Quick Look: Train Valley 2

where *do* the workers go?

@derwafflemous:

The Langoliers get them.

I get that the point of the game is to keep as many plates spinning as possible, but part of me really wants there to be the option to automate the trains with well planned out signalling.

I think it's implied that the workers are ground up and fed to the cows and also used as fertilizer for the wheat.

@pete0r: dat spacechem

It is a fun game. Gets quite difficult later on. Unfortunately some of that difficulty is down to the strict way it wants you to place track. I get that it is a puzzle game but a little more leeway would have allowed the player to come up with more creative solutions. A lot of the puzzle tends to boil down to pixel hunting for the one path that allows track through. Then you get quirks like being able to lay track down a hill, but try and lay that same track up the hill and it is red and will not go.

I do like that, unlike a free to play mobile game, the unlocks for stars are cosmetic and if you just want to ignore the win conditions and have a chill game of trainsets then you can unlock all the levels with no artificial barriers.

I agree. It is very rare that you have the space to lay track in both directions on any one route - which is very counter intuitive to how trains work. That said - I accept that it is a necessary conceit to make the puzzle game that they were intending.

This seems really neat. Thanks for sharing

I like all of Vinny's questions.

When Dan finds out about Nominal Dimensions and Actual Dimensions, oh wait Vinny just got to that...

@alternate@pete0r: You two should play Factorio!

If I were making this game I'd want to give the player a tool to help coordinate dispatches - it'd be nice if when you hovered over the "Dispatch" icon for a station that it showed you how many seconds it'd take to reach any possible destination etc

I love it when Abby shows these games. She got me playing House Flipper, too. It's a refreshing, chill change from my usual diet of violent and frenetic games.

l don't really dig the logic in this game at all. The way the people and trains are born in one spot just to die in another doesn't make sense. Also, the real gripe, is this mechanics of the tracks. It would have been better to do it with spaceships on a patch between space stations. The rules of trains and travel are well established and it is hard for someone like me to wrap my head around the track rules on this.

But I am glad to see continued coverage of smaller and more pointed games and I look forward to the next.

Thank you Abby!

"I don't know what subsidise or bureaucracy mean" smh, there's always one. Game looks like something I could get into.

You can select which train is next in the queue by clicking on them on the left, when you haven't upgraded them all and don't want to send the fast one behind a slow one.

@adamcboyd: completely agree. The logic of the game clashes with reality and it's really unsatisfying

I appreciate the Quick Look, but it wasn't until 20 minutes in that Abby explained the basics of the game. Dan and Vinny were lost for most of the video.

Just a quick recommendation that everybody who likes trains and/or puzzles (all of us surely) should play Mini Metro. I've bought it three times now (PC, phone and Switch) and haven't regretted it for a second. Every session starts off incredibly relaxing and ends in unadulterated panic. Do it.

Back on topic, I'm enjoying this quick look.

Dan "Subsidized Bureaucracy" Ryckert

This feels more like an idle game than a puzzle game. I don't know what happens in later levels but there doesn't seem to be much of a "puzzle" to solve here. It's just clicking things in the one order you're supposed to click them at until the level is over.

I guess the leaderboards add a bit of puzzle element to figuring out the most effective strategies to the levels.

It’s only 2 minutes in

We’re not talking about the GAME WE ARE QUICK LOOKING

1) I really the games Abby has been QLing lately. Neat little games that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise.

2) I love that this QL nearly, uh, derails immediately due to Vinny talking about wood

3) This game seems neat, might pick up the first one at some point.

Split is an amazing movie. That is all.

I love the pure excitement that Vinny experienced when Dan actually knew how lumber measurements work.

This certainly is an expansion of the first Train Valley.

I'm not sure if I'd dig this one too much but I absolutely loved the simplicity of the first one because it was very hectic and fun.

This uh...this game seems kind of unrealistic just for the sake of puzzle and plate spinning. And I know, it's a video game and unrealistic is nothing new, but having trains just disappear is weird.

Also, Abby didn't exactly explain things clearly so I was mostly confused the whole time. Though I'm pretty sure that's Vinny's fault for talking about 2x4 which honestly I'll take over this game.

This makes me want an East Transport Tycoon multiplayer Play Date.

"Good on the wood"

More fascinating film criticism from people who think MacGruber is a classic comedy.

Man Abbey couldn't stop Vinny's train of thought there in the beginning.

Are you guys going to look at Anno 1800?

Haven't watched the QL yet, but maaaan that movie sucks. Like depressingly so, and I'm a fan of Will Forte in Last Man On Earth.

Lol liked the village but hated split.

“I don’t question the economy, I just profit from it.”

2x4 discussion always reminds me of this cut scene from Twin Peaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txPcLOtbG3s

Is that a Heritage unit?

I think Abby was getting tired of the guys making fun of the logic of the economy and mechanics of this game but honestly... I found this quick look one of the funniest in a while. Real good bits in here

@avioto: I totally agree with you

@ybbaaabby not sure if this something you would tweak or someone else, but I noticed that the Cast section on this episode doesn't include Vinny or Dan. Thanks for the great QL and all of the other awesome work you do!

Dan made me laugh out loud when he referenced back to the level name (The Zeppelin) after Abby is producing wheat, tires & rubber. 'so... this all eventually gets made into a zeppelin?' :) Fair question!