The Trolley Solution

Every time I review something, I try to keep subjectivity out of it (for the most part) and instead ask myself, "What is this game trying to accomplish, and did it accomplish it?" But in the case of The Trolley Solution, I don't know how to answer that. I hate giving a negative review for an indie team that clearly put a lot of passion into the project. I have no qualms with the quality at all. The aesthetic and writing service the needs of the game just fine. If you know what you're getting into when you purchase this game, I think you will have a good time. My biggest issue is with the minigames and how they seem to be very hit or miss. I definitely had fun with some of them, like the shopping cart time trial, the Simpsons Hit and Run-esque one, the "build-the-tracks" one, to name a few. But others were a snoozefest. The Tamagotchi one for starters. I am only 26, and I never played a Tamagotchi (my 37-year-old sister had one, so maybe it's just a generational divide), so being forced to sit through and cycle through the same animations for a trolley did not appeal to me. My trolley-gotchi died once, so I had to do it over again. I am also not a visual novel fan, so I *really* did not like having to sit through the visual novel. Especially since I had to do it over again because I got a bad ending the first time, apparently. I just mashed M1 to get through it quickly the second time and wound up picking the right buttons to "beat" the level. The one where you just pick up and drop off passengers near the end was also incredibly boring. You're the trolley driver, just riding around in a trolley in first-person, pushing the brakes when the trolley approaches a stop. I found myself clicking the trolley bell to the tune of various songs to get some entertainment out of my video game. The philosophy theme isn't quite half-heartedly painted on, but it's also not too terribly relevant. I feel crazy for saying this because the entire premise is about moral dilemmas caused by The Trolley Problem, but the theme seemed more focused on trolleys than philosophy. And, I get it, the game doesn't take itself too seriously, the entire thing is very tongue-in-cheek. But if you're looking for a game that discusses philosophy and ethical dilemmas in earnest, this probably isn't for you. There are philosopher cards you can collect and some mentions of deontology and utilitarianism are made, but that's the majority portion of the philosophy. I liked it when the game actually talked about moral dilemmas (the remaining portion of the philosophy, but it's very slim) and it did make me think about the greater implications of one of the levels. I won't spoil it but I will say takes you to a website that does exactly what the dilemma says will happen. These instances are few and far between, however, because The Trolley Solution really just wants you to play trolley-themed minigames.

I presume this would work better as a party or streaming game. Playing alone, it becomes a checklist to see all possible variations which quickly loses all pretense of fun.

Троллей-сан вытащил в соло

This is a fine enough game, some parts were pretty funny but all the minigames are hit or miss with some really, really missing (I am looking at you "A Nice Ride"). Just play Absurd Trolley Problems on neal.fun, it might not have minigames but it is honestly better (and free). In a world where there are too many good games to play them all, don't waste your time on this mediocre one. Also for 100%ers: the achivments here are generally fun or at least inoffensive, with the exception of two that require you to replay the game (you just lost the game) twice to get them, adding about 70~ minutes of pretty boring playtime.

made me post on bluesky and twitter and donate $100 to doctors without borders 10/10

3/10 The game is obviously the developers having fun with the trolley problem, and wants to test the player's morality. There's nothing wrong with that. However, the end result of this game is just extremely boring, tedious, and mind numbing. I picked it up on sale for the steam summer sale for $5. Cheap game. It's not worth the $10, and I wouldn't quite say worth the $5. There are 40 levels total. 20 of them are legitimate trolley problem conundrums on whether you pull the lever or not. The other 20 are trolley minigames (of which you can only unlock if you pull the lever in the previous conundrum level). The minigames are really where this game loses enjoyment. I understand they are parodies, meant to be funny and reference other media (crazy taxi, visual novels, tomogachi), and they are relatively short games. It's just that somehow, some way, they make them feel like an hour long chore to do. A little tangent, the "quick maths" level is just wrong. 20÷5x(10-2) was the question, and the correct answer was not listed. We're all taught PEMDAS, but I used that and the correct answer just wasn't up there, so I had to replay the level several times to guess the correct one. Ultimately, the game is trying too hard to be a "Hey youtuber/streamer, play my funny gag game so I can have a spike of popularity for a moment!" type game. "Flavor of the week" if you will. The most fun thing in the game was Mightier Than The Sword, which was a DOOM parody level. The last kicker, to add insult to injury, is that you CANNOT 100% this game without BUYING DLC. The DLC, at full price, is $10 (I think). So to 100% this game, you have to toss them even more money than you spent for 1 level. Otherwise, you're going to stare at 39/40 levels complete. I think 3/10 is too generous. I can't recommend this game to anyone who likes the trolley problem. However, a couple of my friends did google the "Absurd Trolley Problem" and had much more fun chatting and laughing about the situations presented there. Please, don't buy this.

I was having fun right up until the JRPG section.. That section sapped all fun, enjoyment, and life out of me. I can't recommend this game because then others will suffer that section. It's fun for the first like.. 20 minutes until you get to that section though.

Vroom Vroom

Not worth the time to refund the 3 dollars I payed on sale, but holy hell did this game not respect my time to begin with. The actual trolley problems start of sort of tongue in cheek with references to other philisphy adjacent pop culture. However, they soon just become tedious. "Watch a man run into a trolley twice, but one of those times you have to flip a lever. it won't change anything, but you still have to do it twice." was the level that made me quit. On top of that, completing the actual trolley problems unlocks minigames loosely based around the trolley problems you've already played. Each and every one of these was either so simple it was painful, incredibly long and drawn out past the point of being funny, dexterity/timing tests, or all of the above. None of them had good controls and I ended up quitting out of every single one of them because I couldn't be assed to do the same repetitive task for 5 minutes straight with no checkpoints.

SI