A-Train Express

A-Train Express for PS4 is another instalment in the A-Train series. The game is developed by ARTDINK, the fathers of the franchise, who also developed a few other titles, such as Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z.

Mechanics

A-Train is an economic strategy series focusing on urban transportation. Published on PS4, A-Train Express allows the player to take the role of a manager of a transportation company that constructs and manages railways, buses, and the infrastructure.

This is a reshaped version of the PC game The Train Giant (A-Train 9), and it includes a number of its original elements. You can make use of a 10 square kilometres map, where you build your first train stop and lay tracks. With the progress, you can add more and more elements and thus expand not only your transportation network, but also the metropolis which can accommodate up to 200 vehicles. Anything more than that causes traffic jams.

The production gives you much freedom. Buildings and railways can be placed almost anywhere – starting with mountains and ending with coasts. The title offers a wide array of vehicles and includes machines from whole Japan, such as old, classic models along with modern trains. There are such series as KiHa 40 by South Hokkaido Railway Company and ET122 from Echigo Tokimeki Railway. Apart from trains, you can also make use of buses and trucks, which are useful in less-busy regions of the city. Building roads in such areas translates into reducing expenses, as railway investments are much more costly. The multitude of options may be a bit overwhelming, therefore the developers implemented tutorial videos explaining the game mechanics.

A-Train Express is based on the PC game A-Train 9, but offers a bit more. The title features bullet trains Shinkansen and support for DualShock 4 and PlayStation VR.

Game modes

Even though gameplay of A-Train Express for PS4 emphasises constructing and managing, there production introduces some other features. The first one is Construction Mode in which you can shape terrain for your future investments. The simple editor lets you set the density of mountains, beaches, etc. You can, of course, modify particular map elements by yourself. The other feature is named Driving Mode – it allows the player to operate trains, cars, and small boats.

Last updated on October 20, 2017