Railbound World 9

[Kelsi Corsi]

World8 has some challenging base puzzles but for some reason, some very simple bonus puzzles. You will end up having more of a challenge from the base puzzles as you will get a lot of tiles in the bonus puzzles here. The final world will not add any new functions to the game but we will see all of them revisited in these stages.

Wherein Inbento it was a single puzzle that stopped me dead, it was a single mechanic that did the same in Railbound. Throughout each of its worlds, Railbound introduces new mechanics to complicate the process of assembling your train correctly. This was fine until world 9, when the game added a third car to every single puzzle. Up until that point almost all the puzzles featured 2 cars that had to be assembled sequentially. Adding a third car into the mix made things extremely complicated.

Similar to Teardown, Nobody Saves the World is one that I picked up because it reviewed well. It was one of the first indies to hit this year, so it was easy putter away at between some of the heavy hitters from this past January. The basic premise of Nobody Saves the World is simple: you play a nameless dude that can transform into a variety of different forms. Each of these forms acts like a unique class with a suite of distinct abilities. As you level each class, new passive benefits unlock for all your other classes making them more powerful. So the basic gameplay loop is to keep swapping, and leveling classes so your collective strength improves across all of them.

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Railbound is a puzzle game themed around trains. In each level, the player is presented an isometric view 2D grid with train tracks, one to four train carriages, and other elements. The player uses a tap-and-drag system to place tracks on unoccupied spaces in the grid, and is given a limited set of tracks per level. Tracks can be placed in any orientation, and can be placed to go straight, turn, or branch. The goal is to place tracks to guide the carriages, each of which are numbered sequentially, in order, to the back of a locomotive.[1]

The game's more than 150 levels are structured into sets of stages called "worlds". Each world introduces a new mechanic, such as tunnels or numbered stations, that affects how carriages must be routed. Later worlds combine previously introduced mechanics.[1] Each world has approximately ten base puzzles that introduce its mechanic and must be completed to move on to the next world, as well as additional optional bonus puzzles.[2]

Afterburn is a Polish indie developer which previously released puzzle games Golf Peaks and inbento.[3] According to studio founder Luke Spierewka, Railbound's gameplay was inspired by Mini Metro and Cosmic Express. Its art style was developed from concepts from studio Vile Monarch, and further influenced by French graphic novels. Developing the game's graphical style took up over half of development time.[4]

Development began in November 2021, with an initially expected launch in spring 2022.[4] The game was eventually published by Afterburn on 6 September 2022 for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.[6] It was published by 7Levels for the Nintendo Switch on 1 December 2022,[7] and for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S on 31 May 2023.[8]

On 3 February 2023, Railbound's 2.0 update added an additional set of 30 levels and a "semaphores" mechanic.[9] A year after release, the 3.0 update added two additional sets of levels and a "two locomotives" mechanic.[10]

The visual, audio, and interaction design of the game drew praise from reviewers, with most finding that these elements contributed to a cosy, laid-back ambiance. Reviewers cited its comic book-inspired, cel shaded style and warm pastel color palette, describing the art as "cosy", "cute", and "striking".[2][14][13] Kotaku generally described the soundtrack as "laid-back", Touch Arcade liked "the little sounds of everything clacking together", and PC Gamer said that "when the piano kicked in in world four I was jazzed".[14][13][15] PC Gamer also praised the game's intuitive controls.[15]

The level design and difficulty received mixed feedback. Pocket Gamer found the difficulty frustrating, especially in later levels when mechanics were combined, a problem made worse by skipping optional levels.[12] The divide of the game into core and optional levels was controversial. Rock Paper Shotgun wished that more of the optional levels had been integrated into the core path of the game, criticizing "the game's relentless obsession with ploughing on toward the finish line".[2] Rock Paper Shotgun described it as a "hint system done right", offering small clues to allow the player room to solve the puzzle, and Pocket Gamer said that it increased the ease of solving the puzzles but that "the game doesn't spoonfeed you with its hints".[2][12] Nintendo Life criticized that the small play area led to many levels having only one solution.[1]

Railbound won the 2023 Apple Design Awards for interaction,[16] based on the simplicity of its tap-and-drag system for placing rails.[17] It also won "Best Mobile Game" at the 2023 Central & Eastern European Game Awards.[18]

There are ten worlds, each with a differing amount of regular levels within, as well as unlockable bonus ones. What this means is that over 200 levels are present throughout, which is pretty darn impressive. The sheer volume of content is a real asset, assuming you find that the puzzles have enough new mechanics introduced regularly in order to keep the challenges feeling fresh.

The general objective of using the limited inventory, in tandem with the railway parts that are already set in stone, to create a working route is at the heart of the puzzling. A host of complementing ideas are also thrown into the mix as progression is made. For example, increasing the number of carriages conjures up a real conundrum as they must arrive in a specific order. This is where looping layouts and forks in the railway allow the carriages to be reorganised.

Railbound does also become quite difficult with those variables having to be factored into eventual solutions. It certainly could be a worry for anyone not up to the task, because this might result in you contemplating bailing out of the journey prematurely. Thankfully though, Afterburn have included two standout accessibility features to ensure even the most inept puzzlers can experience the entire world tour.

There are 40 new puzzles to solve across two new worlds - World 11 and World 12. We've also got a brand-new twist on the existing Railbound formula - all of the new levels feature two locomotives and separate sets of train cars which you need to connect to the right place in the right order. It was a mechanic that we conceived at an early stage, cut from the original scope of the game because of time constraints, but could now revisit in this update... and honestly, it's a lot more fun and challenging than we originally expected! We hope you have a great time playing around with these new puzzles.

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