I Need Railways:

In Brief:
I Need Railways is a line drawing game featuring hand drawn graphics. Initially in monochrome, but as you progress colour is added to complicate matters. ;)

You can see a video of game play HERE.

The Game:
Please see the giveaway introduction and images just below the timer and download button above for details of todays game giveaway; courtesy of, Falcoware games and the developer Uniden.

Conclusion:
I Need Railways is definitely one to download IMO. It's been checked for malware and is 100% clean (according to my scan of the installed game using the online antimalware site Virus Total). .

It's a very playable but sometimes frustrating 2D minimalistic, hand drawn, line drawing game, with a physics mechanic. You only get a limited amount of ink to draw your lines, so you need to be very judicious in using it. Also, as soon as you start a level the train immediately moves towards the first break in the rails; you really need to be quick on the draw, deciding where your lines are going to be placed to save the train from disappearing into the abyss. Some gaps can be navigated by the train with no additional lines added; other gaps need you to draw punctuated lines quickly before the train arrives; {i.e. with gaps in them, much like a dotted line e.g _ _ _ _ _). You have only a few seconds at the most to block each gap before losing the level.

When you successfully get to the end of a level, the next level starts almost immediately. I'd like to have seen a brief respite, where you can gather your thoughts and perhaps redo the level you've just completed before moving on to the next one, but this is not possible unless you close the game down and restart from the very beginning. If you fail to complete the level and your train disappears into white nothingness, it's easy to restart the level you are on using the restart button in the top right hand corner of the games window. As you progress, levels become much harder to beat; thankfully, from level 3 onwards there are save points within the bounds of the level, so you don't have to start from the beginning of a level if you fail. You can attempt the level you are on as many times as you wish until you complete it.

Overall 'I Need Railways' is a decent indie arcade game that's ideal for those longer coffee/tea breaks, or if you've got some spare time in the evening.

The down side to this game, is that there is no level map; so, when you close the game down, then restart, you start from the beginning each time.


I like to know how much time I need to devote to games like this, which is impossible without a level map, or knowing how many levels there are to beat. The developer needs to add a save point at the end of each level so that you can continue where you left off from a previous session instead of always having to start from the beginning of the game. The game would be much improved if the developer added a level map, so that you could start from where you left off if you needed a break from the game before completing it.

Still, I'll be keeping this one because I used to love playing the commercial version of Line Rider, one of the first games of this genre that I remember buying about 15 years ago. You can get a free version of Line Rider Advanced HERE (checked for malware and 100% clean). Another even better one called Line Rider 2: Unbound can be found for free on MyAbandonware HERE; it's an ISO file so you'll need to install it onto a DVD first before you can play the game. I'll be posting both of these games i.e. Line Rider Advanced and Line Rider 2: Unbound (which used to be sold on Steam) in the Free Games Project, over in the giveaway forums sometime soon. :) There's also other commercial versions of this genre, such as Draw Riders 1 & 2 that you'll find on Steam HERE. There are also a couple of android games that are similar such as Draw and Ride and Draw Me Physics that are free to play. :)


Sadly I suspect the game is quite short as I've played a lot of these Unity based games with no level map and they tend to be very short. Also, Uniden the developer seems to churn out several games regularly over a short period. They have given us 43 games since September 2020, mainly jig saw puzzles, but we have seen other genres such as Platformers (The Legend of the Fallen Castle 1 and 2), Tetris (Knights Tetris & Relaxing Tetris) , Board Games (Super Checkers) , football (Rockcar) and a Rubix Cube (Rubixs Adventure)

Other Stuff:
You'll find regularly updated details of all the reasonable game deals and freebies that I can find HERE; that. until now I've usually post in this comments section

After a post by one of our regular community members in answer to a comment I made last week, I've decided to cut down my reviews and post my usual second comment detailing with freebies and the latest game deals over in the forums (which I'll link too) to keep my usually lengthy posts to a minimum.

I did say I would do this a couple of years ago, but habits die hard. :) I need to make some changes as life has become a lot busier over the last few years. I'll focus mainly on a conclusion from this point forwards, but depending on the game (e.g. if it's one of my favourite genres or if it's a limited Steam giveaway), I may expand further. I will of course continue to moderate as usual, both here and in the forums.