Game: Australia Did It: End-of-the-World Railway Defense Business
Developer: Rami Ismail, Aesthetician Labs
Publisher: Mystic Forge
Genre: Tactical Roguelike · Tower Defense · Autobattler
Releases: November 17, 2026
Platform: PC (Steam)
🚂 How we reviewed it: on PC, via Steam, ahead of its November 17 launch. With no player reviews out yet, we’ve also noted what one early player found during an hour-long run.
1,500+Merge Combinations
30+Unit Types
2Phases per Station
11Languages
Nov 17Launch Date
🛤️ Know this first: it now launches November 17. Australia Did It was set for November 10, but the team pushed it back a week because of Steam backend delays. It’s the latest game from Rami Ismail, co-creator of Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers and Ridiculous Fishing, made with the Rochester, NY co-op Aesthetician Labs and published by Mystic Forge. A free demo is on Steam now, and the price hasn’t been announced yet.
🦂 Cargo Delivery Is Mandatory. Repairs Are Optional.
Decades ago, nobody knows how, the Atlantic Ocean dried up, leaving a wasteland crawling with oversized bugs, reanimated ancient weapons and mutated creatures. You’re a mercenary hired to escort precious cargo across it by train.
At every station you hold off waves of enemies in turn-based tower defense. Then the train departs, and your crew has to survive an autobattler journey through monster hordes before the next stop. Plan at the station. Prove it on the rails.
Chess on a train platform, then a bullet heaven on the rails.
We first covered Australia Did It when it announced its launch date and new name, and the full game backs up the buzz. It’s a compact tactical roguelike built around one great idea: merging units. Two soldiers become something new, and that something keeps changing as you mix and match. It’s clever, tense and constantly surprising, though it can be stingy with explanations, and its runs ask for a real time commitment.
Our verdict: “This tactical roguelike brilliantly merges turn-based strategy with autobattler chaos, offering hundreds of unit combinations that keep each run fresh and unpredictable.”
How a Station Works
Each stop is a small turn-based puzzle. Your train sits in the middle of the map, and you deploy units around it to shoot down the bugs crawling down the line. One early player compared it to The Last Spell, but more compact.
🎯 Deploy & Position
Buy units, place them carefully and move them each turn. Range, movement and firing lanes all matter.
🧬 Merge
Combine two units into a new type with new abilities, like chain lightning, healing, knockback or stuns.
⏱️ Know When to Leave
Stay past the recommended departure to earn more currency, but anyone not back on the train when it leaves is gone for good.
🃏 Reward Cards
After each station, pick perks like extra damage, movement, stuns or extra shots, and choose which unit gets them.
The Merge System Is the Star
🧪 1,500+ Combinations, and You’ll Want to Try Them All
The merge system is where Australia Did It really shines. With 30+ unit types and more than 1,500 combinations, every pairing is an experiment. A Shotgunner sitting in the middle of the map can mulch anything that comes through with its spread and stuns. A Stormcaster’s chain lightning carves through packs. A Telepath heals your squad while knocking enemies back. Some merges add a devastating double shot, and a handy compendium tracks the base units, fused units and the different merge families you’ve discovered.
It also forces real decisions. Merging frees up space and creates stronger units, but sometimes more small units beat one big one. Your choices also have to account for the clock: when departure is forced, every unit needs to be able to reach the train in time.
Then the Train Leaves
🚄 A Bullet Heaven on Rails
Between stations, the game switches to an autobattler journey. Your crew lines the train and fires at the hordes on their own, in what one early player described as a light bullet-heaven mode. You can direct focus fire or let your units pick their own targets, and a super meter boosts your whole crew for a short time when things get hairy.
It’s the payoff for everything you built at the station. The train has its own health bar, which recovers at each stop, so a well-built crew can breeze through a journey while a sloppy one limps into the next station. That same early player said they’d happily play this mode on its own.
Where It Stumbles
⚠️ A Few Delays on the Line
1. It needs a glossary. Unit stats and abilities use a lot of shorthand, and it isn’t always clear what they mean. One early player only worked out that one abbreviation meant the number of shots a unit fires after quite a while, and wished they could hover over stats for an explanation.
2. Merges can lose your upgrades. When you merge units, they don’t always keep the bonuses you’ve stacked on them from reward cards. One early player found that frustrating, though they understood it’s likely for balance. Merging up to the highest tiers can also make units feel less unique, and getting it wrong can leave you with a weaker unit.
3. Runs are long. This isn’t a quick roguelike. One early player was still going after an hour, and said so with some surprise.
4. Some rewards are duds. One early player was handed a free high-tier unit that turned out to be fairly weak, and found the tougher golden enemies don’t give any extra rewards.
🛠️ Delayed, But Ready
The November 17 date comes after a short delay. The developers say the build was approved, but Steam backend issues meant they needed a little more time before launch. In the meantime, Rami Ismail shared a developer playthrough on the Steam page. There’s also a free demo and a playtest you can request access to.
Things to Know
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good |
The Bad |
The Ugly |
| Merge System1,500+ combinations to experiment with. |
No GlossaryToo much unexplained shorthand. |
Lost UpgradesMerging can wipe out the bonuses you stacked. |
| Station TacticsTight, tense turn-based defense. |
Long RunsNot a quick roguelike. |
— |
| Departure GambleStay for cash, or leave someone behind. |
Dud RewardsSome freebies aren’t worth it. |
— |
| Rail JourneysA satisfying bullet-heaven payoff. |
— |
— |
The Verdict
Australia Did It is a smart, compact tactical roguelike with a merge system that keeps paying off. Every station is a tense little puzzle about positioning and timing, every merge is a gamble that might create your new favorite unit, and the autobattler journeys between stops turn your planning into a satisfying light show. It has the kind of tight design you’d expect from the co-creator of Nuclear Throne.
It does ask you to do some homework. The game leans on shorthand it doesn’t fully explain, merging can quietly throw away upgrades you invested in, and runs are long. Once you get past the learning curve, though, it’s hard to stop experimenting.
The honest read: if you love The Last Spell, Into the Breach-style positioning or autobattler buildcraft, this belongs on your wishlist. Try the free demo first, and keep a notepad handy for the abbreviations.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Score Breakdown
Run Length & Pacing7.0/10
Final Score
8.0/10
Australia Did It: End-of-the-World Railway Defense Business — Rami Ismail, Aesthetician Labs / Mystic Forge
A brilliant merge machine that just needs a manual.
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