Podstakannik Rails

Podstakannik Rails is a cozy first-person co-op game set on an overnight sleeper train. Up to four of you board at the station, settle into a compartment, and ride together. There are no quests and no score. What matters is the tea, the rhythm of the rails, and the people you brought along.

Voices fade with distance: talk to whoever is close enough to hear you, or walk to the other end of the car for some quiet. Most of what happens on a trip is a conversation. The train is the excuse for it.

The TV and the radio

Paste a YouTube link into the old set in one of the compartments, and it plays on a loop for everyone on board, like a broadcast: whoever drops in catches the same moment.

• The radio — flip the switch on the compartment wall for an old tune everyone nearby can hear, or off and on again to shuffle.
• The tape player — play your own music in one of the compartments: just drop your tracks into the game's music folder. Only you can hear it.

Tea from the samovar

Grab a glass in its podstakannik (the classic holder for train tea), fill it, sip it, and leave it on any table. There are only four glasses in the whole car.

Your berth

Make up your berth, sit by the window, or lie down and nap while the others talk. They'll hear you snore.

Slide your compartment door open and shut, and switch the 34 reading lamps and the compartment lights on and off.

Fellow travelers

The conductor and a lone passenger will tell you a story if you stop and talk to them, with different stories by day and by night. Can you piece every story together?

Also on board

• The window — fields, birch groves and taiga roll past, and every few minutes a train thunders by on the other track.
• Grandpa or grandma — choose who you ride as, and get a random outfit every time you switch.

How long a trip is

The host picks 10, 15 or 20 minutes, and whether you ride by day or by night. When time is up, the train pulls into the station. To get off, strip the bedding, wait for the nappers to wake up, and get everyone out of the toilet. Then it's back to the station, and the next trip starts in a fresh car.

This is a short atmospheric hangout, not a progression game. If you're after goals, upgrades or a campaign, this isn't it. It's made for an evening of a few trips with people you like.

Good to know

• 1–4 players. Everyone needs their own copy.
• Play with friends, or open empty seats to strangers. You can also look for a public trip to join.
• Playable alone, but built for a group.
• Voice chat with push-to-talk, toggle or voice activation. There's no text chat.
• Interface and subtitles in English, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and German.