Choo Choo Charles: Horror in an Open World (or at least an attempt at it)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2024
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Okay Horror is a strong word but it's trying its best. Choo Choo Charles is the first horror game I can really think of that's tried to be open world and it does it to some success. Unfortunately, a lot of the bugginess and lack of optimization in-game lead to a lack of immersion and therefor spookies. Personally, I feel like could have used a few more months in QA to get it running better because I'm running it on an RTX 3090 at 1080p and I can't even hold 60fps whether or not I've got DLSS on. Regardless of the quality of the game, if it was TH-camr Bait or horror for kiddies, the core gameplay loop is fun and it doesn't outstay its welcome.
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:54 the gameplay
07:47 It's not very scary for a horror game
16:25 Fried Green Tomatoes
19:46 Choo Choo Charles is VERY unoptimized
24:17 final thoughts
27:23 cat video - เกม
One man did something that no one did:
A fun open-world train game with simplistic stealth and chase sequences.
And he did it alone, and actually finished a very ambitious shitpost project. That's commendable.
@@untouchableelephant1127 It was a really fun meme that took lots of commitment. My Friend the Raven is quality though, that game has some amazing art direction
@@untouchableelephant1127 I disagree, the game's overall very unique, refreshing, and just something different compared to what you usually see, and, imo, created a fun and unique experience
if the game had dragged on to around over 8+ hours, I can see why some people would get sick of it, but it didn't, the game didn't overstay it's welcome and didn't make it's mechanics overly complex, which I like
@@untouchableelephant1127 i dont agree with you. But even if i did, you cant expect 1 guy to be the fuckin best at everything and it come out a perfect game. Like he isnt fuckin the gaming world of jesus christ. Everything he makes ain't gunna be gold
@@untouchableelephant1127 have sex
@@untouchableelephant1127 I liked it! Fun play, looking forward to updates
"Not very cult like to run away from your god"
I mean, worshipping something and being unafraid of it are pretty different things. There's a reason the term "god fearing" exists.
I was about to say yeah it's not exactly too far-fetched for a cult to fear what they worship.
@Zanfitto I thought that part was basically the price to be re-admitted to heaven as long as you live good or whatever
@Zanfitto I only know about christianity lore through Dante divine comedy. But it seems his version of why men can't interact with the divine is a bit different than yours
@Zanfitto Yeah I hear that a lot about it too. But really I'm there for the bromance between self insert Dante and Virgil
@Zanfitto Fan fict it may be but it still make me emotional when Dante and Virgil had to part ways
E: Also some of his idea about the spiritual world was really cool and probably a head of his time. Like how souls in the after life get healthier as they get more spiritually fulfilled or how souls can tell Dante is alive because of his shadow
"Choo Choo Charles is not very scary horror game"
Pickle Lady: Yeah no shit
She was more concerned about her pickles than Charles if anything lmao.
It wasn't scary already when everyone on the island knows what Charles is, and wants it dead
@@circle4602 Normal Humanity reaction when Australian.
@@circle4602 That's actually realistic. It's like a cougar that resides in a small town and keeps killing the resident's livestock and pets. They may not want to confront it because it's dangerous but they agree that it's annoying and they want it gone
She is just like me fr
"As scary as a trip to the dentist as an adult" as someone who still gets the shivers when I hear dentist drills I find that hilarious xD
My dental surgeon would have Seinfeld playing on the screen above me.
I can't unhear the dissonant bass hits and the whirring drills.
when you've had surgery to remove all your teeth, the dentist isn't scary anymore. Afterall, they can't tell me I don't floss if I can't in the first place.
@@Weldedhodag as someone who’s had a fair amount of teeth removed, I sympathize
Wait until you see the doctor in Scorn…
I've changed my views on many things since childhood but dentist visits ain't one of them. Screw that
I'm not huge on horror games, but the whole "roam around this open world on a train while something is chasing you" caught my attention early on. However, having played it now I think Choo Choo Charles is best described as an interesting proof of concept. While the game itself isn't amazing, I'd be interested if a bigger team saw Choo Choo Charles and decided to run with a similar concept or even if Two Star decided to make a sequel with some help.
I agree, I think this game has laid the foundation for something even better
Yeah the idea is cool but the execution is just kind of a meme really. Not necessarily a bad thing but it could be more.
