Snowpiercer meets Rust is the most innovative survival game in years

Snowpiercer started life as a French graphic novel by Jacques Lob, but rose to international renown in 2013, thanks to Bong Joon Ho’s film adaptation, followed by 2020’s television series. In all three versions, a train — the eponymous Snowpiercer — is perpetually traveling around a post-apocalyptic Earth. Life outside the train is extinct thanks to an ice age. The train is divided into societal classes, with the rear housing the poorest passengers, and each plot focuses on a group from the rear trying to make their way into the upper classes.

Enginefall is a multiplayer survival FPS set on a post-apocalyptic planet where numerous trains are in constant motion. Most of the action happens aboard megatrains. Board at the rear, then fight and survive your way up through the carriages, gathering resources and gradually better loot as you go. Call your own personal train, known as a dagger, to pull up alongside the megatrain in order to escape with your loot intact, or take control of the engine and become the conductor.

This is, for all intents and purposes, Rust meets Snowpiercer. And while the ongoing playtest, which you can request access to via the game’s Steam page, is a little rough around the edges and in some dire need of optimization, there’s a fascinating societal experience under the hood, with plenty of potential.

Much of what you know about survival games rings true here. Your dagger is your home base; upgrade it gradually and spruce the place up with plenty of cosmetic items such as furniture, alongside practical enhancements and crafting machines. Where in most survival games you may log on one day to find your place has been ransacked by another player, that cannot happen here; dagger raids can only happen with involvement from both the aggressor and the defender.

This is part of Enginefall that lends itself to developer Red Rover Interactive’s ethos: make the PvP survival crafting model more approachable. Reduce the amount of player time investment required, increase the pace of the game, and most importantly, remove the “unfair” element and high consequences of losing your stuff.

Evaluating the effectiveness of this approach is tough, given the game is only in its early playtesting days, but initial impressions are positive: after just a few hours, I’m well on my way to making the higher tier crafting stations and have plenty of schematics, which are required to craft better gear.

When you board a megatrain, there are typically three goals you can strive for. If PvP is the aim, you can shoot at every other player you find and acquire loot that way. The further you progress through the train, however, the more dangerous that becomes, as PvE guards will hunt you down for showing signs of violence.

Alternatively, you can stick to the shadows, loot as much as you can find, call for your dagger, and then extract. The train layout has multiple floors, and if you want to risk exposure to the elements, you can even head to the roof and skip entire carriages. However, the lower levels are where you can go to avoid other players, especially those engaging in PvP, and you’ll also find some of the best loot. Arc Raiders-style keycards for various locked doors throughout the train can be found by destroying stacks of office shelves, for example.

Image: Red Rover Interactive via Polygon

Or, if you’re the ambitious type, you can attempt to take control of the engine. Do so successfully and you’ll become the conductor. This is how you can get valuable fuel shards, which are some of the best items for your dagger, but it paints a target on your back. On the other hand, it grants you the ability to communicate with the entire train, broadcasting your voice to everyone over the loudspeakers. Use the power wisely.

Right now, Enginefall is clunky, but it has a certain tension that I haven’t felt replicated in other survival games. The knowledge that you can’t just run away from other players because you’re contained within the same four walls, and while plenty of players will be friendly, there are certainly incentives to go weapons-free and shoot on sight. When the experience is feature-complete, I’ll be right back in the mix to continue building my dagger.