We have been lucky enough to have had a review copy of Train Sim World on the Xbox One sent to us to have a look at, here is our review!
Train Sim World on the Xbox One features the Great Western Mainline from London Paddington to Reading as well as the Northeast Corridor New York and Germany’s historic city S-Bahn railway.
Our review copy of the game features three trains, these being the Class 166 (in Great Western Railway livery), the Class 43 HST (in Great Western Railway livery) and the Class 66 (in EWS and DB Cargo livery). Your copy of the game will include more locomotives for the S-Bahn and the Northeast Corridor New York.
Above you will see a video, this has a few clips of game footage of the new game and looks into the tutorials and scenarios for the Great Western Mainline.
Tutorials
Each locomotive on the Great Western Mainline route has a dedicated and highly detailed tutorial, which allows you to sit and learn how to control these big locomotives in your own time. A voiceover and pointers allow you to easily spot what all the buttons mean.
These tutorials can be replayed over and over and can be used as many times as you like. This is brilliant as you can revisit them in the future to top up on your skills. These tutorials are also saveable, which allows you to do as much as you like, sit back and spend an hour or two learning how to drive the mighty Class 43 HST, or spend 10 minutes learning a little bit about the locomotive.
We should also point out that at the beginning of each scenario, the pointers appear allowing you to see what you should be pressing, such as where the button is to open the left or right-hand doors, and where the guard buzzer is. Things like the button to open the doors or guard buzzer aren’t covered in the beginning tutorials, but it is easy to learn with the pointer in the scenarios.
Scenarios
Having played with a few of the scenarios, we have found these to be very detailed indeed. There is a scenario for everyone. People who have played the PC version of Train Sim World will find these scenarios exactly the same as the ones found on the PC version, however, we also have Train Sim World on the PC and still have enjoyed playing these scenarios on the Xbox One version as the controller and different controls makes a new challenge which makes the game feel different.
At the time of launch, there are five scenarios available for the Great Western Mainline. This includes one for the Class 166, two for the Class 43 HST and two for the Class 66. Here, it would have been nice to see a free roam scenario where you can pick and choose which consist or locomotive you would like to play as.
One scenario we have enjoyed playing, and which features in the above video is Drag Line, this features a Class 66 attending a breakdown of an HST and requires a variety of skills and a wide variety of start stops, change cab ends, and even getting out of the cab to prepare the coupling of the HST!
Unfortunately, quite a few of these scenarios we have found to be a little bit monotonous where you set off from London Paddington in an HST and then don’t really touch the controls until you reach Reading, which is the end of this route. However driving an all stops service on a class 166, can be a great challenge when trying to keep to the timetable.
User Interface (UI) and controls
As you will be able to see in the video above, the user interface is very clean. The menu system is easy to navigate around and makes it easy for you to get into a scenario or tutorial. In a scenario or tutorial, the game is very clear, with clear dials showing you your speed and direction.
The controls for Train Sim World on Xbox One can be quite difficult to start off with, with quite a few of the controls being tucked away in sub menus. We found the ‘in cab’ the easiest way to control the trains. However, with practice, we have found we are beginning to learn which buttons control what from the outside camera views.
We have also found that sometimes the reverse can be locked onto the controller. For example, you go to press the horn button (which requires an up and down on the left stick). However, on occasions, we found that although we were pressing the correct button sequence we were managing to switch the trains reverser from forward, to neutral and reverse.
Overall
Overall, we have been really impressed by the attention to detail and how high-quality Train Sim World is on the Xbox One. It runs really well, with little to no stuttering (however, we were also filming the game footage at the time, which does impact on performance a little so you may not see the stuttering).
Each of the locomotives features high-quality cabs, with the majority of the buttons clickable. We have enjoyed being able to get out of the cab seat and walk around, opening doors and closing windows. It would have been nice to see more of the Great Western Mainline driveable in Train Sim World, but the level of detail towards the stations and the trains more than makes up for this.
We would definitely recommend picking up a copy of Train Sim World on the Xbox One, whether you have it on PC or not, as the different controls definitely add a new dimension to the game.
We really look forward to seeing the game expanded further with new routes and locomotives in the future.
Where to buy
You can buy Train Sim World on either Xbox One or PS4. Please see below for links for you to buy:
- Visit the RailAdvent news homepage
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