Played on PC
To begin with I feel I must say that this is definitely a game for someone but that someone is not me.
Trailmakers by Flashbulb Games is sited as a sandbox game and a 3D physics-based vehicle construction game which is true but to the general everyday player, this may not be something where fun is easily found. After a quick set-up that includes a basic customizable character you are given the options,
Standard, Racing & Freemode
I began with standard which seems to have a story mode of sorts. Your customizable character’s ship is struck by a meteorite and crashes on an alien planet. From here your mission is to scavenge parts to make a rocket so you can be rescued.
After a fairly messy tutorial to set up the basics and you’re free to explore this world, though this is one of the first issues as the world is fairly empty with only your hunt for parts to keep you occupied. Occasionally you will need to make new vehicles for different hazards (the first being a boat) but there isn’t much in the realm of active problem solving that feels rewarding.
The gameplay does remind me of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts with all of the positives and negatives that brings with it. The actual building mechanic is awkward to use with either controller or mouse and keyboard, I ended up using both together to build anything which as you can imagine was beyond counterintuitive.
Moving away from the standard mode I will happily admit fun was found in both the racing and freemode.
Taking the building supplies available and just cutting loose to create your own car, boat, plane, spaceship or mechanical abomination was far more fun even if I did end up spending far too long seeing if I could get a car to 400mph without it crashing and or exploding.
In the end, I feel there is a player base for this as it does feel like a simpler version of the likes of Kerbal Space Program this does feel like the video game equivalent of building things out of Lego while missing the instructions.