OxyRail

A cozy survival game built around a moving train

OxyRail (listed on Steam as Oxygen Train) is an Early Access open-world survival and base-building game from OxygenTech Limited, set in a world stripped of breathable air, where players scavenge, farm, fish, and fight while building out a mobile train base that supports up to eight players in co-op. Reviewers who found their footing describe a relaxed, low-stakes loop that works especially well socially. "My girlfriend and I actually enjoyed this video game a ton!" wrote one reviewer, describing how the two split roles between combat and resource gathering: “My girlfriend doesn’t like the fighting survival part so it’s always left to me to fend the wolves, bears, and bandits while she focuses on collecting resources and building the train as we go.” Another reviewer compared it favorably to a genre favorite while stressing its own identity: "This game is in early development and I just spent hours playing, I can't stop. It is the best game I have played since Rimworld. It is very different from Rimworld, which is great. Don't want something redundant."

Fishing and farming come up repeatedly as particular highlights. One reviewer summed up the appeal simply: "Cute cartoon-style survival game, really enjoyable, fishing's my favorite part." Another, more detailed review credited the specific systems: "Fishing and livestock raising are its best highlights for casual players. Rivers spawn carp and tilapia, while oceans have clownfish, pufferfish and rare 20kg mini sharks, which appear more often when it rains." That reviewer added a caveat about the game's other systems: "The only letdown is its basic building system, lacking flexibility for detailed custom builds. Fortunately, the devs shared their roadmap and confirmed big building improvements are on the way."

A developer reviewers trust to keep improving it

Much like other fresh Early Access launches this lane has covered, OxyRail's goodwill is heavily tied to how actively its developer is patching and expanding the game post-launch. "Big fan of survival builders, and OxyRail is an underrated gem with clear ups and downs. The dev team is super reliable. Weekly updates have dropped nonstop since its February release. Tiny bugs get patched quickly, and major optimizations come monthly. They added trophy fish, new aquatic species, farming upgrades, performance tweaks, lag and cloud save fixes — all features players asked for. Few Early Access games get this level of consistent, thoughtful support," wrote one reviewer. Several other reviewers echoed the same pattern of trust, describing the developer as responsive to bug reports and community questions even while acknowledging the game is still rough in its current state. A shorter review captured the same overall trade-off from a more casual perspective: "for an early access game it is pretty good its tough at first but once u get the mechanics figured is quite good the fact it ha constant updates is a plus too also works on steam deck if u want a train survival with human npc enemies which was a surprise."

Rough visuals, disconnected systems, and performance problems

The negative reviews converge on a handful of specific, recurring complaints rather than broad dismissal. Visual and asset quality draws the sharpest criticism, with multiple reviewers describing the art as inconsistent or machine-generated rather than hand-crafted, arguing it undercuts the game's overall coherence and polish. Performance is a separate, more concrete problem for some players: "Lots of fun but the game stutters really bad only way to describe the issue anytime I move and it's extremely bad to the point it kills my eyes. I really wanted to play this game I tried to change all the settings and try everything I guess it's just not optimized at the moment," wrote one reviewer.

A more analytical negative review questioned the core design pairing of survival and train management directly: "Oxygen Train tries to grab attention with its hybrid concept of 'survival in hypoxia + train management,' but the actual experience feels like a runaway derailment. The game's core contradiction lies in the severe disconnect between 'oxygen' as a survival mechanic and the 'train' as a mobile vehicle. Players are forced to constantly monitor oxygen levels to prevent asphyxiation while simultaneously managing speed, track selection, and resource allocation. This splits attention so thin that you can neither immerse yourself in the tension of survival nor enjoy the satisfaction of management." Another reviewer's complaints were more about interface friction than design philosophy: "you press Q to open the menu but not Q to exit, for that you need to hit Esc, why, the menus are a mess, there's no way to know if you've got enough resources to make something without opening the menu, navigating to the item and clicking, why not have a pin item to my hotbar." That reviewer summed the experience up bluntly: "this plays like an early alpha of a game, not a full price retail release."

Verdict

OxyRail is a cozy, sociable survival game whose developer has earned real trust from its player base through a rapid, consistent post-launch patch cadence, and its fishing, farming, and co-op systems give it a genuine identity within an extremely crowded genre. But it's launched with real rough edges: art quality several reviewers call inconsistent or AI-generated, performance problems severe enough to make the game hard to look at for some players, and a central oxygen-survival hook that a number of reviewers feel sits awkwardly against the train-management half of the design. If the developer keeps shipping updates at the pace reviewers describe, the foundation here is solid enough to grow into something more distinct; right now, it's best suited to players looking for a relaxed co-op survival game to unwind with friends rather than a tightly polished solo experience.