What is Frostrail?
Frostrail is a first-person survival shooter from FakeFish, the studio behind Barotrauma, published by Shiro Unlimited. You crew an armoured steam train across a frozen, corrupted empire, scavenging and fighting to keep moving. It is in Unreal Engine 5, supports 1-4 player co-op, and enters Steam Early Access in 2026.
Frostrail is a first-person survival shooter from FakeFish, the Turku-based studio behind Barotrauma, published by Shiro Unlimited and built in Unreal Engine 5. You play a Penitent Gardener aboard an armoured steam train, crossing a wasteland that an empire ruined by making a pact with something called the Void. It supports solo play and online co-op for up to four, and it enters Steam Early Access in 2026.
The premise, in the game's own terms
Once there was an empire. Then the Emperor made a pact with the Void, the land died of cold, and what is left is ruins, revenants and eldritch things in the dark. The Penitent Gardeners are the survivors who still move: they purge the cursed, grant mercy to the lost, and look for salvation at the heart of the frozen desolation.
That word — pilgrimage — matters more than it looks. Frostrail is not an open-world sandbox where you pick a direction and wander. The train defines a route; the route defines what you can reach; what you can reach defines what you can build. The official announcements describe the train as "more than a refuge, it is your only way forward", which is the design thesis in one line.
Who is making it
| Developer | FakeFish (Turku, Finland) — the studio behind Barotrauma |
| Publisher | Shiro Unlimited, third-party publishing arm of Shiro Games (Northgard, Wartales) |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
| Team size | Roughly 30 people across both projects, from eight countries |
| Origin | A designer's daydream about "a truck simulator meets Silent Hill", which became a train game over several years |
FakeFish has been explicit that this is not Barotrauma with snow. Asked whether the game would be moddable the way Barotrauma is, the studio answered that full moddability is not possible here, partly because of engine constraints, and that it will explore smaller-scale customisation during Early Access instead. That single answer tells you a lot: this is a tighter, more authored game than their submarine sim.
What you actually do
The store description breaks the loop into four activities, and each has its own page here:
- Operate the train. Fuel the Eden Engine, manage its power, keep it moving. See the train guide.
- Scavenge the wasteland. Abandoned settlements, wreckage lost to the frost, and depths where the rewards are better and the odds are worse. See scavenging and crafting.
- Upgrade the moving base. Reinforce walls, build weapon stations, upgrade the engine, add carriages, crafting stations and storage. See the train guide.
- Fight or avoid. Revenants hunt you; blizzards blind, slow and suffocate you. See enemies and survival.
The tension tying those four together is distance. Every step away from the train is a gamble: risk death for supplies, or stay safe and go without. Heat is finite, the cold is not, and the further you push the more the run is worth — and the more you lose if it goes wrong.
The tone
Frostrail is bleak but not miserable. The store copy is written in the register of a religious order on a death march — "granting mercy to the lost and striking down the wicked" — and the demo backs it up with art direction closer to Metro than to a survival sandbox: dead birch, ice-locked churches, rusted industry, a locomotive glowing warm against blue snow.
Where to go next
- New to the game? Gameplay overview walks one full loop from cab to ruin and back.
- Want to play this week? The demo page has the dates, the install path and what is inside.
- Deciding on a purchase later? Release date and price tracks the 2026 Early Access window.
- Playing with friends? Co-op covers crew size, invites and what the game does not have.
Frostrail is not out yet. It is, however, playable right now as a free Next Fest demo, and that demo is the only honest basis for judging it — which is what every page on this site is built on.
