I try not to spoil too much of a game before I get into it, feeling like I’ve ruined too many games in the past by doing exactly that. This leaves me vulnerable to some unintentional shenanigans when developers will seemingly put forward what I think is the full concept of their game, get sold on it, chuck it on my wishlist and then come back around to it when I’m on the hunt for the next game I want to play. The operative word there, think, should give you some indication of where my head was at when I first saw the The Trolley Solution. Here I was thinking it’d be a game that gave you more and more silly versions of the famous Trolley Problem moral dilemma, which it does to a point, but from there it turns into a truly unhinged collection of minigames that are all based on that concept.
Of course the game starts off with a few funny and strange versions of the trolley problem to get you started, mostly so it can introduce some of the meta mechanics (like collecting cards, the overworld that shows your choices, etc.) but from there you’ll dive into a veritable cornucopia of different games that span from a fully realised tamagotchi clone to a sisyphus simulator to subway rush. At the heart of all of these is still some form of the trolley, the moral dilemma or some other aspect related to the concept. Sometimes it’s finessed in with not-so-subtle eloquence (like the trolley dating sim) other times it’s literally just a clone with trolley branding. Each of these games has its own charm though, something I wasn’t exactly expecting to appreciate when the game took its first hard left away from what I thought the “core” gameplay was.
Aesthetically The Trolley Solution is minimalist with stark black and white graphics with only the barest whiff of shading in some areas. Outlines and shadows are hard, textures are non-existent and the only unifying element across the board is the use of the smallest amount of detail possible. The only other game that I’ve seen that uses a similar art style is SCHiM although it was nowhere near as stark given it had, you know, colour. Still these kinds of choices in art direction are made for a reason and for The Trolley Solution it’s pretty clear: the dev wants you to think about that moral dilemma in increasingly unhinged and peculiar ways.
This is no less apparent than in the extremely well realised dating sim game that was put together which has branching dialogue, multiple endings and a cast that seems to be directly inspired by Class of ’09. It’s a meme-filled stereotypical anime plot that’s then twisted into a moralist discussion on decisions, participation and consequences which strangely manages to pull everything off pretty well. It was by far my favourite part of the game, mostly because of just how weird it was.
The rest of the minigames are enjoyable enough, even if they’re pretty unforgiving for failure. It’s not the biggest issue given how short most of the scenarios are, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated by failing at the last section multiple times on certain puzzles.
The Trolley Solution is the kind of unicorn chaser that you need sometimes: a game that doesn’t really take itself seriously, offers you many chances to pick it up and put it down and does it all in its own unique way. It’s not trying to be the next biggest thing, or saying anything particularly profound, no it’s just here to riff on a popular idea in strange and interesting ways. That’s all you really need sometimes.
Rating: 8.0/10
The Trolley Solution is available on PC right now for $14.50. Total playtime was 69 (nice) minutes with 15% of the achievements unlocked.
