REVIEW: Rivet Games’ Arosa Line for Train Sim World 2

Rivet Games have recently released their Arosa Line route for Train Sim World 2, and have kindly sent RailAdvent a copy to review.

The route features the line from Chur to Arosa on a 4ft gauge railway line with a maximum gradient of 6%.

What’s included for the price?

Included in the route is the full 25km line from Chur to Arosa, 3 railfan scenarios and 7 career scenarios including a dedicated tutorial scenario. Also included is ABe /12 locomotive in RhB livery.

First Impressions

Whilst the Arosa Line was a route featured for sale for Train Simulator, this is a brand new route and locomotive to Train Sim World 2, so first up was the dedicated tutorial scenario. Whilst the locomotives on this route are not hard or difficult to drive (well, in the uphill direction at least – more on that later), it is nice to see a dedicated tutorial for those new to the line and game especially.

The scenario is informative and easy to understand, much better than a PDF manual that you cant have open and use when playing the game.

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Whilst a rather lengthy route, the hills, inclines and views make this an enjoyable route and makes the miles pass by easily.

Optimisation and Detail

This route is incredibly detailed, but stays well optimised, a mid-tier laptop was used for streaming this and playing the route, and my FPS maintained a constant 50-60 fps.

Detail on the line is up there with the level of detail we have come accustomed to for a Rivet Games product. Hills higher up or further away do seem a bit bare and some trees do seem to be missing, but i found myself engrossed in the lower level scenery or trying to keep my downhill speed low enough to not even notice the lack of trees.

All animations throughout scenarios and the tutorial were all high quality, moving around the cab is easy, walking through the carriages a breeze, just overall a smooth route to play with frame drops.

Moving onto audio, a sense of realism hits you with the audio, the sounds are realistic and are high quality (no muffling etc), backing up the £24.99 price tag.

As with the Isle of Wight route, which we have also reviewed from Rivet Games, having just one train could be seen as a bit repetitive, but honestly, with the difficulty of practising downhill driving takes time and needs learning, so i don’t see this being an issue, its also nice that some trains have freight as well as passengers.

General Gameplay

So, what’s the route like for gameplay. Well, firstly, the graphics are stunning, the views are superb and the downhill sections are not forgiving. The locomotive is intuitive to drive and once the tutorial is done, you are more than set to take the train for a spin.

Plenty of buttons are clickable, the scenarios are engaging and the variety of weather is fun to drive in. We never found ourselves sat at a station trying to remember how to release the brakes. The length of the route, 25km, or approx 15.5 miles, is just right in my opinion, the ever-changing scenery, the downhill sections and street running make the miles fly by.

Now, the downhill running. Whilst the locomotive will keep a constant 30kph going uphill, downhill is another ball game, let it run and you will fly down to the towns and derail. You need a good hand to maintain a constant speed and keep to time, it’s all very engaging and enjoyable to play.

It’s nice to see the nameplates on the locomotives, as they are in the real world, just tiny pieces of detail that make a big difference.

Any Bad Points?

Just two issues for me on the route, which shows how long Rivet Games put into this route. As mentioned prior, the upper mountains are missing some scenery, but I can forgive it for this as the lower sections (IE lineside) are properly kitted out and I didn’t find myself looking at the mountains higher up to often, and this could be because the route is out on Xbox One and Playstation too, so these need to be optimised.

Another small issue, there is a passing loop near Arosa, with a speed limit of 30kph, but if you do go through here at that speed, you will derail coming out of the loop, possibly a bug but just something to bear in mind (going around 15kph you will be fine) – I have seen a few other streamers do similar things and derail at the same point.

Note: Since writing this review, the derailing issue has been updated and has been fixed

Final Thoughts?

To bring this review to an end, this route is enjoyable, detailed and scenic and is definitely one to add to your TSW2 collection.

The Arosa line add-on is available for £24.99 from the Rivet Games store by clicking here. It is available for £24.99 through the Steam Store, which I feel is just about right for the length of the line and included loco and scenario.

You don’t need any other assets or routes for the Arosa Line to work, just Train Sim World 2 itself – so id recommend you get this route and add it to your collection.

Want to see the route in action? Make sure to follow the RailAdvent Twitch channel to see when I go live stream the route: twitch.tv/railadvent

Thank you to Rivet Games for allowing us to preview and review this superb route and sending us a copy.