Sony's Next Great First-Party Game Is Media Molecule's Tren, Made in Dreams | Push Square

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Media Molecule might be taking a step back from Dreams in the near future, but it's going out on a high note. One of the team's last major contributions to its community-driven platform is Tren, a game about a wooden train set that packs the same warmth, whimsy, and charm as any of its previous works. Spearheaded by newly-appointed Creative Director John Beech, we recently went hands-on at the developer's Guildford studio, and have come away with our collective heart filled.

Tren has you controlling the titular toy train as it navigates increasingly complex wooden track networks, with the goal of most stages being to simply reach the finish. Each level has target times to beat, but not all of them are simple races to the end. In fact, most of them have some sort of navigation puzzle element. You'll need to explore each course, hitting switches to open gates, finding carriages and cargo, and overcoming see-saws, loops, ramps, and many other obstacles.

The majority of the levels we played were like this, each lasting us a couple of minutes or so as we poked around and aimed to improve our times. Another element of the game is that it runs on physics, meaning if you go too fast around a corner — or don't go fast enough through a loop-de-loop — you'll fly off the tracks. Managing your little train's speed and momentum, which increases if you're pulling carriages, is part of the challenge. It's certainly not a simulation, but you still need to be a little careful if you want those gold medals. There's a very pleasing tactility to the gameplay, which is backed up by brilliant sound design — it really sells the effect that you're playing with blocky, physical toys.

Outside the stages themselves is a hub world connecting them