Building the Vehicles of Your Dreams

People seem naturally driven to create things that go. If you give a kid a pile of supplies, there's a good chance that he or she is going to make a car or an airplane. Gamer's are much the same, especially when given building tools. Trailmakers is a game that's dedicated to this impulse, giving players everything they need to make impressive vehicular creations of their own.

Building with Purpose

There's such a natural connection between building things in games and wanting to drive them that it has become something of a sub-genre of the building genre itself. In truth, Trailmakers could probably stop at just being a very fun building game that allows players to race contraptions and be successful. Instead, the game pushes past that to require more of its players.

It's the addition of a 'survival' mode that makes Trailblazers stand out. . The survival portion of the game gives players a purpose to make these vehicles. You need to continually adapt your understanding of how the pieces work, leading to a much deeper engagement with the game as a whole. It's a very fun concept that goes a long way towards separating this game from the crowd.

Building Blocks

There are two ways you can go with a building game when it comes to graphics. Either you can try to be realistic, or you can try to make it stylized. Frankly, the second option - the option that's taken by Trailblazers - seems to be the one that works the best. There's something about building with blocks that allow the mind to smooth over imperfections to really let the art style stand out.

A clever balance between building, racing, and exploration.

The soundtrack has a lot more going for it than one would think at first glance. It's a bit like Minecraft's soundtrack - sedate, meant to be in the background, but easy to gets tuck in your head. It's the perfect accompaniment for this type of game, and one that deserves far more praise than it is likely to get.

A Toybox of Options

The gameplay here has a few distinctive loops, all of which help to make the game become more than the sum of its parts. If you're playing around and building, you'll certainly have fun experimenting with different parts and builds. There's nothing bad here, but that's not where the game shines.

Trailmakers gets better when there's more structure.

That seems strange to say in a genre dominated by sandboxes, but it's true. The exploration/survival mode shines because you're always pursuing new parts in order to make new builds so that you can get new parts. The racing is great because you're continually trying to outdo your last speed. The game is good when you're just playing around, but it stands out above the rest when you're given something to do.

A World of Possibility

Trailmakers is a fantastic addition to this growing genre of games. It looks good, plays great, and has a good loop that will keep you engaged. More content in the future could make it stand out further, but even now, it's an excellent game that is more than worth your time. If you love building or driving, you owe it to yourself to try this one out.

TL/DR

Trailmakers is an awesome building and driving game with multiple engaging modes and some clever gameplay elements.