The idea is a lot like Alien:Isolation but less scripted and more open I guess, which would be really fun to play. Gives the sense that the enemy is more real and alive.
The problem is that in any horror game with one singular threat, it gets boring after like the second time it gets you.
@@mrcheesemunch this game IS a meme game
He took an idea and RAN WITH IT. Sure, it's a silly idea and it's not the mot optimized or best game, but he made Choo Choo Charles a reality
I really like the idea of horror on a train, I think there’s a lot of potential in it. I’d like to see a spooky Western set around a train, maybe something Oregan Trail-ish?
I'll just say
This game is refreshing
Not great, just refreshing
That's actually a good way of putting it. It's also why I'm hoping Two Star keeps at it: if he keeps at his craft I'm sure we'll amazing things from him in the next few years.
While not perfect i'm always happy to see experimentation within the medium.
Imo the best thing people can do in the stale meta we find ourselves in is innovate. That's what this guy did and I'm just happy for it, even if the game didn't necessarily work out for me.
Same thing can be said about Scorn
@@CharlatanWonder he said he's going to be making a few patch notes and maybe even adding a couple of extra missions in New locations, and then after that he might make choo choo Charles too but the first few things are going to keep him occupied for half a year.
@@CharlatanWonder he said he's gonna work on choo choo Charles for a bit
The game may not be Inherently scary, but hearing that ghost train whistle certainly does spike the anxiety levels, especially when he doesn’t attack, but he’s roaming SUPER close
You're right about that, he had me pissing my pants when he whistled that ghost shit and never came
Ambient music changes too!
this battle music when no enemy visible + all that fog realy reminds me of morrowind
The fact that there's now officially a horror property where the main antagonist and scary monster is a train named Charles amuses me a little more than it probably should.
Lord knows that’s gonna be what kids TH-cam is gonna fuck up next because children ruined the internet
@@nuclearglory0363 As a former child, no they didn't.
Whoever did ruin the internet successfully set up children as their scapegoat
@@nuclearglory0363 no they didn't, their parents did.
@@therealestcupheadonyt yeah because there is nothing else other than parents that can fuck a kid up, it’s not as if they live in a world with others
@@nuclearglory0363 no... Not that... It's because parents ask for kids and once they're born they dunno what to do with them so they just give them a phone or an iPad and let them go hog wild.
23:55 this map feature is probably the cause for the framerate. this means that the game has the whole map rendered at any given time and also probably has every single enemy also in the load. common practise is to cleverly hide things when the player isnt using them or anywhere near them. this is usually why maps are a separate entity from the entire world so you can save on both performance and you can hide things like odd pathing.
Skyrim does the same thing. LOD’s would help
@@jon_swal4585 Also there's just occlusion where you simply, don't render assets that wouldn't otherwise be visible.
gamedev here, yes. i just wrote that in my comment too.
(it's not RENDERING the whole world all the time, though. it's keeping it in memory, and processing it on CPU, but occlusion culling (and draw distance) automatically take care of only rendering what's visible. still, too much load on normal computers, even doing the Update() processing for a world of this size)
@@MidnightSt i love when actual professionals chime in. Thanks for the clarification i feel so informed.
My setup isn't amazing, but i had about 80 fps through the entire game.
First seeing this pop up on the Steam store, this immediately looked like one of those "small indie dev just made a weird project for fun cuz they felt like it".
And I respect the hell out of that.
We need more weird games ppl made just cuz they wanted to.
I don't really respect it they just do it so more people talk about them and it is kina boring just a simple game made to get quickly popular
@@tfordham13 I disagree. Given how much longer he spent developing it than he intended, he was genuinely invested in delivering the best product possible. He's a one-man team still learning his craft, and did serious trial and error trying to find better and better ways to achieve different things.
He took a risk on something novel, and did his utmost to make it work.
Contrast that with paint-by-numbers games produced by many big studios that sacrifice identity, novelty, and memorability in an attempt to make as much money as possible off as wide an appeal as possible. Genericization of games, if you will.
@@tfordham13 Someone didn't watch the Devlogs
There's a lore reason why Charles doesn't go to that shaky lookin wooden bridge
The quest to plant bombs on it mention but I didn't expect him to actually code Charles behavior to avoid that bridge(or there's a bug where his pathfinding don't like that bridge model and two star turn it into a feature)
Yeah I was trying to allude to that when I said "story reasons" without spoiling the plot.
