Last Updated: 9/4/2025
Watch first. Then let’s see if we’re thinking the same thing by the end.
First Impression
My first vibe from the trailer? An extraction game, except you drag the extraction zone around with you. Or hell, Pacific Drive, but swap the car for a train. And seriously: why the fuck are we getting 293923 train games all of a sudden? I’ve asked before, and I’ll ask again: are trains the new zombies? How long until we get zombie trains?
(Wait, is ChoCho Charles a zombie train??)
The Basics
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: FakeFish (Of Barotrauma fame)
Publisher: Shiro Unlimited
Permanent Home: Discord
Expected Release: Planned for Early Access in 2026
Survival or BS?
How this game measures against my 5 Pillars of Survival Games – the framework I developed to identify authentic survival experiences vs. marketing fluff.
- Necessities: At this point, information is pretty light. The devs have mentioned that you’ll rely on the train for warmth, which makes the cycle “do shit in train as it moves to another location, get out, shoot stuff, loot, get back in train to not die”. (Some of what you loot/scavenge is to power and heat the train.) So…not really anything here.
- Management: The train is supposedly the limiting factor in terms of carrying along loot, but if you’re just puttering along and endlessly upgrading the train (or able to run out, run shit back, upgrade your storage, run back immediately, and loot again), again, I’m failing to see much impact. (I wonder when this idea came into being compared to Pacific Drive‘s release.)
- World: The trailer shows us a land that’s atmospheric, with blizzards and various POIs, but unsure of how impactful it’ll be if it’s just “THERE IS COLD AND MONSTERS”, then meh.
- Resources: There will be scavenging and looting elements, but no idea of loot density or relevance.
- Health: Seems as weak as necessities. As far as we know, it’s a basic “take damage, restore HP” mechanic.
Development Timeline
- 4/10/2025: FakeFish unveiled the game during the Triple-I Initiative Showcase
- 8/2025: Frostrail hit Gamescom and seemed well-received.
Community Pulse
Dev Communication: Given that they have a publisher, I expect to see steady updates.
Discord Activity: Relatively small, active, but nothing noteworthy.
Red Flags: None
Worth Following:
- Steam: I think the best bet for updates/news is probably going to be Steam, especially with both publisher and studio actively posting.
- Discord: If you’re ABSOLUTELY RABIDLY HOPING to get into any alpha or playtesting before the early access launch, it never hurts to lurk in the official Discord for the title in question. It’s kinda a roll of the dice on whether they pull folks from their Discord bodies or from Steam’s playtest feature.
Skip These:
Instagram and Twitter: The IG account seems far less active than their other socials, and Twitter is a dumpster fire, so just fuck it.
The Drama
None to my knowledge!
Final Thoughts
Honestly, it just strikes me as an action-adventure with survival aspirations. Or, really, I’d probably call it a Train-based Action-Adventure. Which is far less fancy, though probably more truthful, than “RUTHLESS SURVIVAL FPS” – the dieselpunk aesthetic (I’m pretty sure, somewhere on one of their posts, they mentioned that aspect) and FPS mechanics are important, but they’re visual & mechanical details rather than genre-defining aspects. (Mobile Base Action-Adventure?)
Is it just me, or is the FPS tag kinda redundant here? Does calling it an ‘FPS’ really help when shooting serves the train progression rather than defining it? (Or the game, really.) IDK. Frostrail sounds more like Metro Exodus with a train base than DOOM with survival elements.
Likelihood of Release: Most Definite
Likelihood it Won’t Suck: It’ll probably be well received- they seem to do well on community engagement and relations, judging by their previous title. Whether it’s something we end up tracking or if it turns out to be more than pew pew and cold + train, remains to be seen.
