. However, this is also related to the fact that the production cost of the game is too small and the producer is short of manpower. Combined with the previously released promotional videos, it can’t help but make people very disappointed, even It's like an unfinished, half-finished game. It is said that the author will update the game content in the future. I hope that the update can live up to the players' expectations and at least have some playability in the gameplay, rather than being like the original game where the entire game can be completed in about 2 hours. And most of the tasks are essentially repetitive.