It’s September 2024, which means Dovetail Games’ Train Sim World 5 is pulling into the station just as expected. The series has been rolling along for some time as an annual release; each newest iteration carrying minor improvements and additions to the formula.
For this entry, there are three new core routes for players to enjoy, each with a handful of fresh locomotives to take control of. Returning players won’t find much dramatically different from past releases, which is a bit of a bummer considering that, while TSW5 is being offered as a free upgrade, this perk is only available until October 2024.
Back on the tracks
Without getting too much into the downside of things so early on, let’s at least consider what’s new in Train Sim World 5.
In addition to the three new core routes, the actual gameplay formula has been updated with a few features. There’s a new Conductor Mode that allows you to check tickets, remove luggage, and clear the train for departure. Fast Travel along the route you’re playing is also a new feature, paired with the ability to Route Hop between routes that have connected locations.
Honestly, I didn’t dabble with any of these new features as they are relatively out of the way. Conductor Mode is only available when riding in the new locomotives that run along the new routes. Fast Travel and Route Hop are more compatible, but are entirely optional to use and are thus easy to overlook. The real meat and potatoes of this package are the actual new routes.
Globetrotting
The three aforementioned new core routes are the San Bernadino Line set in California, USA, the West Coast Line in London, UK, and the Franfkurt-Fulda Line in Germany.
Each of these lines offers its own unique guided Rail Journey to embark on, along with new locomotives to drive. That said, to access all three at once in their entirety, you need at least the $75 Special Edition of Train Sim World 5 to experience the new FlixTrain BR 193 Vectron on the Frankfurt-Fulda line and Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino on the UK line.
I was granted access to all three of these new routes and their locomotives and toyed around with each for several hours. All of that time was spent in a handful of the guided Rail Journeys. The challenges and experiences across all of them were rather unique; a point further emphasised by the differences between the locomotives that run along each of these routes.
California college commutes
The scenarios I played along the San Bernadino Line campaign involved shuttling some college students to and from their campus. Running these tracks are the Metrolink MP36PH-3C and Metrolink F125; both of which are diesel-powered locos.
This line takes you through some of the denser metro areas of southern California. I couldn’t help but praise the minor scenery details. I visited this region in real life a few years back and can confirm that Dovetail’s scenery designers did a great job at capturing the look and feel of it all.
Considering most of the missions for this line are around an hour long (which is true of the other routes as well,) there’s quite a lot of time to get acquainted with the area and the locomotives that run along these tracks.
Fast lanes to Frankfurt
The Frankfurt-Fulda line includes some higher-speed missions, considering the kinds of trains that run along these tracks. The iconic DB BR 411 ICE-T is one such piece of equipment, but specifically introduced in the Deluxe Edition of Train Sim World 5 is the FlixTrain BR 193 Vectron. It isn’t as speedy as the ICE-T, but can still get up to a decent clip.
One such mission I played had me take a few passengers to a station before needing to uncouple from the carriages and then perform a turnaround maneuver to take those carriages back in the opposite direction, due to the initial direction being blocked by a road accident. More hands-on scenarios like this are great to see included, especially in commuter operations.
As was mentioned before, the scenery design along this route is appealing. The German architecture is well reflected, and this particular route runs through a bit of countryside as well as urban areas, so you get a good visual variety to take in.
London lines
The West Coast Main Line over in the UK connects London Euston to Milton Keynes. Deluxe Edition players get to ride it with the high-speed Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino. This sleek locomotive was built less than a decade ago and serves this route as a high-speed commuter rail.
For me, it’s the most fun of the new machines in the whole package, simply due to its beautiful design and stellar capability. The few missions I played allowed me to open up the throttle and put the train through its paces; albeit with more attention to the speed limit to not be penalized.
Of course, watching the track ahead is a continually important part of the Train Sim World experience, and is one of the many components of this series that make it as high-quality as it is. Once again, despite this being the fourth entry of Dovetail’s series that I’ve played, I continue to be sucked into the somewhat blandly familiar, yet continually interesting experience.
