This game is fine, but the pressure to expand wasn't strong enough to keep me motivated. If the expansion is simply at your own pace, then why ever do it? The economy also poses no real risk of failure; you start with so much money you'll likely never feel the need to optimize or expand to generate more.

I like the aesthetics. It makes sense this game looks good as it was created by Ernestas Norvaišas, who was a 3d artist for Wube working on Factorio. Unfortunately it seems the aesthetic was the primary force in development. The industry chains are shallow, the mechanics are obtuse and nebulous, and the actually gameplay is boring. It's really unfortunate. I really wanted to like this game.

I have four primary issues with this game.

First, the controls are horrendous. Everything you can build sits on a single horizontal slider at the bottom of the screen. It can be filtered and searched through, but the act of using it feels like wading through mud. It's pretty, but unless you like the novelty of horizontal scrolling, the process is incredibly slow. Most menus are like this - very pretty, but chores to use.

Additionally, the in-world controls are really bad too. When placing rails the automated path system takes over, and it's not great. You can't choose what direction the last rail is facing, so the path system may find a viable route, but unless it happens to want the track to face the same way you do, it's completely moot. Additionally you can't place curved sections as the last track piece, so if you want to make an interchange that's a bit more complex or particular, you'll be placing and deleting a lot of track pieces just to get the alignment you want.

My second issue is the tutorial. You are guided around the screen in a frenzy, but it doesn't really cover the basic 'why' behind what you are doing. As someone who works in education, this is something that I have grown to really despise. If your tutorial says, 'okay click this here and then click this there' and then pats you on the back when you do it but doesn't explain *why* you are doing it, you haven't been taught how to build a settlement or train line, you have been taught how to build *that* settlement or train line, which, in a sandbox logistics game isn't very useful since every world will be different. The tutorial needs to explain why we are clicking the boxes we are clicking, and currently it does not. After giving up on the in-game tutorials I watched a few Youtube videos which gave me enough to get started.

Third, the scheduling system in the game is abysmal, and makes multi-purpose trains (ya know, the best way to move materials long distances) extremely difficult to make, and even when you have made them, they totally suck. Each train can only do one action at a station at a time, meaning the train you have sitting at the potato farm can't have passengers getting on and off the train and also potatoes being loaded onto the train at the same time. First the passengers get on and off, and then the potatoes get loaded. This leads to congestion on your network and annoyances that encourage each train to be dedicated to a specific material, which is both boring and annoying considering you must make bespoke trains. You have the tools to construct the exact train you want to build, but not the tools necessary to schedule it.

Finally, this game is exceedingly shallow. This feels like a very pretty tech demo. The industry chain is simple, short, and very linear. The locomotive options are varied but completely purposeless, and most of the challenges amount to 'place more of this thing wherever, who gives a ♥♥♥♥.' Seriously, why are water towers even in the game?

This game has a lot of promise, but at this stage it's just hot air. There's a very interesting idea for a game here, but it's hiding behind a thick layer of makeup where game mechanics should be. It's very disappointing that this game looks so much better than it actually plays. Ernestas Norvaišas clearly has the art side of game development down, but he should REALLY consider outsourcing menu and game design to people who know what makes a game good.

The biggest things I think need to be fixed:
- better UI (not prettier, more easily navigable. Increase usability and then make it looks nice)
- better placement and control options. Let a track segment end in a curve. Let me control which direction the last track piece in a path is. If I start a track segment running parallel to an already built track, maybe click in place so that the next segment runs parallel, since half of all the track I place is for a bi-directional route anyway.
- Scheduling needs to be reworked. Right now every action has a station, but it needs to be the other way around. Every station should have a list of actions that all run simultaneously.
- The industry chain needs to be necessary to ongoing success. Citizens should depend on more than just food. That way, there's actual loss if something breaks down. If I don't have wood track pieces should start to cause derailments. If cities don't have stone buildings should start to crumble. If towns don't have food citizens should die. There are no consequences to failure and that makes progression boring. If I can't fail, then what is success?
- There needs to be much more network depth. Industries should rely on each-other more heavily. Something like a stone quarry should require coal to run.
- get rid of the water towers. They do nothing. It's genuinely such a stupid hurdle to jump through it actually makes me mad how dumb it is that I need to place them around for no reason other than 'cause water,' when I don't need to maintain them.