Fogpiercer Key Art
Image: Mad Cookies Studio & Hooded Horse

At the rate they're going, Hooded Horse will be publishing everything strategic and tactical by 2030. Latest to bolt from their stable is Fogpiercer, from Mad Cookies Studio. It's a tactical roguelike deckbuilder about building a monster train. No, not that one. Riffing off graphic novel/movie franchise Snowpiercer, you're the conductor of a heavily armed train, fighting your way across a frozen post-apocalyptic wasteland. Unlike Snowpiercer, most of your troubles come from outside, where the world is merely angry and not dead.

Fogpiercer got a beefy demo release during the last Next Fest, and I can confirm that this one's legit. It's a mixture of Slay The Spire-esque 'pick your poison' progression through the wasteland with your chosen conductor effectively defining the starting 'class' of your train. Choosing safer or more dangerous routes as resources allow, picking up (or thinning out) your deck for more efficient play and some juicy turn-based tactical combat.

Much of my time in Fogpiercer thusfar has been in that grid-based tactical battle mode. Your train is a major presence on the battlefield, each car effectively acting as a party member, able to use different attack cards. Your cars are also potential vulnerabilities, as raider buggies, jeeps and trucks swarm in from the sides. You're usually given good warning about what the enemy are going to be doing in their next turn so you can plan ahead a little, but the focus is on burning them down as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, once kersploded, enemy vehicles tend to tumble backwards in classic Hollywood style, damaging or obliterating any vehicles behind them. With a little bit of planning and maybe some patience, it's possible to set up some incredibly satisfying chain-reaction kills, wiping out whole waves of enemy vehicles in a single well-placed shot. Reminiscent of the underrated (in my opinion, at least) Dark Future: Blood Red States, but significantly more controllable due to its turn-based grid combat. It's a solid formula and one I want to dig into more, time allowing.

Fogpiercer is out now for £18/$20 with a respectable 25% launch discount. Kindly, Hooded Horse have kept the demo up on this one, and even updated it to keep it up to spec with the full game, so give that a try before you buy your ticket to the end of the world.