Voidtrain is a new survival crafting game from HyperTrain Digital, and it’s due for release on the 10th of May 2023 on PC. Players can take on the Void World, either solo or with friends in the 4-player co-op experience, taking on the role of engineers that have been thrown into a mysterious Void.

Starting the game, you will start off with a small and simple trolley to control, with resources floating around the tracks and some handy rope. You can float around while tied to the trolley to gather items like scrap metals, wood, and plant-based fat, all of which can be used to help expand the crafting knowledge and build more helpful items.

As you progress further into the game, you’ll eventually build your own train from scratch, including an engine system and multiple wagons for hauling items and adding length to your masterpiece of a train. As you tackle the void, you can also craft useful items such as work tables, smelters, a garden, and other builds that help advance.

The only thing I found a bit off-putting with the building is that in order to learn a new structure, you will need to craft items to build it, then, after learning it, you’ll need to regather the supplies to actually build it. For example, if you need one iron and a gear piece to learn the recipe, you will use the items to learn it, but you’ll then need to smelt more iron and make a new gear piece to be able to build it.

This is instead of using a skill point or another form of currency to learn builds, and it just always feels weird and burns my resources faster. There are threats within the Void, from soldiers armed with guns to alien life forms, like space sharks… Yes, that’s right. Space sharks. So you will need to be constantly aware to keep the train safe from being attacked. To combat this, you can customize weapons on the go, improving damage and other stats to help you stay in fighting shape.

The game does not just focus on the train though, and you will come across outposts and arenas that will test your combat skills, but they have decent rewards for clearing them. Players will also be able to find and tame very cute life forms called Rofleemo, and they bring some life to the void in your heart with how adorable they are.

The gameplay for Voidtrain is easy to master. I don’t often play craft survival games, and this does a good job of keeping things simple for crafting and placing items. My favorite aspect was being tied to the train, floating around, and gathering stuff. Just knowing that I will not get left behind if I didn’t hit the brakes was refreshing, as I could easily see myself floating off into the void and getting lost trying to get back to the track, let alone catching up with the train.

Visually, Voidtrain offers amazing sites to behold. Even at the start, with how empty the surrounding world looks, it still gives off a relaxing calmness and uses fantastic lighting to keep players ready for the ever-changing void, giving hints at the type of world you will explore and what you will see in the next areas.

The audio comes with a very helpful narrator that will help guide you, and thankfully, it has a sense of humor, dropping jokes to keep players entertained as they play. Unlike other titles with a running narration, it does not get overused or become annoying; something that would possibly make players run to the settings to find a way to silence the voice.

The soundtrack the game uses also adds to the relaxing feel the visuals give off, as it is a very calming backing track, and when you are out of combat and just taking in the sights, the music blends well with it as a whole.

Voidtrain is a very immersive and fun game to explore with friends and for solo players. My time spent with the game was solo, but it’s something I hope I can convince my friends to buy as I would like to experience the co-op side of it and have more help with the building and resource-gathering side of things.

The game does start off slow, which did feel like a bit of a grind, but for the slowness, if you are paying attention to what the game is teaching you, it will pay off. It’s very important for how the game plays. If you’d like to give Voidtrain a go, there is a free demo on the Steam store that’ll let you experience a small portion of the game and decide if it’s for you.

Written by: Shane Walsh