@@CharlatanWonder Yes, wouldn't want to spoil the complex and emotionally enthralling lore of the Choo Choo Charles series.
@@picardsolo2471 indeed, the lore is quite dense by the standards of *they*
@@CharlatanWonder what is it? I don’t really plan on playing the game
@@eldritchcupcakes3195 bridge go boom kill spider. spider smart, no go on bridge
The talk about botched shadows to the point a lamp-post casts shadows that it shouldn't makes me imagine a scenario involving "shadow mimics", which although they are not comfortable in true darkness and thus cannot place themselves in an object's natural shadow, themselves resemble shadows so pretending to be the shadow of a lit lamp-post would indeed be something they'd do in order to ambush you.
They had a doctor who episode about that, “silence in the library”.
@Zanfitto PREY?
I will say as someone who found this game a good time, I wouldn't say this game is scary, but the game is very tense for me. The ambience helps with the kind of basic looking lighting and seeing Charles off in the distance wondering if he'll see you or just pass by is certaintly anxiety inducing. One moment that sticks in my mind was doing the side quest for the guy who wants the files from the abandoned towers. While I was up inside the towers, I got trapped by Charles patrolling the exterior rocks of the area and it was nerve racking. In my mind I figured I was safe but, hoe could I know it wouldn't crawl up and get me??
This feels less like a horror survival game and more of a Monster Hunting concept. I would enjoy this concept to be taken further, like how Barotrauma blew up with their undersea concept. I also agree that it's not taking itself seriously, and sometimes we don't always need to be so serious. At the end of the day, the game is a fun little time waster that shows promise of being expanded upon by other creators.
The fact a glorified shitpost is more fun than some AAA games says something
It's not really a horror game, horror-themed, but it is a comedy so it ain't necessarily scary.
But never had a problem and the fact he made this basically all in his own is pretty good. Impressive even.
Yeah the best way to describe it is horror-parody like it basically mocks games like FNAF with its base concept, then continues to parody other horror games/concepts throughout(like the slender quest)
@@whyisyes3957how exactly does it mock fnaf, it does not have anything to do with it
@@Deathworm-eg5lt More like it mocks the concept of "this thing from your childhood, but scary horror monster". In Choo-Choo Charles' case, the thing from your childhood is probably Thomas the Tank Engine, compared to FNAF's counterpart Chuck E. Cheese or Bendy and the Ink Machine's Mickey Mouse.
@@RedShocktrooperRST well I wouldn’t say that’s “mocking”, many horror games do that like the ones you described
@@Deathworm-eg5lt A lot play it completely straight. Maybe because to the target audience (and, hey, kids can like being scared! Scooby-Doo is sort of Kid-Friendly Horror after all!) actually is young and not experienced enough that playing it straight really IS enough to scare them.
This game kind of makes me wish for a looney tunes esc horror game where the monster chasing you is dropping anvils or turning your traps in on you
I think I remember a McCauley Caulkin movie doing that! Where he had control over reality and was doing cartoonish horrifying things to his parents or something.
@@picardsolo2471 Are you thinking of… Home Alone?
@@LucyWest370 Actually it wasn't McCauley Caulkin. It was Twilight Zone. The 80's movie! Though Home Alone is a close second to what I'm describing.
@Picard Solo oh god, the one where the family is being held hostage an tortured by the kid?
@@rdowg YES. HORRIFIED ME AS A CHILD.
Closest thing that comes to mind as an open world horror would be Evil Within 2 ( especially the part with the noclipping singing ghost). Choo Choo Charles is an honest attempt at something like it. And it worked quite well, I must say. It's not a must-have, but definetly worth the money spent.
What I immediately thought of when he said that. Though I guess it really doesn't fit his definition of true open world since you just go through a series of mini-open worlds like Metro: Exodus. Feel like that's a much better approach than a fully open game though
That's why I loved TEW2, the exploration was excellent and you never knew what kind of weird stuff you could find off the main path. I hope more games take inspiration from it. Another one would be STALKER. Not pure horror, but full of terrifying monsters jumpscaring you with sneaky attacks.
