Independent developer and publisher Two Star Games has just released the first trailer for horror game Choo-Choo Charles. Choo-Choo Charles sounds like a silly enough title, but the horror game's trailer demonstrates that there will be little to laugh at when desperately fleeing from this terrifying, sentient train.
Charles, an evil, anthropomorphic steam locomotive, bears resemblance to a spider-clown. It is like Thomas the Tank Engine, if it were a nightmarish spider with giant legs, a wide grin full of jagged teeth, and protruded eyeballs. But with an old, yellow train that players can use to both flee and fight, Choo-Choo Charles' gameplay appears to have natural progression and quests to fulfill on an island.
Choo-Choo Charles' first trailer details what players will have to accomplish in order to survive, from acquiring upgrades to speaking to townspeople. Players fight back against Charles with a mounted machine gun on the back of the player's train while exploring the island on train tracks. Players upgrade their train with scraps to increase the train's health, speed, damage, and armor. It seems like players are safest while aboard the train, though certain missions and tasks, such as switching train tracks or locating resources, require players to explore on foot.
Townspeople will have quests for players to complete in turn for weapons and other items, all with the goal of ultimately defeating Charles. But before then, Charles will be presented as a horrific quest-thwarting presence that players must flee and circumvent until they are significantly upgraded and capable of potentially defeating it. This will perhaps add tension to whenever players step foot off of the train, since Charles might appear at any moment.
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Choo-Choo Charles' visuals cast impressive lighting in dark, remote areas, such as the headlights coming from each tank engine steam locomotive. The townspeople appear to be 2D hand-drawn representations that are starkly different from the rest of Choo-Choo Charles' realistic graphical fidelity.
Choo-Choo Charles' gameplay loop appears to be more full-fledged than that of common indie horror games where the player might be tasked with retrieving pages exclusively or wandering around waiting for jump scares to trigger. Instead, Choo-Choo Charles lets players upgrade, explore, and fight back against the local terror to rescue the townspeople and survive.
Choo-Choo Charles is scheduled to release in early 2022 for PC.
Source: Steam