Free-to-play roguelike train-building card game 'Frostrain' play review
Frostrain is a roguelike train-building card game in which you combine passenger cars with various characteristics to reach new frontiers. It's free to play on Steam, so I decided to try it out.
Steam: Frostrain
You can see how to play through one game in the following movie. Each play takes about 30 minutes.
Free-to-play roguelike train construction card game 'Frostrain' play movie - YouTube
Click 'New Game' to start the game.
You will be taken to the character selection screen, but you can only choose one character at first. I will play as 'Im Seok-tae'.
Since this was my first time playing the game, I did a tutorial. However, in this article, I will explain the contents of the tutorial using actual gameplay scenes. If you are interested in the contents of the tutorial, please check out
The story can be seen on the loading screen before the game starts. It is a game about running to the 'promised land.'
The game has begun.
You can move the camera with the 'W', 'A', 'S', and 'D' keys and the mouse wheel. First, pull the camera back as far as it will go.
The screen then switches to the map. The yellow lines are reserved tracks, and the '?' marks are nodes that have not yet arrived. Left-clicking on a node will allow the train to move along the shortest line from the current train position to that node, and holding down the 'Shift' key while left-clicking will allow you to reserve an additional node without changing the already reserved line.
I tried to schedule the track to pass through as many nodes as possible. The arrival time of the next node is shown in the top right.
Zooming in with the mouse wheel will return you to the train screen. Every time you pass a node, you can receive 'supplies.'
When you click on the supply mark, three cards will be displayed and you can select one. This time, I selected the card called 'Ministry of Public Safety and Justice' which says 'Happiness +3'.
You can place the card you received as a passenger car by dragging and dropping it onto the train.
The train now consists of two cars.
Every 10 seconds, passengers on the train are randomly assigned to a passenger car, which activates the effect of the passenger car. The Ministry of Public Safety and Justice we installed earlier has the effect of 'Happiness +3', and since two people were assigned this time, it will increase the happiness by 6. The happiness earned is accumulated in the meter at the top of the screen.
The next supply also brought out a 'Ministry of Public Safety and Justice' card.
You can level up by stacking the same vehicles of the same level. Stack level 1 Ministry of Public Security and Justice together.
The Ministry of Public Safety and Justice has increased to level 2, and its effect of 'Happiness +3' has been strengthened to 'Happiness +5'. The maximum level of passenger cars is 4, so you can reach the maximum level by collecting a total of 8 level 1 passenger cars.
As your level increases, the number of passenger car tiers increases, so you can check your current level at a glance.
To the right of the happiness level there is a gauge that slowly slides to the left.
When the number reaches the left edge of the gauge, the happiness level will decrease by that amount. When the happiness level reaches 0, the game is over.
Every time you pass a node, you receive experience points along with supplies. When you accumulate a certain amount of experience points, your level will increase and the number of passenger cars and passengers you can place will increase.
As the game progressed, I got a card called 'Entertainment Management Department.'
Each card has two types of marks, and by placing cars with the same mark, you can activate special effects. This time, I placed three passenger cars with the 'General Promotion Bureau' mark, so the 'passenger activates the effect of the passenger car' cycle, which usually occurs every 10 seconds, now occurs every 8 seconds.
Also, event marks may appear under passenger cars. Clicking on an event mark will give you 1 happiness point.
Some nodes are larger than normal nodes.
Larger nodes tend to give you more rare cards. The rarity of a card can be determined by the circle in the center of the card, and there are four types from bottom to top: 'Bronze,' 'Silver,' 'Gold,' and 'Rainbow.'
Each car can carry up to three passengers. If you have a selection of high-quality cars, you can reduce the number of cars to ensure the effect is more stable.
As I leisurely walked around the nodes collecting cards, the nodes gradually froze starting from the left.
It seems like a storm is approaching from behind.
Your happiness will decrease by 5 per second until you leave the 'storm' area. You probably can't afford to travel too slowly.
You can pause and resume the game with the space bar, and you can play at double speed by pressing the 1 key.
In addition, the maximum number of cards you can hold is eight, and if you exceed that limit, the game will be forcibly paused until you have eight or less cards. You can deal with this by dragging and dropping the extra cards to the bottom right to discard them, or stacking them to level up.
As you progress through the game, 'polluted' areas will appear, gradually draining your happiness every second.
My happiness level kept decreasing, and finally it hit 0. Even if it hits 0, you can continue playing the game if you can get it back to 0 or higher within a day.
The finish line is in sight, but the gauge that reduces your happiness has reached over 1000. The number on the gauge rises at an accelerating rate, so you'll regret taking the detour in the first place.
I managed to hang on until I was close to the finish line, but finally my happiness level ran out.
The short length of each playthrough gives you the opportunity to enjoy combining various combos, while also creating a good balance of not letting up after completing a combo. It's free to play, so please give it a try.
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