@@matman000000 Unscripted scares like that will always be way more effective imo and that type of design lends itself really well to facilitating them. Even in games that have tightly railroaded scares like Outlast and RE, the most terrifying parts are always when you're playing the game, not when you you're watching a cutscene. Running away after being caught or realizing you don't have enough resources to deal with the threat in front of you and panicking are the most memorable parts of those games. TEW2 has a lot of problems, but it's probably the best example of using that spontaneity to its fullest extent. Wish we could get a sequel or something similar
@@cosmicpanda7043 I'm still hoping for a third entry, especially now that survival horror's having a comeback. The first game seemed antiquated and too stuck in RE4's shadow. The sequel was a breath of fresh air and I'd love to see where Tango Gameworks could take those concepts of open world horror, psychological trickery and shifting realities next.
STALKER is pretty close as well.
Choo choo charles is absolutely amazing for a 3 hour horror themed silly train game
I agree. He is a bit too critical for what the game is.
Especially since it's made by ONE person
nah its pretty fucking bad lol
@@mrcali2245 for an indie game made by a single developer in the span of 1 year i’d say he did a good job
@GATOBAM that means nothing LOL, many games come out very shit yet people still like it
Say what you want about Choo Choo Charles, it's the world's only Survival Horror Train Simulator.
Coming soon, Survival Horror Tank Sim.
@@RedShocktrooperRST Tank Trevor, the horror game
@@CheddarCheeseRebirthed actually I was thinking you could channel Ogrethulu or 40k, have a possessed zombie tank or something.
@@RedShocktrooperRST I do like the idea of playing a lone tank crew, driving their tank through a dark and horror-filled landscape. Occasionally needing to get out to move barriers or repair minor damage or scavenge supplies. Always with the knowledge that there are _things_ out there, in the dark, that only the cannon can even hurt.
@@Bluecho4 I actually since posting that comment remembered the movie White Tiger exists, where a bunch of T-34s try to hunt a maybe-magic-maybe-mundane "Tiger I" (really a very unconvincing T-34 mockup but hey) in a sort of tanker version of moby dick.
Given all the sorts of myths around tanks generally (Allied crews seeing Tigers everywhere, the Germans being so pre-emptively scared they reported seeing IS-3s, and the tank generally speaking if you're unfamiliar with vehicles) there's plenty of spook opportunities with tanks.
i think most of the horror comes from the chase, especially if you're on foot. The distant train noises when he's approaching really do a lot for it.
"What's that noise" -Famous last words from some dude who played this game
Choo Choo Charles is pretty much a meme horror game that surpassed meme status and gained acknowledgement as a legit game that's pretty fresh despite how saturated the horror game scene is. Definitely is not the best game, but it's pretty fun. Now imagine what it could be if Two Star got a whole team backing him up instead of him watching tutorials every time he wants to do something.
It's not a horror game it's a thriller with some comedy. Like your not really going to get scared, but your still gonna have your heart rate increased
they should have made the NPCs look like the human characters from Thomas the Tank Engine, just little round wooden toy people. Imagine if the cultists just hopped around like South Park characters.
Mods
That sounds hilarious and like nafiafurquan said I want a mod now for this :,)
22:50 Seem to recall there's an in game justification for that as well about Charles being afraid of the bridge collapsing under him and that's why the guy who gets you to trap it is choosing that bridge.
Creating CPU characters are indeed hard. Two Star also pointed out making the Goons work how they do now already took him a year of optimisation, so I'm proud of him getting it to work :)
Glad indie devs are making better games than AAA for fracture of a cost, also big thumbs up for green tomato recipe
Honestly I like the way the people act I believe it was a intentional thing as it seems that monsters and supernatural things aren't too uncommon in the world setting of the game. Everyone just talks about Charles and monsters and monster hunters as if they are just normal everyday things that you can just encounter randomly, and even that lady who burns the ghost papers she seems relatively undisturbed by the idea that a ghost is putting papers around.
So awesome to watch this guy's vlogs as he was making the game, it was awesome playing it, and I am so excited for the next game and the next vlogs. Definitely not really scary although there was a few points where I sheepishly will admit that it got me, but it's like , I knew what was coming, I knew exactly the game that I was going to get and therefore there was no disappointment. Not many games have that kind of development setup and execution
Ah door block
Man, Subnautica wasn’t even supposed to be a horror game and it nailed open-world horror just because it tapped into the fear of the player so well.
