Key Worker Simulator (Train Sim World 2020)

Game: Train Sim World 2020
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows
Played On: Xbox One
Price: £24.99
Available on Xbox Game Pass: Yes

Lockdowns got to me a little bit I can’t lie, but with me being indoors a lot more means I obviously have more time to play games. But I still wanted to get out, go to work but I can’t do that with my normal 9-5 at this time so instead I’ve taken up the job of train driver... virtually of course. This week I’ve been playing Train Sim World 2020 developed and published by Dovetail Games. I will say I’m just reviewing the main game here which takes place on the Great Western Railway if anyone was interested.

I said a few reviews back that there truly is a sim game for everyone now and train sim is probably one the originals, be it in a computer or even on a mobile phone, most of us would have seen a version of a train sim. Granted you all might be wondering how bored I must be to play an incredibly detailed game that revolves around driving trains and to be honest so was I as I started it up. But I’m open minded and it’s a hugely popular subject so I was happy giving it a go.

You have to sign in or set up a Dovetail account which is a touch frustrating but after that you’re in. First thing you’ll notice is this game is very pretty, not that you’d expect anything else from a game running Unreal Engine. I can only begin to imagine how good it looks on PC. We also get our first taste of how much details gone into the trains, you get a nice intro to the model and make and see how much you need to do to make a train move and stop and it’s a lot.

After that we’re away and the game starts challenging enough, as you’d expect with a game like this, and this keeps it interesting. Then comes the introduction to the new High Speed Train which again is very detailed but then the game starts getting a bit boring. All of the routes take place between London Paddington and Reading, and as we’re still in the early game so we don’t have to worry about signals or stopping at different stations, so we then get regular journeys starting at Paddington, putting the controller down for around half an hour and picking it up again near Reading to stop the train, it was like being part of the worlds most mundane interactive movie.

We get into our final train (a cargo train, sorry train people that’s definitely not the right name) and again we get a tutorial about how to start and stop it. We then get our first mission with this train that then doesn’t centre around starting or stopping and instead it’s about a lot of things you have no idea about. You do have to figure this out on your own which sort of makes the tutorial I just sat though rather pointless.

The game does pick up again, getting further in you’ll have signals you look out for and more stops and this will keep you entertained, but as I said, running just one route, it wears thin after a while and does become rather dull going backwards and forwards the same way. You might say well there’s plenty of other likes to download and you’re right, there are. And in downloading this game I got 3 extra lines to download. But the others you’ll have to pay for and it’s not cheap. The new lines are easily £25 and for me that’s a hell of a lot of money. To put that into context the Call of Duty 2 Campaign Remaster is £20, it’s a lot of money for roughly 5 hours of content, even just a DLC train will set you back over £10. And I know I’m not one to put value on people work but this is a lot of money, to complete the whole game you’re looking at well over £150. And that’s a lot for game that still has invisible walls.

But work has gone into this and a lot of it, the detail is exceptional. Yes the train stations don’t have shops and does have the aforementioned invisible walls, but I’ve been to Reading station and the layout is spot on, and the detail in the trains is extraordinary so credit where it is clearly due, the team here have a passion and they’ve worked hard at it. The main issue is I clearly don’t have quite the passion for trains, and for this game you need to really need that. So this really is a case of it’s me and not you game, I promise.

As I’ve said it’s good, it really is if you’re into this sort of thing, if you’re sort of interested you’ll get a kick out of this game, but not for long. Truly my stopping point is it’s price and paywall to complete this game, the price being asked for DLC is far too much, and this is game still using invisible walls, it’s not hard to put a barrier there to block of these fake paths. So yes is a good game, but sadly it’s prices are quite frankly, off the rails.

5/10

As always let me know your thoughts here or follow me here or on Twitter @Peterlinsdell to throw abuse at me and keep up to date for all posts