There’s been a wave of furry horror games with surprisingly elaborate tactical simulation elements, and when I say “wave” I mean I know of two. One of them is Casualties: Unknown, a 2D misericore spelunking experience with an injury system so byzantine that it took Oisin several paragraphs to figure out how to die. The other game, a little nicer, is Fright Train, a B-type survival shooter in which you play as a real dog soldier, the magnificent Doug Barker.
Doug has many issues, but unfortunately not 99, so I can’t make an Ice-T reference here. First, he is trapped in the titular Fright Train, a procedurally generated mad science laboratory on rails that runs through Antarctica, for reasons unknown. Second, the scare train is filled with zombies in slow motion. Third, the Dread Train is subject to recurring bursts of paranormal energy that impose a lockdown, while causing even more zombies to burst through the floor and windows.
FourthThe Fright Train is something of a predatory store, complete with a chatty sharkbot character on board. If you want to open a locked door – let alone buy something from a vending machine, or seal a window to prevent the temperature from dropping below zero – you’ll need to collect vidyacoins in the game by killing objects and vandalizing facilities. The robot shark refuses to explain any of this.
Fifth, the Fright Train is chased by a huge ice worm. If the vehicle takes too much damage, as shown on the HUD, the sharkbot will perform an emergency stop and the iceworm will catch up and swallow everything. Even if you make repairs, the ice worm will eventually devour the section you’re in, so don’t waste too much time harvesting coins, hunting down antifreeze cylinders, or shooting undead.
It’s a tough job, but luckily Doug happens to be the love child of Solid Snake and Chris Redfield. If Solid Snake and Chris Redfield were dogs. He has a permanent scowl. He has a nerdy radio manager. He has a weakness for lines like “pick someone your own size.” Most importantly, it has 15 pockets or tactical holsters, each with both a corresponding item type and a percentage indicating how quickly you will access the items contained within.
Yes, far from being a telephone adaptation of a FNAF shooter, Fright Train is actually a game for inventory management enthusiasts. In addition to crossing each cart as quickly as possible, you’ll need to have guns, ammo packs, health sprays, and other equipment around Doug’s person, to optimize weapon switching and reloading operations. There are backpacks you can equip – Doug can even carry two! – which must be opened manually in your inventory tab to collect and use or pocket everything they contain. No, you are not allowed to pause the action during all of this. You are a Tactical Operatornot a fucking Dragonbornoramus who can freely suspend the laws of physics.
If the idea of 15 pockets makes you drool like a Labrador staring at a field of freshly laid cows, wait until you feel the joy of reloading. You must click to slide individual bullets into magazines, while tactically maneuvering away from the hordes. The associated animation makes it look like Doug is jerking off, which doesn’t seem entirely accidental. Fright Train is a shooter where tedious maintenance of your poles is just as rewarding as shooting them.
The combat itself is otherwise solid, but nothing to write home about: the zombos on the train all sport different body armor setups, so you can’t just aim for the head every time. You also get a meaty kick, effective both in interrupting attacks and in unleashing a shower of bonus vidyacoins, but it consumes stamina which is often needed to escape.
If the inventory management suggests a milsim Resident Evil mod, the overall experience of Fright Train makes me think of Call of Duty’s Zombies mode, except it’s single-player only and without any commercial ties to real-world military organizations. Each train section is a scramble for materials and currency, while trying not to move forward so urgently that you find yourself (for example) in a small office with only one exit and exactly five bullets, just as the next lockdown goes off.
I enjoy the hustle, even if accumulating the means to open a door often requires removing coins from dozens of self-contained objects, from recycling bins to printers. The pacing of Fright Train is aggressive enough that it never becomes a mindless collection, as you’re constantly thinking about what you can afford to ignore or throw away. You may not have enough time to start each bin. You certainly don’t have a holster for every gun.
I’m basing this on two hours of gameplay on normal difficulty, encompassing the first two acts of Fright Train. It’s possible that the game is now Doug’s Dinner, but I have a good feeling about this one. I’d rate what I played dog out of 10, if RPS had a thing for such loose numerology. Find Scare Train on Steam. Also go and play the demo of this Casualties: Unknown game. This looks mouth-watering and vicious, and I’d like to have a trend towards “furry tactical sims”, so we don’t have to write about those stupid haystack games or whatever.