That’s how I think open-world horror games have to work. A feeling of loneliness should be there. In Choo Choo Charles, you aren’t alone. And you know that. It’s not just you against Choo Choo Charles, it’s the entire people on the island except for the cultists.
In Subnautica, the only thing you had was your PDA Bot telling you stuff, but that’s just a bot.
And the actual people you heard in it were people who died or disappeared, adding to the dread.
Another thing is that an open-world horror game should have much diversity.
Subnautica had so many animals, and mostly harmless ones at that. But the thing is, there was enough unknown creatures and depths that the player kept wondering what was beyond, what huge animals could there be? This added to the terror.
I will say, Choo Choo Charles was a good attempt at it, and is a refreshing experience to say the least from all these past horror games coming out.
It’s just that open-world horror seems like a huge undertaking because so many things have to line up correctly and it’s all based on how the player feels while playing the game, which is hard to determine until players play the game.
I know this was like an essay about Subnautica, but just wanted to voice my thoughts.
I'm a massive fan of Stephen King's the Dark Tower, so I'll probably pick this up regardless of quality when it gets a full release. Long days and pleasant nights, sai.
Something about manning a train-mounted machine gun and yelling "Why did the dead baby cross the road?" does sound cathartic.
I also wondered if the inspiration for this game came from The Waste Lands
I think this game isn't trying to be scary, I think it's just trying to be a little spoopy scawy gaime kinda halloween vibes, I like it for that. I don't think it ever tried to be actually scary. It's more so tense.
Tbh this game didn't scare me a whole lot but I loved it anyway.
Charles's whistle is a little chilling though when you're a little too far away from your train
Tension vs Scariness. This is Tension like a FNAF game. Scariness is a completely different beast.
In terms of open world horror, I think the closest thing to it that exists would probably be sunless sea. Its not really pure horror, but it's an open map that you can completely self direct in.
It's sequel sunless skies is more segmented, so I'm not sure if it counts
Also their status as "horror" is a bit Shakey, but they are certainly horror adjacent
it's literally a comically large spider train bro it's not that deep
Being chased by a monster in an open world is scary no matter what
G'day. The optimization issues could be a few things. Level streaming. Bad LOD usage. I'd say it has alot to do level streaming because of the limited CPU usage. Possibly shader optimization could be another issue. UE4 can do HUGE open areas if done right. Consider Squad, or Deadside. Huge environment. Good effort by the dev. He'll sort out those issues.
Something that a one dev person is probably not get it right given they were used to 2d games for a while. Then again those devs circunvent the Unreal Engine 4 open world problems (since it was never design for Open worlds if you believe that especially if you see how jank Dayz was on console early on) given their experiences on top of that.
For a game made by a single dev, this game is fucking awesome
No
For a kind of open world horror game there is Evil Within 2. It is also pretty good and fun.
Love how this video is full analysis mode but then randomly has a cooking segment like an old VHS tape that has multiple things recorded
hOrRoR iS sUbJeCtIvE and all, but I like some aspects of this game just at a glance. I suppose the horror they were going for is the actual initial confrontations of this mechanical nightmare, and the downtime inbetween, that should really give you that thought of "Fuck me, he's coming around the corner any moment now, isn't he?" It's an interesting premise, especially involving the train too.
It could've been better done though, definitely. I'd probably find myself shitting my britches for a good while, but eventually just be startled and annoyed by Charles popping up.
This is also bringing up the highlight of the game for me. The rest of it, I really couldn't care much for.
...That said, it's something I wished Metro: Exodus did a little more of, or just Metro as a whole, did more of. Use a small train to navigate dark tunnels full of soviet horrors. And soviet nazis. And soviet soviets.
What about soviet nazi horrors?
@@EdyAlbertoMSGT3 lets not talk about that
This game wasn’t meant to me a terrifying experience that would give people nightmares, it’s a meme game about funny spider Thomas The Tank Engine.
5:06 A lot of cults fear their gods lmao
isnt that why most cults worship them lol
I like to think of the cult as less "fanatical" and more "fearful" of Charles. They worship him in trepidation of his terrible teeth, in hopes he will have mercy.
