The sudden hit of Choo-Choo Charles attracted attention from the first minutes he appeared on the Steam leaderboards. Yes, it does not have outstanding graphics, there is no well-developed plot, and the gameplay is understood from the first minute of the game. All this is secondary for me because the main thing is the emotions you get from the game.
Journalists defeated the novelty: on Metacritic, Chu-Chu Charles has only 53 points out of 100%. Reviewers complain about the monotony of the gameplay, bad graphics, lifeless world, bland tastes, formulaic quests, stealth bugs, and bugs. At the same time, the Steam version of Choo-Choo Charles is receiving good reviews with an 85% rating based on over 4000 responses. Users praise the idea, declare their love for Charles, and praise the work of a lone developer.
And Chu-Chu Charles knows how to give emotions. One has only to get to the locomotive and pull the lever forward, and you will not come off the game. But before we get to the best aspect of the game, it’s worth writing a few words about the story.
The plot is that you are a certain monster hunter and, at the request of one of your old comrades, you arrive on an island that is terrorized by a giant spider locomotive Charles. The hero has a simple task – to destroy the monster and save the poor miners who still live on this island from constant fear.
We find the aforementioned old steam locomotive in the hangar and set off on it to explore the island. The steam locomotive in the game is a means of transportation and the main weapon against Charles. Only for a start, it will need to be improved by exploring the surroundings and helping the locals with their everyday problems. The hero will receive the trash. With it, it will be possible to improve the speed, armor, and damage from the locomotive’s guns. At first, only a machine gun will be available, but as you progress, you will be able to find additional weapons and make your life much easier in the final battle with Charles.
In addition to the miners, there are those on the island who do not want Charles dead. The local rich man dug up the ancient ruins and built a cult around the spider locomotive. His underlings guarding the tombs wear masks with the face of this monster and will kill anyone who gets close.
Charles himself, who roams the island and can attack at any moment, will add to all the problems. And since the engine on which the monster hunter moves at the beginning of the adventure will be weak, then, most likely, the meeting with the spider engine will be fatal.
The whole gameplay will be to move the locomotive from one point to another. Sometimes you will need to get out of it to chat with the inhabitants, collect garbage or explore the area. The railway passes through the entire map and will allow you to get to any place as soon as the locomotive is fully modernized. A fully armed hero can go on the final mission and destroy the monster.
That is, as is already clear from the text, the game is as simple and short as possible. If you fully explore the entire map, it will take only 3-4 hours. But the most important thing is that all these few hours are saturated with an incredible atmosphere. I understand that tastes vary, so this is my personal opinion. I like to study all the small games and different ideas that will not go down in the history of game development but will show what kind of ideas and what small projects are capable of. It’s also nice when the games are non-linear, and there is an opportunity to wander around the location and explore the world that the developer created. And such games – a rarity, if at all there is.
The game has a lot of positive reviews on Steam, and we can say that Chu-Chu Charles shot perfectly. The only thing worth scolding the author a little for is the price. Of course, not a lot of money, but the content in the game is small, and I’m sure he could do better. You could make it so that the protagonist has at least some limited weapon when he gets off the train, or run across the floor of the location to the train when you are shot from shotguns into the train, to fend off enemies somehow so- so.
Reviewer purchased a copy of the game.
