Trailmakers

1. Summary

Trailmakers is a block-based vehicle sandbox, and what reviewers praise is that you can build almost anything and then drive, fly, sail or fight with it. Players compare it to Lego that actually moves and describe whole evenings spent tuning a plane until it finally flies. Simple cars come together in minutes, while logic-driven mechs and guided missiles keep some players busy for years. Friends make it better, in dogfights, races and mech brawls.

Money is the main complaint. A third of the longer reviews bring up DLC, and the objection is to functional blocks, engines and weapons sold in separate packs, more than to paid campaigns or cosmetics. By reviewers' own sums the full set costs several times the base price. Bugs, crashes and physics that suddenly fling or blow apart a build come up in 14% of the longer reviews. Opinion divides on the campaigns and on how steep the learning curve is, and long-time players add smaller grievances: a disliked builder redesign, a low complexity limit, missing small blocks, and updates that break old builds.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Build almost anything, then use itHigh

Players list cars, planes, boats, submarines, spaceships, tanks, walking mechs, dragons and stranger things, and the reward is getting them to work: "I can't describe the dopamine hit once you make something finally work". 17% of the longer reviews praise the creative freedom in so many words (build anything, creativity, imagination), and the same idea fills thousands of short positive reviews. Some compare it to Lego (4% of the longer reviews), most simply as "It's like playing with Legos, but with motors, guns, and much more." Weight, lift and drag all affect how a build handles, and a few players say the game taught them about aerodynamics or logic gates. The same physics cause many of the bugs described further down.

Better with friendsMedium

Friends come up in 11.5% of the longer reviews, usually as the best way to play: "this game is 10 times more fun when you have a friend". Players describe dogfights, races, mech fights, co-op campaign runs, dropping explosives on each other's builds, and laughing when something fails spectacularly. Several solo players say the game gets boring alone after the campaign, and some note that none of their friends would buy it.

Runs on modest hardwareLow

Players on old laptops, budget graphics cards and even integrated graphics report that the game runs on lower settings: "The game runs amazingly on my older computer". Large builds, explosion-heavy fights and busy public servers are the exception, with lag and frame drops even on strong machines.

Developers who keep adding thingsLow

Some reviews credit an active team that runs build challenges, posts development diaries and ships requested features such as tank tracks, RC blocks and new logic blocks. One player says "they add the exact block that I was thinking about". A few reviewers say they changed their review, or are thinking about it, after free blocks arrived. Other long-time players say requests and old bugs go ignored, so veterans disagree on this point.

The Steam WorkshopLow

Newcomers who cannot build yet download vehicles from the Workshop and learn by taking them apart, and builders enjoy sharing their creations. The Workshop comes up in 4% of the longer reviews. Several complain that the good Workshop builds need DLC parts, and one says builds containing DLC blocks cannot be edited without that DLC. Some PvP players resent opponents who only use downloaded builds.

Where players are split

The campaignsMedium

13% of the longer reviews discuss the campaigns; reviewers name the free Pioneers and Stranded and the paid Airborne, High Seas and Frozen Tracks. Fans say Pioneers introduces parts and vehicle types at a good pace: "The campaign is cleverly designed to introduce you to how to construct different things without just handing you an instruction manual". Critics call the quests repetitive fetch and passenger runs, the resource and power-core grind slow, and the water section punishing. One player calls the Mudflats drill boss "the worst boss fight I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with in a video game", and several describe boats spinning or flipping uncontrollably in that fight. Players also ask for a way to replay a finished campaign, smoother co-op progress, and the paid campaigns folded into the base game. A few sandbox players say they have never touched the campaigns.

Easy to start, hard to masterMedium

Fans of the learning curve describe a gentle start and a high ceiling: "It has a low skill barrier and a very high skill ceiling, making it accessible to all players." The learning curve comes up in 7% of the longer reviews. Helicopters, walking mechs and logic gates are where players get stuck, and logic blocks come up in 4% of the longer reviews, often as confusing or poorly explained. A smaller group gave up early; one short review describes needing "to finish a computer science masterclass in order to play with friend". Players ask for in-game explanations of each logic block and a clearer view of where power cores go.

Public servers and PvPLow

Some players find friendly public lobbies and memorable fights. Others describe gun-spam builds, players who crash servers on purpose, build stealing, and energy blades that end fights in seconds: "kids that put 50 flak guns on a car and hold shoot until you kick them from your lobby". Public lobbies come up in 3% of the longer reviews. The same complaint about paid PvP weapons being pay-to-win, copied nearly word for word, appears in seven reviews. Players ask for votebans, better reporting and server rules that hosts can enforce.

What frustrates players

DLC that locks away functional partsHigh

33% of the longer reviews bring up DLC or paywalls, and about a third of those (32%) point specifically at blocks, engines, weapons, wings or wheels, which players see as the core of a building game: "In a building game, blocks are the game." Reviewers' estimates for the full DLC set run from about $70 to over $140 on top of the base game. Other irritations: unowned DLC blocks shown in the build menu, a purchase screen after placing a locked part, DLC popups in the main menu, Workshop builds that need packs the player doesn't own, servers on DLC maps that base-game owners cannot join, and DLC weapons that give an edge in PvP. A minority defends the model as optional and as funding for a small studio: "We give the Devs money, the Devs give us good updates." Some reviewers advise buying the base game on sale and adding a pack or two, with Airborne among the packs they name.