But they still run, showing that Charles knows *no mercy.*
I was not expecting this spooky in December
"Yeah I bet you weren't expecting this video from me"
Sir I don't know you.
a unique concept, and I actually loved how the npcs and their quests poked affectionate fun at other games - a game that's a breath of fresh air and incredibly impressive for a one man team.
One of the things a sequel NEEDS to do is introduce more monster trains - first of all you get more marketable characters, and secondly they could all act differently to spice up the gameplay. Maybe there's a ghost train that ignores terrain entirely (including walls), and a train that's stuck on the rails (so you need to plan your movements while in your train but you're safe when on foot). If they all have separate domains they lurk in it'd probably be easier to optimize the game as well, Charles being EVERYWHERE means all the collision data must always be loaded...
Why only trains? Charles deliberately snuck inside the train, it would more cool to have different vehicles after you to make it more unique like a juvenile spider inside a mine cart
@@tacolord2485 that does not sound very good at all the game should focus on trains I mean it’s literally called choo choo charles if they start doing different shit it’s just gonna lose it’s charm and turn into resident evil boulder punching sim it just needs to stick to it’s roots
@@bahhumbug5467 So like a Thomas the tank theme? It would probably be the appropriate way to go. I just had an idea that sounds kinda shitty now that I think of it, and I apologize for my dumb ideas about the possible future sequel.
@TacoLord248 I think your idea seems good, the problem is that there's only trains on the island
@@jasonlittle6161 What if the residents bring construction vehicles to rebuild or remodel the island after destroying Charles?
LOL - he just started the sale of a Charles plush. I'm pretty sure he's catering to that kid audience still.
Ah yes because only kids can buy plushies
@@shadow_king12344 FNAF
@@Unknown-hb3id what's your point
Glad to see SCP: Containment Breach make even a brief reference especially now that it's died out.
The only time I got scared of Charles was when he attacked me during the Swamp Quest. Which Barry the Swamp Monster was breath distance away from me. You can guess who played tag o war with my corpse.
first time I've seen a video by you, and I think the concept of having a cooking segment is honestly great. that might just be my ADHD talking but I honestly found the video overall more engaging because of it
I didn't expect this game to blow up like this. I remember watching the Dev's video that he would make a game in 1 year. He felt like such an obscure Indie dev that I didn't think I'd hear about this project so soon.
This game could use some updates, but for a game that has 1 year of development by 1 dev, it's core mechanics work, and it's flaws feel somewhat, minor.
i think what makes this game nice is that it can be casually enjoyable, no need to be too critical about how scary it can be because it clearly can be satire and comedic. the only problem it has is the bugs and how laggy it can be sometimes but overall a decent game. not the best, but fairly decent.
There’s two reasons this game stands out to me, and they are the fact that it’s not trying to take itself too seriously while also showing everyone (except Pickle Lady) keeping a level head and having an actual game plan to combat the threat. It’s just refreshing in so many ways compared to certain other titles.
That’s not even diving into the panic of having to rapidly repair your train while Charles is still damaging it. 😂
I wasn’t expecting it to be actually scary but it’s really fun
Didn't Stalker do open horror before? Like a large portion of those games is dealing with mutated monsters/anomalies who can easily ambush and kill you if caught unprepared while traversing abandoned tunnels, thick swamps and forests
Stalker isn't really a horror game though. It has horror elements, yes, but it's primarily an FPS. Although I guess this isn't really a horror game either.
Pathologic did it perfectly imo
The lag is most likely due to the whole map being loaded in at once, probably for the "IRL map" thing, but it seems like he made no attempt to increase performance
Give him time. Got to keep in mind, he is by himself and he even said that he will be fixing issues. So be patient.
This would be a valid complaint, if it wasn't for the fact it was one guy making a game for 2 years. Most games take 4/5 years to make, and a lot of those games still end up buggy and have entire teams behind them. So props to the dev really.
there is no way a game with a lady screaming about pickles is trying to be seriously scary.
Even the concept is goofy as hell, he clearly had an idea for a game and had fun with it, it's cearly hammer-horror which is basically over-acting comedy horror
I didn’t come here for a cooking lesson but I’m happy to know what to do with unripened tomatoes while I’m being chased by a demon train.
