

You don't nip through a quick tutorial to understand them you spend a game getting to know them. To an extent, the locomotives of Train Sim World 2020 are its characters. While it may seem something of a stretch to list 'tutorials' as a significant gameplay feature, the various vehicles throughout this release are varied and complex, meaning getting to grips with each one is a significant part of the game. There are tutorials to master, timetabled services to perfect and a bounty of scenarios, where you might have to deliver freight or keep a fast passenger train performing at the peak of its ability. The studio's effort is sincere in tone and largely sober in presentation, but the passion for trains always bubbles near the surface, and is rather beguiling.Įssentially, Train Sim World bundles several train lines - or 'routes' - and provides myriad ways to explore them. There's personality in there for sure this is a release that stands out as refreshingly unconcerned by game design fashion, and is proudly unashamed in its enthusiasm for railways. While the likes of a scoring system showcase how it borrows from conventional gaming, Train Sim World 2020 is studiously devoted to realism, from the handling of the trains and their operation to the carefully reproduced stations and sternly implemented timetables. Put another way, even if you don't subscribe to railway magazines and travel the country visiting heritage steam lines (and you should, because trains are cool), developer Dovetail's creation can be a powerfully compelling game. You know you could lift your score a little higher. But surprisingly often, it pokes at you like an arcade game does, luring you back in with its remarkably generous capacity for perfection. It's entirely fair to describe it as slow, meditative and - relative to the furore and fury of a typical action game - even empty. Go hang around with some rail enthusiasts.Īnd that's the peculiar thing about Train Sim World 2020.

If those words leave you cold, you're missing out. If the words 'BR's blue-and-grey era' fill you with excitement, Train Sim World 2020 might be for you. You know you can do it perfectly with that one more go. Heart beating, breathing clipped, it's time to hit restart. There's enough train on the platform to unlock the doors and welcome new passengers, but you were late, clumsy and left plenty of room for improvement. An inevitable stuttering cycle of speeding up and slowing down spirals, leading you to overshoot the ideal stopping point just moments after you came short byy five or so yards. It's time to release the brake and dial up the throttle again. Then you shudder to a halt near-immediately, 600 yards out from the destination. With the pressure at the right level, shifting the same lever with precise timing to its 'LAP' position applies the brake. Pulling the brake to 'service' loads pressure into the system. As 750 yards ticks down, it's all too easy to lose yourself to a frenzy of lever yanking. In your first few hours of Train Sim World 2020, however, you'll learn a great deal of respect for the starring vehicles' drives. As passengers we see trains coast to a precise stopping position so frequently we lend no mind to the skill that might be needed, instead focusing our thoughts on lost minutes and the scramble for a table seat.

#TRAINZ SIMULATOR 2 REVIEW GAMER PS4#
Availability: Out now on PC, Xbox One and PS4.All it takes is a steady movement with a single brake lever, and the giant vehicle you are commanding should glide to a standstill with perfect elegance. With the throttle already set to idle, momentum and the train's sheer weight are all that is propelling you forward. That shouldn't be too tricky, especially as you've had a lengthy stretch with little more to do than take in the view and prepare your thoughts. Told with nerdish detail - and limited production values - Train Sim World 2020 might surprise you.Ĭoasting through the San Francisco Bay area in a muscular F40PH-2CAT diesel-electric locomotive, there's 750 long yards to go until you have to come to a stop at a platform.
