Welcome to the ultimate railway hobby! (Boxart for the 2022 edition shown)
Train Simulator is a vehicle simulator game developed and released by Dovetail Games originally in 2009 under the title RailWorks: Train Simulator. Since its original release the game has gotten updated every year since with the series changing its name to simply Train Simulator in 2012. In 2018 Dovetail released a sequel title Train Sim World which also gets annual re-releases.In every version, the player takes on the role of a train conductor. They have the option to drive steam, diesel, or electric trains, and are tasked with transporting both passengers and cargo to different locations on the game map. The player may choose a train, or also have the option to build a custom train by snapping cars together. They also choose departure time and the season and weather at time of departure. Once en-route the weather and time of day change dynamically. The game can also have features added via Steam Workshop.
All aboard for the following tropes!:
- Anti-Frustration Features: While most simulation games do have some form of antifrustrationfeatures to keep things healthily balanced so as to not make things too complicated to understand, Train Simulator Classic does indeed have some of these in case things become too difficult or complicated for players, or certain aspects of a locomotive become too annoying to deal with and/or keep track of.
- Pretty much any locomotive with automatic warning systems can have certain functions of them disabled.
- Bland-Name Product: Averted, as the rolling stock are real-world replicas, down to the interior. It's certainly not Product Placement though, which may explain why the DLC costs so much.
- The branding for wellcar containers that come with specific routes on the other hand, do suffer from this, most likely due to licensing concerns. To be fair though, one can easily acquire freeware wellcars that actually come with high quality containers with their correct brand names on them.
- Cool Train: Rolling stocks do include steam trains, as well as the modern German InterCity Express. Much of the recent dlcs (but not all or nor anything from a particular lone developer) certainly take the cake being cool locomotives themselves and so does much of the UK content.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The opening video for the 2017 version starts off with "Precision: the quality of being precise." In their defense, most definitions of the word do start off something like that, despite the fact that not all dlc is precise.
- Downloadable Content: The first thing most people find out about this game is that it has over $4000 worth of DLC and of course this steadily goes up as more and more dlc are added to the game's store page on Steam and payware 3rd party content (stuff not sold on steam) is developed.
- Guide Dang It!: A few things that stand out
- While the controls are All There in the Manual, there's quite a few actions like signaling traffic controllers or switching rail lines that are rarely used but strictly enforced.
- Nobody tells you that going to a higher speed limit is in effect when the last car passes the speed limit sign and that going to a lower speed limit is in effect when the first car passes the speed limit sign.
- The manuals themselves are vital for pretty much any and all Pro Range locomotives as they're called Pro Range for a reason, though some aren't pro range at all despite having a "Pro Range" label on them.
- In-Universe Game Clock: The player is able to set departure time for all rides they create along with setting the season and weather. Afterwards time moves dynamically during the trip such as changing from day to night.
- Just Train Wrong - Provided the route can support it, you can put any train on all manner of routes, regardless of whether the train or the route could run on the route or carry the train in real life. If you wanted to, you could have a bullet train or Amtrak speeding down the Isle of Wight's Island Line, something which normally only takes old London Underground units from 1938note and the occasional steam train.
- Some DLC locomotives don't behave or even sound like their real-life counter parts, though that's to be expected.
- You are also able to operate BNSF SD 70 AC Es, the dreaded thundercabs, as lead locomotives despite BNSF strictly prohibiting their use as lead locomotives.
- Some routes have incorrect details or are outright missing things that their real-life counterparts have. An example of this is the recent Norfolk Southern Saluda Grade dlc, which lacks the Runaway Track 2 switch's functionality which is supposed to always be set to the runaway track unless an approaching train is going no more than 8 miles an hour, in which the switch would automatically align to the mainline track instead of the spur. The route of course, doesn't have this feature.
- You are able to mess around with switches in free roam and quick drive scenarios, despite already being an engineer and a conductor at the same time.
- Some locomotives brake and accelerate way faster than they do in real life, which may serve as Anti-Frustration Features, however it is a train simulator.
- Some locomotives also have incorrect functions that generally don't actually affect operation of them in game but would definitely affect operation of them in real life. Armstrong Powerhouse is a known culprit of invoking this trope with their payware locomotives.
- You can disable derailments, pretty much allowing you to jet through corners without the wheels of your train leaving the tracks.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Due to having to load to-scale worlds, starting a map takes well over a minute to load.
- Marathon Level: Much like conducting a real train, running a route could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days of real time gameplay, since the game runs at real time.
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Nintendo Hard: Trying to get a perfect score involves being attentive even small details that you would think were unimportant, as well as a few instant game over actions (like failing to acknowledge an AWS warning). The most common deduction you'll have is wheel slippage... which isn't even obvious it's happening without the score indicator telling you. - Product Placement: Thanks to licensing agreements with train operating companies and railroads across the world, most of the trains in the game wear the liveries they actually have in real life. Averted in another sense though as the game developers are the ones paying (similar to the licensing of real cars in racing games), not the other way around.
- Of course there are exceptions, such as the case with Virgin Trains branding.
- Scenery Porn: Controlling a train is fairly straightforward if it's not Pro Range, and even if you're operating a Pro Range train, try to sit back and enjoy the view sometime. The detail extends out up to a mile or so from the rail line, but don't expect accurate detail beyond the immediate line of sight.
- The Amtrak Acela takes this up to eleven since it has cruise control. One can just let the train do all of the work while the player takes some time to notice the route.
- Space Compression: Averted. Routes are to-scale and traveling from one station to another happens in real-time. Traveling across the map? Expect to play for at least two hours.
- Steam Never Dies: You can stick a bunch of steam locomotives in St Pancras station if you feel like it. And pretty much justified in that Steam Locomotives still exist. Big Boy 4014, X-844, Southern Pacific 4449, Nickel Plate Road 765, and Norfolk And Western 611 still run to this day, so one can justify putting Big Boy and UP X-844 on Tehachapi Pass and/or Cajon Pass.
- Machine Rail's Western Maryland H9 can be run on pretty much any CSX route you can acquire.
- This is definitely the case with UP 119 and similar Smokebox Locomotives. Why not stick UP 119 on Wasatch Grade or Cajon Pass?
- Since Machine Rail has a Western Maryland I-2 in the works (it's still put on hold however), one can definitely have fun with the current CSX routes as well as the Clinchfield route.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: The game involves being a train conductor, and thereby all of the duties and responsibilities within, though of course, there are times where certain things (primarily locomotives themselves) are not realistic.