Just the niche content i come here for
I honestly think it did a pretty decent job at horror, it doesn't rely on cheap jump scares to scare you unless you die, and even then that's more so due to a fault on your part to defend against the different Horrors in the game, the main thing that scares me about this game, is the fact that you never know when Charles will wear his ugly head around the next corner you pass, every second away from your train is essentially a death sentence because you never know when he's going to be there, and to me the anticipation of the horror is one of the main reasons I play games like Five Nights at Freddy's or Resident Evil, so while it's not the best horror game ever made, it sure as hell is a pretty damn good one.
this guy is great his videos are a normal critic and then theres cat videos or cooking segment love it
the recipe section was my favorite part, keep it up 😍😍😍
The arguably only time i'd say light would be scary in a horror esque game is where the darkness is your ally and a biblically accurate angel is after you.
i don’t think the game was supposed to be scary? it’s pretty obvious it’s a comedy horror
Fun fact: the guy who voiced the one who gives you the rocket launcher was voiced by an influencer called Sneegsnag
Personally, I did find the game quite tense whenever Charles showed up. But tbh, the only part that genuinly scared me was the sidequest that parodied Slender the Eight Pages. The ghost constantly chasing you, the panicked music, and the feeling of never being able to stand still really got to me. I never even got caught, the reason I failed at first was because Charles came scuttling into the area while I was busy trying to find the pages and killed me. I proceeded to avoid that area and put it off until it was literally the last side-quest I’d yet to finish
I tend to find overly negative critiques of indie games kinda… pointless. Like, no shit the game has issues, one guy made this. This isn’t a big budget game made by a major company or a shovelware title made by reusing assets to scrape together money, it’s one guy’s passion project. It’s fine to critique the game for its flaws, it’s the only way the creator will improve, but being this overly negative and dismissive of it will only deter the creator from actually trying again and improving.
Dunno, man
This game got so much promoted and hyped up that I kinda expected a longer and better game yk
Don't get me wrong tho
for a game that was made by one dude it's decent
To clarify about 8:45: UE4 has cutting edge lights and shadows, but the problem is that they aren't configured for the game.
The outdoors appear to be set in very dim light conditions, but the everything close by is lit by full sunlight, which explains the harsh shadows.
Where direct light doesn't reach is lit by ambient lighting from the sky and surroundings. Where ambient light is occluded (caves, indoors) there should be darkness, but the levels have no system in place to determine where this occlusion happens so everything is covered in a dull glow.
The saucy little man requires a box to snooze within.
Things I liked:
Fufills the promised fantasy of "Ride train, shoot charles".
The tension of going out on foot and keeping your ears pinned for the whistle is real.
The sidequests are rewarding and have some variety in requirements and distance.
Tutorials and cutscenes are fast and skippable.
The map is really cool and functional.
Things I disliked:
The price
If Charles wanders close to you fast enough when you are on foot there's nothing you can do if you aren't near a building. (It's mitigated from being frustrating by the shortness of the game)
Could've done a little more with NPC lip movement.
Could use a sentence explaing you don't have a weapon in the sneak tutorial (it left me confused for a while).
Overall: fufilled its promise well enough. Doesn't really stretch far but also doesn't overstretch or screw up the basics (which is honestly a surprise in this industry). I liked it well enough to go for all paint cans and quests.
Choo Choo Charles is not so said "horror game", it is more like a "spooky game" you can just sit to and have fun.
I watched creation of this game from begining, and Im very happy that this shitpost ended up as good as I expected.
To give credit that final scene with Charles getting impailed was pretty dope
Tbh adding a health bar makes it 5x less scary, its so predictable to know when a jumpscare will happen with a health bar
Not really dummy
Jokes on you Charl, I've already bought and started playing Ctrl Alt Ego xD (Although I'm running into some performance issues around the first level with MOMs but that's probably just a matter of the level being bigger and my laptop needing a break at the time xD) Happy for Two Star though. Always nice seeing indies get a lot of attention :)
I love Choo Choo Charles, and never deemed it seriously as a scary game. Its marketing from the very beginning was comedic
Okay so I think I have an answer for all of you as to why my footage looks like this and everyone elses' is super dark and SpOoOoOoky:
At first I thought it had something to do with how OBS, my recording software, doesn't capture in-game gamma adjustments very well and you need to adjust your picture in the filters menu, but I checked and there we no filters on any of my layers.