Bugs, crashes and physics that misbehaveMedium

Builds explode or launch into the sky after touching a rock or a tree. Suspension, servos and pistons jitter, ghost blocks appear in the builder, mirror mode scrambles builds, and players get locked inside build mode unable to save. These reports of bugs, glitches, crashes and physics problems appear in 14% of the longer reviews. Crashes come up in long sessions and multiplayer, and some long-time players say certain bugs have been around for years. How much it matters varies: one player shrugs that "Half the time the bugs just become another engineering problem to solve", while another describes a car "which was perfectly normal 2 seconds ago is now suddenly breakdancing nonstop".

Multiplayer stabilityLow

"Multiplayer servers will crash randomly no matter how smooth they run." Reviews reporting multiplayer problems (3% of the longer ones) describe servers that crash, disconnects and timeouts, heavy input delay when friends live far apart, and lobbies that close when the host leaves. Players ask for dedicated servers or a more stable hosting model.

Updates that break builds or wipe blueprintsLow

2% of the longer reviews describe losing work. Physics changes, including what players call the PhysX update, left older planes, mechs and walkers behaving differently or not working, and blueprints or campaign progress vanished after updates or save migrations: "ALL of my blueprints have suddenly disappeared with the latest update out of nowhere". A few found their files in a different folder afterwards, and one player warns that offline play across two devices wiped a save.

The 2.0 builder redesignLow

Most of the reviews that mention the builder interface (3% of the longer ones) are unhappy with it, and most of those come from long-time players. They find the new side menu harder to navigate, dislike the changed build-mode camera, and want the old layout as an option: "all they need to do is add a option for the old ui like they did with the legacy rotation". Some newer players and a few returning veterans say the redesign is fine once learned.

No key rebinding or mouse sensitivity settingLow

Controls cannot be rebound and mouse sensitivity cannot be changed, a complaint in 2% of the longer reviews, many of them from players with very little time in the game. AZERTY and left-handed players are stuck, mouse smoothing cannot be turned off, and F both swaps vehicles and drops you out of them: "The year is 2025 and you can't change your keybindings in a game, what a world."

The complexity limit and missing basic blocksLow

Experienced builders run into the 700 complexity cap (2.5% of the longer reviews) and the lack of 1x1 blocks and certain wedges (1.7%): "my only gripe is the games complexity limit stuck at 700." Mods can lift the limit, but not on every server and at a cost in performance. The missing cube is a running joke: "Just don't ask for a 1x1x1 cube. They staunchly refuse to add it."

No crossplay or progress transfer from consolesLow

1.3% of the longer reviews say Steam players cannot join friends on Xbox or PlayStation, and that blueprints and DLC bought on Xbox do not carry over to Steam. One player who bought the game to play with Xbox friends found "it's NOT cross play between Xbox and Steam".

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm. Thousands of short reviews say little more than "peak", "you can build anything" or a joke about never having made a single trail. Some of the long ones come from people who have played for years, some first on Xbox or PlayStation and then on PC. A lot of the negative reviews are written by people who still like the game and object to how it is sold, so the same review often praises the builder and condemns the DLC in consecutive sentences.

Who raises what follows experience. Players with only an hour or two tend to complain about controls, mouse sensitivity, loading problems or feeling lost. Long-time players raise the builder redesign, the complexity limit, missing small blocks, server stability and builds broken by physics updates. DLC complaints come from players at every stage, including veterans who have bought most of the packs and see new ones arriving. Some newer players mention picking the game up for a few dollars in a deep sale, which softens their view of the price.

Reviews also tie their complaints to specific releases: the 2.0 update with the Pioneers campaign and new builder, the physics engine update, bugs at the Frozen Tracks launch, the 2.3 Pioneers rework, and the paid Downtown Drive city map. Edited reviews move in both directions, souring after a paid release and recovering when free blocks or fixes arrive.

4. What the developers could do

1. Keep functional blocks in the base game and bundle the rest. DLC comes up more than any other complaint, and players object most to engines, weapons, wings and basic shapes sold in packs, along with locked parts cluttering the build menu and DLC popups in the main menu.
2. Fix long-standing physics and builder bugs before the next pack. Ghost blocks, mirror mode scrambling builds, build-mode soft-locks, random explosions and crashes are the next most frequent complaint, and players take each new paid release as a sign that fixes are losing out.
3. Stabilize multiplayer. Players report servers that crash, disconnects, heavy input delay over distance and lobbies that die with the host, and ask for dedicated servers plus votebans and reporting that work.
4. Protect players' builds across updates. Physics changes broke old planes and mechs, and blueprints or campaign progress were lost after updates. Legacy physics settings, automatic backups and safer save migration would address it.
5. Rework the campaign pain points. Reviewers single out the Mudflats drill fight and the boat physics in it, repetitive rescue and transport quests, the power-core grind, and the lack of a way to replay a finished campaign.
6. Add key rebinding, mouse sensitivity and a smoothing toggle. 2 reviews written in the first hour say they refunded over these missing settings, and AZERTY and left-handed players say they cannot play comfortably.
7. Offer the old builder layout as an option. Long-time players ask for a legacy toggle like the one already offered for rotation.
8. Raise or make adjustable the complexity limit and add the small blocks people request. Experienced builders keep hitting the 700 cap and working around the missing 1x1 blocks and wedges with glitches.