Old stomping grounds
As touched on earlier, offering Train Sim World 5 for free would be an entirely great move if only Dovetail had the gates open for more than just a paltry month.
The studio has been iterating on the same formula for about seven years now, and while the core game has improved, there are still so many elements that have stayed the same.
The business model for this series is clear; an annual game release with a swath of new paid DLC rolled out after. That paid DLC eventually becomes legacy content that can be ported to the next annual release; rinse and repeat.
Ticket price-gouging
It’s awesome that each new bit of DLC doesn’t become locked to the version of the sim that it initially released for, but subsequent releases are inaccessible to players who choose to stay on older versions of the core sim.
Consequently, die-hard fans are pretty much stuck into shelling out for the latest edition of the sim to enjoy the previous content, alongside newer routes and locos. Many simulators are known for being investments due to their modular nature, but Train Sim World is one of the more egregious examples due to this business model.
If each new annual release were more substantial in terms of core improvements, at least upgrading would be more warranted outside of simply providing access to even more new paid DLC. But, as it stands, Dovetail is taking the cheaper path for itself.
That might be “just business,” but I can’t help but think a model closer to that of flight simulators like Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane 12 would suffice a little better.
In addition to getting free updates, those simulators iterate on a major scale every few years; hence the forthcoming release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, a near half-decade after MSFS2020. The upcoming sim will provide substantial improvements over its predecessor, so the price to upgrade will undoubtedly be worth the cost of admission.
So, if you’re choosing to get on the tracks of Train Sim World 5, just know you’ll be in for a relatively expensive ride. Not to mention it’s also a bit of a complicated one, considering the oodles of documentation that attempt to explain the differences between all the editions of the game and how to properly upgrade your content from past iterations.
Are we studying to become real conductors or secretly being shown tricks of the trade for becoming business tycoons? The jury’s out on that one.
Riding the rails
Corporate shenanigans aside, Train Sim World 5 is, at its core, still a decent simulator. It remains as one of the most polished not just in its sub-genre, but in the overall sim world as a whole. I continue to be entranced by the attention to detail across the board that Dovetail puts into the series.
Visually, it’s very complex with great lighting and texture work, along with brilliant sound presentation to boot. The physics system is also very well built as you can genuinely feel the heavy weight of your rolling stock, and the need to master the art of coming to accurate stops at stations and being able to manage your speed as the elevation changes.
Most buttons and switches in each cab can be interacted with, even down to very minor details such as being able to turn on lights and open windows. Of course, the ability to get out of the engineer’s chair and walk around the surrounding route and your train cars is the cherry on top of it all; further adding to the immersion factor by a mile.
It’s not all well-greased pistons and rails, however. Some scenery elements like the AI cars along the track still look a little simplistic and even run through active rail crossings as you’re approaching.
Game performance is an issue that has yet to be ironed out; a rather surprising discovery of mine I encountered early on despite running this on a new rig.
On the San Bernadino Line in particular, my gameplay session was marred by significant stutters that broke up the flow of the experience. Optimization has always been one of the weaker elements of this series and it’s baffling that no solutions on PC like AMD’s FidelityFX or Nvidia’s DLSS have been implemented yet.
These hiccups aside, Train Sim World 5 is still worth considering if you’re a fan of railroad sims. I got my start all the way back in ‘ye olden days’ of the Trainz series from the mid-2000s, and seeing how technology has allowed this genre to flourish has been amazing to experience. Dovetail continues to be one of the leading forces, for better or worse.
This is a top-tier modern train simulation experience, albeit with some sticker shock of a golden ticket.
Train Sim World 5: Train Sim World 5 continues to be one of the most high-quality railroad sims in the sub-genre. Despite its advanced technology, it's still not a well optimised title, and the sticker-shock offered by its many editions and plethora of DLC packs makes for quite the investment. Yet, its highlights can't go unnoticed, as it continues to provide an authentic-feeling and a beautiful-looking virtual train-conducting experience. – A.K Rahming
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