THEN I realized after reviewing my own footage to compare directly against how the game looked natively on my screen that the game never prompted me to tune my gamma when I first ran the game. I go into the display settings and sure enough, everything was at default. I turned the brightness settings way, waaaaaaaay down to about 30% (a range from 0 to 200% with 100% being the default) and suddenly my footage looks like everyone else's. I guess a bunch of people realized you needed to go in there and make the game as dark as possible for video purposes, but when you do that indoor areas become a nightmare in a not-spooky way.
Just got to the part when you mentioned how you want more horror games that embrace their silly side look up the game “The Man in the window.” And all the other games made by that developer. The characters have… a very unique look yet they are very endearing.
It wasn’t meant to be scary. He said he didn’t want it to be.
No, no. I was fully expecting it. Just not this soon.
Thanks for that!
Subbed for the cooking bit. Fried green tomatoes are fire.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a good example of an open world horror game. Granted the horror isn't the main aspect, but its still pretty scary.
The game is youtuber bait.. and it works.
Quite a refreshing shitpost of a game. It never set out to be great, just a game you could play and have fun with. And it succeeded.
I remember seeing this guy make a couple of posts about this game when it was in development on reddit. cool to see it actually released, unlike so many others.
22:47 charles can't go at this bridge cause he knows it's not very sterdy enough how handle his weight ( charles is much more heavy then the train you drive in)
Those tomatoes look awesome!
If you like this kind of game, Sir/Madam, You Are Being Hunted might be your jam. Quite a few years old at this point, but it does the "open world survival horror" thing also.
Man that one came out YEARS ago. I remember the Kickstarter. I actually replayed that last year.
@@CharlatanWonder I remember the tension in that one actually being pretty well done, or at least not reliant on the "merch-friendly mascot monster jumpscares you" trope
im new to the channel and the cooking part was so random and such a joy
Dead Money in A tier? You're crazy man
Y'all been crushin' it
"TH-camrs wouldn't exaggerate their reactions for thumbnails and clippable moments, would they?" said with such smarmy-ness to fill an empty fuel tanker.
I don't understand this idea that it's somewhat of a 'bad' thing that TH-camrs play it up for the camera. They make money from entertainment. You don't get snarky over or have an objection an actor acting in a movie or wresters in "Sports Entertainmen" hamming it up, do you?
What's the problem with people performing in this regard in terms of TH-cam videos? You can not like the content yourself, but there is not a sane person on planet earth who would go "oh, let's not do something corny even though it will probably make us a lot of money".
Like you said, UE4 doesn't really seem to handle huge open world persistent levels well unless you make it so that you can design it with sublevels or something in mind for handling all the stuff you don't want loaded in memory all the time and just dynamically load it when needed
Ideally, you stream the data, and keep a low poly version of the basic map geometry in memory for far off views. Objects are handled separately and are either not rendered at all at extreme distances, or use LOD models to avoid pop-in, increasing in detail as you get closer to them. The most difficult thing would be seamlessly streaming terrain data, but if you pre-baked the big world map into tons of smaller chunks, you could do it without having Minecraft chunk loading type lag.
Oh I have that same cutting board in my college room right now! thats really cool!
I found an exploit that if you keep opening and closing your map while looking at different directions around your train you can see choo-choo Charles walking around in the split second while your point of View changes between First person and The overhead view when you open and close the map. Long story short this allows you to see Charles when he’s still really far away and like on the other side of a bunch of trees or hills.
I already beat Choo choo Charles, and here's some advice: if you want to fight Charles a decent amount, minimize your speed upgrades. I leveled up speed first, so I could get around faster, and I barely saw Charles the whole game, to my disappointment. It was to the point that I was just running laps before the final mission so I could fight him another time or two before finishing the game.
I wonder how it would look if it was really dark aprt from some spotlights on the train
23:20
Player: 'I am Heavy Weapons Guy, and this... Is my weapon!'
Seeing that you shaved your beard was scarier than anything in Choo Choo Charles.
lmao. Yeah, you definitely don't want your project to end up in that kids-mascot-horror "neech."