Key information
In Dreadline Express, players wake up inside a cabin on the last human train hurtling through an alien red sky, where a speaker announces a lottery sacrifice to the Supreme Engineer while tentacled horrors press against the glass windows.
Reviewer Katharine Castle highlighted that observing the environment rewards players with tarot-like cards, such as obtaining a Light card from a candle to inspect carvings, uncovering memories, and using combinations like Mother and Daughter cards to unlock a suitcase containing identity documents for Samuel Mather.
The reviewer praised the card system for creating rich conversations with other passengers, such as using an Apothecary card to get an old man named Garret Willcott to talk, noting it evokes the thrill of searching the database in Her Story.
Unlike Her Story, the reviewer noted that the narrative in Dreadline Express is not yet set and branches dramatically based on player choices, such as either calming a troubled passenger named Euler with laudanum or causing him to deafen himself with knitting needles.
A demo is currently playable on Steam, and the full version of Dreadline Express is scheduled to release on October 16th, according to the reviewer, who experienced the game at Gamescom where travel and accommodation were provided by the organisers.
