Unrailed!

There’s enough here in the early access version to keep a couch-bound quartet of pals occupied for a short while, but more features need to be introduced before Unrailed becomes a good enough excuse for four adults to get together in 2019. Not when we all have children and jobs and a swelling sense of despair to manage, no siree.

Unrailed is simple, charming, and absorbing. The gameplay is addicting, and it is exponentially more fun as you add friends to your game. It’s the best party game since, or possibly surpassing, Overcooked. A true hidden gem.

Unrailed! is incredibly fun as a game played with three other friends. This makes purchasing it a catch-22: players should really only consider getting the game if they know someone else that owns it or already plans on buying it. Another option is to use Steam share to simulate local co-op, or know enough people interested to frequently play in person. Unrailed’s singleplayer and public matching is lackluster, making it a hard pass for those going in solo. For the rest, they will be rewarded with frantic and challenging cooperative mayhem.

Overall, this is a fun game to pull out if someone wants to have a cooperative challenge with some friends or connect with strangers online, although as with most co-ops, playing with friends is often more rewarding. Players can play with a bot in single-player, so if no friends or online connection is handy, it's still enjoyable. People can choose to communicate via emoji or over voice chat, but either way, they should be prepared to crash a lot of trains in the game before they can perfect cooperative railroad building.