REVIEW : Train Life: A Railway Simulator (PC)
Train Life: A Railway Simulator offers inexpensive, Early Access entertainment that is mainly on track, whether you’re tearing down the tracks from the confines of a cab or making decisions from the constraints of your company offices.
Undoubtedly, in the US, the car is the most popular form of personal mobility. But since I’ve been fortunate enough to reside in towns with active passenger rail networks, I’ll always prefer taking the train. As a result, I attempted almost every locomotive simulation I can find. Some games, such as Train Sim World and the Japanese Rail Sim series, allow players to take on the role of an engineer, transporting passengers and cargo between cities.
Others take you out of the cab, including Railway Empire and A-Train 3D: City Simulator. You will play the part of a budding rail mogul in each of these games as you work to create a successful business from the ground up.
Train Life: A Railway Simulator, which is still in Early Access, combines the two professions. You will first receive training while operating a locomotive over branched rail sections in modern Germany. Getting your train running is a relatively straightforward process, regardless of whether you choose to use your keyboard, a mouse to manipulate the virtual throttle and brake in the cab, or even a joystick.
Descent Into Danger
You’ll quickly discover though that halting and controlling the 200-ton train up and down gradients is a more difficult challenge. You are alerted to speed limitations by environmental signage, pop-ups, and the HUD in Train Life. Although you won’t be fined for briefly exceeding the speed limit by a few kph, repeated disobedience will result in a fine, so pay attention to the descending rails. On the other hand, you’ll find that climbing slopes require momentum. You’ll discover that gravity can be ruthless if you cut power while going up an incline because of a track hazard. If you don’t take caution, you can exhaust your gasoline or power source while trying to slowly up that grade.
For accessing restricted locations without radioing beforehand, you risk receiving a fine. In Train Life, communication isn’t always straightforward. To choose options like stations and purposes, you’ll need numerical keys, which can make conversing with someone feel more like navigating a convoluted voicemail system. Additionally, track changes can cause issues because your train’s GPS doesn’t show junctions. None of these tasks is very challenging when performed alone. However, it can be simple to miss a window of opportunity while you’re flying down the track at 120 km/h.
Pulling the E-Brake on Wastefulness
But that doesn’t mean Train Life isn’t enjoyable. Riding the rails can be exciting once you’ve learned the fundamentals and absorbed some of the features that the game’s tutorial missed. When the tutorial is through, you’ll have to pay for the consequences of your own decisions, so using the emergency brake and wasting fuel won’t be as appealing. The game’s sense of vastness is enticing.
A November 18th update expanded routes outside Germany, mimicking the Eurostar line to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels.
We’re hoping to get to Lyon, Avignon, and Marseille soon. There are currently 10 distinct locomotives, as well as a wide variety of distinct engines, bogies, chassis, and fuel tanks. In addition to being unaffordable for a start-up freight company, you must achieve a certain level to buy upgrades.
Riding the Rails to Success
The game’s business simulation, however, only becomes apparent once you complete the tutorial and take control of your own rail company. Currently, you can choose a name and logo for your company while you work to turn a profit carrying people or raw commodities. Your interests in the rail industry are now diffuse, with your main drive being to assemble a substantial fleet of engines and personnel.
I did enjoy the distinction that Train Life made between timed contracts (which offer the benefit of being prompt) and non-timed deliveries. The game’s high-speed InterCity Express trains are separated in distinct scenarios rather than the career mode and do not travel at a speed of 300 km/h. This is a drawback. Train Life scales time and space remarkably well, save from that one problem.
Conclusion
A Railway Simulator’s performance at the moment is very inconsistent. While moving the game’s camera outside of the train reveals some outstanding modelling, the interior of the cabs is nicely depicted. However, the scenery in Train Life can be a little uninspired, with generic smokestacks and uninspiring surroundings frequently lining your routes. Fortunately, there are sporadic Ferris wheels and transit hubs that provide some visual variation. The game is prone to the occasional slowdown even at 1080p on an RTX 3070, which detracts from the feeling of realism. Hopefully, the performance bug can be fixed throughout the four releases Simteract has scheduled before the retail release. For its current modest price of fifteen dollars, Train Life: A Railway Simulator provides a lot of ambition. The present build offers enough train driving and business modelling to warrant its current purchase price, though a studio can easily stop working on it and pursue the next big project.
