DaRmaZat In a year bursting with high-concept survival games, Railgods of Hysterra tries to carve its path through the sludge—quite literally. Developed by Troglobytes Games and published by Digital Vortex Entertainment, this Early Access release hits PC with the promise of co-op action, base building, and cosmic madness, all wrapped around a monstrous train. While the elevator pitch screams originality, the execution often derails into tedium. Behind the tentacles and twisted iconography lies a crafting loop stretched far too thin—and a game more obsessed with resource menus than momentum.
A Beast on Rails, but Going Nowhere Fast
The central premise is wild enough to catch attention: you and up to four others pilot a grotesque biomechanical train through the rotting landscape of Hysterra, scavenging fuel and sanity while fending off horrors inspired by Lovecraft’s deep catalog of squirming monstrosities. Your train is alive, it eats biomass, and it doubles as both transport and home base. There’s something undeniably cool about that, and the first hour delivers that grisly wonder.
But soon, the magic dulls. Towns, outposts, and ruins blur together, and the promise of cosmic discovery fades into a loop of chopping, looting, and stuffing goo into the furnace. Even the Old Gods seem disinterested, quietly lurking behind a fog of lore that never becomes truly tangible. The oppressive world hints at mystery but instead serves mostly as a canvas for standard survival tropes.
Combat Sparks, But Repetition Burns It Out
At its best, Railgods of Hysterra feels like a chaotic ARPG on rails. You choose or create a strange protagonist and dive into surprisingly punchy battles against corrupted wildlife and cultists. Early encounters hint at fast-paced, reactive fights with dodges, ranged spells, and mob control. There’s even a touch of madness mechanics that affect combat flow, which could’ve been brilliant if explored further.
Unfortunately, variety runs out quickly. Enemies become predictable, and outside of a few cooldown-based abilities, combat settles into mindless kiting. Spells lack visual punch over time, and even the enemy physics, fun at first, become noise. The game wants to be both survival and Diablo-lite, but neither loop fully matures.
A Crafting System That Chokes on Itself
Crafting in Railgods of Hysterra starts as functional, then slowly turns into the game’s own personal madness mechanic. Nearly every action feeds back into some form of crafting: weapons, blueprints, food, gear upgrades, train enhancements. But instead of feeling empowering, it becomes a weight. The menus are dense, the systems poorly signposted, and bugs—like duplicating blueprints or broken item progression—turn experimentation into a chore.
Resource gathering isn’t the issue; it’s the sheer overabundance of unlockables and nested recipes that buries any sense of pace. You don’t discover—you manage. And for a world so full of teeth, the core loop lacks bite. The game wants you to be both survivor and engineer, but doesn’t give you the tools to make either feel rewarding beyond checklists.
When the World Breaks Before You Do
Hysterra has its moments. A blood-red coastline under a dead sky. A flickering tower crawling with whispers. Some environments feel stitched from nightmares in just the right way. But technical flaws constantly snap you back to reality. Frequent slowdown near water, AI glitches, blueprint bugs, and bizarre visual hitches plague the experience, even on mid-range rigs. It’s Early Access, yes—but many issues feel foundational rather than surface-level.
Worse, the UI fights you at every turn. Whether you’re trying to equip spells, build structures, or just navigate the train’s many upgrade paths, the interface feels like it was built for a different game entirely—one with far fewer systems layered on top of each other.
Preliminary Thoughts
Railgods of Hysterra has all the markings of an indie cult hit—on paper. A living train, a shifting world, arcane horrors, and co-op survival? That should work. But after several hours, the surface novelty gives way to a game swamped in systems that rarely harmonize. Where it should thrill, it idles. Where it should horrify, it distracts. Even with flashes of inspiration and the occasional burst of frantic action, the overall experience feels more like a slow crawl through sludge than an apocalyptic joyride. Unless major systems get refined and the crafting loop finds a better rhythm, Hysterra’s train might never leave the station.
Additional Information
Release Date: May 7, 2025
Reviewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Troglobytes Games
Publisher: Digital Vortex Entertainment
Official Website: https://www.railgodsofhysterra.com
Relevant Links: Railgods of Hysterra on STEAM
