Locomoto

I hate being harsh to cozy games, but... you make a game about trains, and then you don't let me drive the train? Making me dump in coal and clicking a location on a map is not train-gameplay. And then when you do start "driving" you stand around idle. The windows are like 5 pixels. So I stare at rusty walls and my 1-2 passenger seats (I don't have more yet after 1h, the pacing is super clunky as well) instead of the option to look at a cozy landscape outside in this game about trains. That I've spent my only time so far chatting with flat NPCs and some frustratingly small inventory with an even more frustrating decoration-system? Come on... I thought having a moving base would be more... you know, enjoying the moving part?

As a person who loves train games, this one had SO MUCH PROMISE. Cozy atmosphere, simple idea, and a nice train you navigate around. That being said, it's not worth anymore than maybe $10 on a good sale, simply because it was so shortchanged in its patches and updates. The game released in April of '25, and got its last update in September of the same year. Only things that were done was bugfixes and some clothes added, and that's it. The game is full stop dead on the rails. Wonderful game, great concept, half baked follow up. Only buy it on a sale.

[h2]i'll be honest.[/h2] [b]FIRST I WILL SAY IT RIGHT AWAY!![/b] the game is very cute, it has incredibly nice graphics, models, characters [i](thanks for the non-binary characters, this is also a special plus for you)[/i] I love trains, I love driving and riding them, the game gives you the opportunity to arrange a train. But unfortunately, the game has one big minus... It's [b]incredibly boring[/b]. Yes, at first you have fun, create a character, go through training, complete a quest, get new carriages and costumes, stations... but over time it all repeats itself over and over again, and the quests became unbearably boring and tedious in the end, because they are just “give, bring, tell, find.” It just killed me that you need to look for a character from a million stations. Oh yes, stations, how long and tedious it is to travel from point A to point B, I could barely speed up the train, but it was still so tiring afterwards. And I also started to get annoyed by the characters’ general attitude towards us, as if we were literally a thing for them, and I literally do almost all the work, without any particular help, which just gives me some kind of feeling of being used, “Oh, you brought me this stone, thank you! Now bring me another one, because this one didn’t suit me” conditionally, it just explodes. Maybe it's just me who has ADHD and can't sit through a game properly, but in general. !! My purpose for this review is not to crap the game, but I just want to warn people that perhaps the game may seem just terribly boring somewhere in the middle of the game and I want to ask the developers to take into account the player’s interest and his retention in the game, because you just don’t want to play the game later, because everything literally repeats itself and gets even worse

Oh, Locomoto... what can I say? [h3]In Short[/h3] If I could give this game a neutral-positive rating, I would. It clearly has love and care put into it, but it also misses some marks. If you want to get it, I would recommend getting it on sale—it sometimes drops to $15, which I feel like is a much fairer price for what you receive. [h3]The Good[/h3] [list] [*]Locomoto is a cute game. The art style is pleasant and easy on the eyes, the writing is acceptable, the music is nice, and ultimately at the end of the day it's quite cozy. This is the game's goal, and it does it rather well. [*]There's a surprising degree of customization. Not only counting the many recipes for decorations and furniture, but also the fact that each ingredient will impart a different color onto whatever you make. A seat made of pine wood and copper metal will have a completely different color scheme compared to a seat made of cherry wood and silver metal. You can also add or subtract different train cars from your locomotive, as well as adjust their order, paint their exterior, and paint or wallpaper their interior. If you like decorating train cars, this is a game for you. [*]I liked interacting with the characters. It's not groundbreaking writing, but I never dreaded talking with anyone in particular. [*]It's nice to see your efforts actually reflect the visual progression of Barrenpyre in its journey from your average Northern New Jersey town to someplace actually livable. [/list] [h3]The Meh[/h3] [list] [*]Not the arrangement, nor the quality of furniture on the inside of the train has any bearing on anything. On one hand, understandable. If you want to make your train look a certain way and not have to worry about being locked out of anything or otherwise penalized for it, then it's a plus. On the other, there's no incentive to get creative or decorate past putting down seats and the occasional food/drink machine. [*]I've come across some bugs that, while not game-breaking, were still rather annoying. Some could only be fixed with a save and quit. [*]The sidequests are repetitive and pretty much follow the same format. The thing that makes them passable for me are the character interactions, but the quests themselves are not very engaging. [*]Resource collecting feels like a chore more than anything. If you want a specific material, either you need to know where to find it or you need to have enough tokens (and know where the dispensers are) to purchase them. And you'll need quite a few of the same if you're going for a theme and decking out your train cars. [*]There's no real replayability to the game. Once you go through it once, there's really nothing new that'll pop up a second time around. You already know how the story ends, so you'd just be going through the motions to get there again. [/list] [h3]The Bad[/h3] [list] [*]While the concept of conducting your own train may sound appealing, the actual gameplay behind its operation is fairly lacking. You get coal from the hopper, stuff it in the firebox, and... that's pretty much it. I'm not unhappy with the fact that it's simple—this isn't a train simulator—I'm unhappy with the fact that it's mind-numbingly repetitive. Of course, you [i]can[/i] choose not to put coal in and it will still run, but then you move at a snail's pace and will get absolutely nowhere. [*]There are a few loose ends in terms of writing that never get elaborated upon or tied up. Which is a shame, because they genuinely caught my interest and I wanted to see some sort of payoff or resolution to them. But there's just... nothing [*]As far as I know, the game will receive no more updates. Green Tile Digital has shut down, officially leaving Locomoto in its current state. This breaks my heart, because with more polish and content I'm sure this game would have been a solid recommendation from me. I hope those who worked on this game are doing well, because even with my gripes about the game I did enjoy my experience with it. [/list] [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] If I could give this game a rating, it might be a 7/10. That's not bad by any means, it's above-average. It sets out what it wants to do, and it does it well enough. The hiccups are notable, but in my opinion they are not bad enough to warrant a negative recommendation in its current (and final) state. If you want a cozy game where you drive a train around, play interior designer with the cars, talk to people, and shuttle them around? Locomoto might be a good game for you.

Its nice and all BUT: It gets boring quite fast. Its cute story and chars but constant travelling which isnt fun, takes time and only meaningful thing you can do is repetitive loading coal to engine. Quite frankly I was expecting more customization, steam engine tuning, more minigames... In the end it all narrows down to linear story, side quests, gathering mats, delivering pax and mail to get coins to get more mats to create new items with same functionality. Maybe Im just too old for this in the end and it feels shallow. Would definitely recommend for kids tho.

At the point of this review I spent 18 hours in this game and though I thought it was SUPER cute and was excited for it i can't say I would recommend at this stage. Having no inventory is a big problem with how many tings your are expected to move around and keep on hand. Far from having a cafe on the train (what I expected from the trailer) You passangers often don't order anything and if they do there's nothing to make, just click a button and give them a random item. Ad this to you've already redesigned your train and you have nothing to do on the long train rides. And some of them are VERY long and slow. The missions end up teedious beacuse you end up having to slowly travel around looking for items as the map only keeps track of where the characters are, not the materials. VERY cute contept but with these issues it takes away the cozy feel and just becomes exuasting. :(

An adorable and amusing little cozy game where you run your own train to transport deliveries and people can ride along. You can give them food and drinks, upgrade your train, and customize your own furry character. There's no deadlines to worry about, so everything is at your own pace. No anxiety here, just a comfortably good time.

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Very cute! Very relaxing! Love the character customizations and outfits!