Unrailed 2 Improves Upon Original In Almost Every Way - Preview

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Working together with your friends in local co-op to complete tasks is so much fun, and Unrailed is one of the best games for local co-op play. You work with your friends to clear out forests and mine, all while quickly making tracks for your train to get it to the station in one piece. It is frantic and ridiculous, and with the maps being procedurally generated and different ways you can upgrade your train, it can be a really addicting experience. After having played Unrailed 2's preview, I can say the good times are only going to get better.

Unrailed 2 retains the core gameplay loop of the first game, while also adding onto it with some new features and enhancing what was already there. You are still mining resources, like wood and iron, and using your train's wagons to build rails to keep the train going until the station. Getting to each station can give you a chance to upgrade your wagons or add new ones on to aid you, like storage wagons, and then you move onto the next map in an endless procedurally generated cycle to see how far you can get.

But there are some key differences in Unrailed 2. In terms of new content, I got to select where the train was going to go next. It's a new roguelike feature where you can see how hard the next map will be, as well as see what the benefit of going will be. This could result in you going to a shop to spend money to upgrade, get new wagon upgrades, get new character upgrades, and more. I also tried out making my own level, which is not only pretty easy to do, but works well with a controller! I didn't get a chance to try the online modes, like the new 8-player 4v4 PvP where you are both trying to get a train to your assigned station quicker than the other, but I can see them being awesome.

However, what made me most excited about Unrailed 2 is how much better it feels than the previous game. The difference between the two in terms of pure feeling is significant. The character feels better to control, animations for moving around and mining are fine-tuned, and the visuals pop and feel much more realized. It feels like developer Indoor Astronaut took what was brought to us in the previous game and just made everything look and feel better, all while adding in new content to make it more appealing to play.

And yes, Unrailed 2 is just a blast on the Steam Deck! In the actual game, I was able to hit 90 FPS while sticking below 18W battery drain, and dropping to 60 will help save on battery life even more. This is an early-access game, so performance will only improve, but I am confident it will be great based on what I am playing now.

Overall, Unrailed 2 looks to be the best way to enjoy this co-op experience, and it is one worth having. With online and local multiplayer modes, and how well it is running on the Steam Deck so far, I could see this being an essential to my library to hook up to my TV and play with my wife on our external controllers. There are little issues here and there that I did encounter, like my AI bot not really listening to any commands in one match, the tutorial being unskippable, and the selection menu dropping in performance, but it is overall just a blast to play, especially on the Deck!

Unrailed 2 can be wishlisted it ahead of its November 7th release date.

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