Recent reviews by Malibu VHS™

Synthwave Soundtrack
10/10

I'm a big fan of both steam locos and spaghetti westerns so when they announced a Railway Empire sequel I was overjoyed. I bought it 10% off on presale and woke up early to install the game this morning. I sometimes forget to manage my expectations as a video game consumer because I found myself uncomfortably disappointed, like finding the seal is broken on your favorite snack you just bought and you're not sure if you should just eat it or throw it away.

There are some interesting additions and changes but it certainly isn't enough to justify the price, or even another game.
The new soundtrack is very forgettable; the old soundtrack echoed the works of Ennio Morricone
The overall visual color pallet is cold, uninviting, and thrown together; the old color pallet was full of warm earthy tones and lacquered wood finishes.
I found many aspects of the game that seemed hurried (such as the UI, character and world assets, and cinematics) and others that seemed overly fixated (such as level detail). While playing, I zoomed in very close at one point and discovered a surprising amount of detail in the foliage which tragically seems like much misplaced effort for detail that is unseen in many other parts of the game.
I caught myself wanting to close the game and open up the original several times in my short play session before I resolved I should get my refund.

My verdict: Not enough compelling improvements from the original installment. Graphics, UI, and soundtrack are lackluster compared to the original installment. Both new and returning enjoyers of this franchise should stick with Railway Empire 1.

Great simple game, you play 5 minutes for each battle, with 4 battles per island, and 4 unique islands with unique hazards and scenarios that changes every time you replay a game or "Timeline".

The most striking element that sets this game apart from other strategy games is your management of your inevitable losses. Since enemies attacks are telegraphed a turn in advance, there are no surprises and you are forced to make hard choices. The surprisingly smart AI is capable of putting you in some pretty nasty chess-like forks.

This game revolves around the concept of "acceptable losses". Each timeline has a persistent health bar, or "Power Grid" that goes down when civilian zones are reduced to rubble. You may have to take-a-bullet with your mechs, or even allow civilians to be killed and your Power Grid to suffer the cost if it means you can prevent larger catastrophic losses or even to complete the scenario objective.

When you run out of power, your mechs can no longer operate. Whatever was left of humanity is doomed and you must abandon the timeline and start over, finding a different timeline to rescue. This game definitely knows how to capitalize on your feeling of hopelessness.

This game can be very daunting when every turn feels like an unwinnable puzzle. But conversely, managing your first clean sweep of a boss level on the hardest difficulty with no losses or casualties feels incredibly rewarding and gives you the same "smart" feeling when you win at chess.

Verdict: I only recommend this game for people who enjoy chess. Very goose game 👍

I got the game and the first thing I hear is those pants-on-head returded-sounding moles

10/10