I have been playing Train Simulator (up to 2019 just recently) for some years and I have mixed feelings for it. So I decided to try the “successor” Train Sim World. I will get straight to the point and say that I requested a refund from Steam after 104 minutes (despite getting the Digital Deluxe edition at 55% discount). Perhaps you may think I can not properly judge a game after just 104 minutes? Perhaps 104 minutes was more time than I should have spent.
The Graphics
The big thing about Train Sim World is supposed to be its state-of-the-art Unreal 4 graphics engine, compared to the “outdated” engine of Train Simulator. I think… it looks better, but not that much better. I think TS2019 with a decent GPU and 64-bit-edition looks pretty decent. And TSW did not look that amazing. But that was not the problem…
1st person perspective
In TSW you can walk around. You can enter and exit your locomotive. Thats ok, but I don’t really care. However in the first Scenario (Great Western Express) I had to take a local service to Paddington. So I had to, in game, spend 10 min on a commuter train. I could not figure out how to sit down, so I could not really look out through the windows and enjoy the view. And the interior of that commuter train was not amazing and there were some reflexes (I guess) that gave pretty ugly artifacts. It took me 20 minutes in a mostly empty commuter train and walking around in a mostly empty Paddington station until I was actually in my drivers seat. Not fun.
The Driving UI
The view from the drivers seat looks good. Both in TS and TSW there are basically four ways to do (the most common) things:
- Using the mouse to click/drag in the HUD
- Using the keyboard
- Using an Xbox gamepad
- Using the mouse/pointer to manipulate the actual instruments, buttons and levers in the cabin.
This is listed in the order I learnt it in Train Simulator. The HUD was easy to start with but not too comfortable. The keyboard was more comfortable and the gamepad even more so. For long relaxed drives I sit back using the gamepad. But for intense and precise shunting operations I bring out the mouse. I never really bothered with #4.
But #1 does not work in TSW. The HUD is view-only. So there is no button on the screen that clearly loads/unloads passengers. You have to click TAB to get a menu in the middle of the screen. I think it was great in TS that there was a simple control-with-mouse interface at the bottom of the screen that had everything I needed! Then I could use keyboard, gamepad or the cabin buttons as I preferred.
TS had an interactive and useful HUD at the bottom of the screen. And a task menu to the left that could be opened when needed. But TWS clutters the forward, outward, view with information. It is not pretty. The markers (for speed and signal color) completely destroy the beautiful view. You can turn it off but you need that information somewhere. You can get it in the HUD, but it shows up covering the landscape outside.
Its possibly I spent too little time with the new UI. But I really didn’t like it. And it was hard to use and learn.
Scenario Tasks
For some reason you can not see all your tasks from the beginning. What is that!? Isn’t the train driver supposed to know the timetable in advance to be able to plan ahead? And I did have problems completing tasks. In the EM2000 freight scenario “Aggregate Industries” I was supposed to activate Slow Speed Control. Not only was it unheard of, and I needed to find a little button with the right tooltip (not knowing if I am in a hurry or not), but clicking the button never completed the task and I could not complete (or even begin, actually) the scenario.
Scenarios and Services
The Great Western Express DLC comes with 3 locomotives and 5 scenarios! Perhaps more can be unlocked, but what is that? On the other hand there are very many “services”, being able to run any train on the time schedule. Thats ok, but then no information about duration or difficulty.
Conclusion
Well, this was just some of my impressions. But I was disappointed and frustrated after almost two hours with TSW and I feel relieved that my refund was accepted.
Since TSW is also for consoles (Xbox, PS) I would have expected a nice, smooth, beautiful, polished driving experience where I could relax with my gamepad and see, hear almost feel the power of the engine and the landscape flying by. Instead I got a slow boring confused first-person-shooter-experience where I felt lost in a runaway train.
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