Official Review PlayStation 5 Updated

Train Sim World 4 (PlayStation 5)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Train Sim World 4
Item: Train Sim World 4
Rating: 7.7
Author: KiiWii

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): September 26, 2023
Release Date (EU): September 26, 2023
Publisher: Dovetail Games
Developer: Dovetail Games
Genres: Simulation
Also For: Computer, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Control iconic locomotives from around the world and begin your adventure. From record-breaking speeds to scenic commuting with Steam, Diesel and Electric you can grow your hobby, your way.

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Train Sim World 4 steamed into stations that are console digital storefronts on the 26th of September ushering in a new level of simulation and interactivity to the train simulation collective, and giving fans even more of what they want: unrestricted freedom to create and share!

With next to no experience of train sim games other than seeing trailers for them online every so often, I had zero clue as to how this game would play and so I went in completely cold. I had preconceived ideas and this wasn't what I was expecting.

Starting out, you make a profile, and select a character from probably the blandest, nondescript selection of "characters" I've ever witnessed, it's as if it's impossible to have a disability, coloured hair or a tattoo if you want to be a train driver.

More inclusivity and more customisation would be far more relatable and appealing.

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FPS Control Style, Ample Learning Modules

Starting the game up you are dropped into a first-person mode where you can explore the test center. This completely threw me off as I was more prepared for seas of nested menus and perhaps some sort of narrative-come-protagonist-driven reasoning that pulls you through the simulation. Instead, you choose what you want and do whatever takes your fancy.

As a complete noob, I opted to dive into the tutorial section and get a grasp on what I would have to do to even start up a train. I don't know about you but as an average person, who rides a bicycle and drives a car, I have zero knowledge as to how a train even operates other than knowing it has a handle to pull rather than pedasteering method steering.

The modular tutorials begin with setting off and stopping, then progress to collecting passengers, changing ends of the train for your return journey, and coupling and uncoupling. Each of these tutorials stipulates rules to abide by, such as regions of acceptable areas to stop in, speed limits to be observed and how to plan your journey through points using switches to re-direct yourself on your travels.

I have to say that the tutorials are clear, precise and very well explained even for absolute beginners such as myself. Within just a few minutes I was racking up action points (the in-game scoring method) by manually inserting the master key using Cross and sliding the analogue stick to the left, selecting the reverser with Cross, sliding it into position (forward, neutral, reverse, and off) with the analogue stick, pumping up the breaks ready for use, and engaging the throttle to pull away. I had it down to a tea and was fluidly journeying to the next POI, disembarking successfully, swapping ends, and re-setting myself up ready to depart once more.

There are multiple ways to control each lever, switch and dial in the cockpit, as mentioned above you can physically look at the object with your player, hold the Cross button to select it and use the analogue stick to slide, twist or swipe each thing into the correct positively you can keep your vision firmly on the rails in front of you and use the R1/R2 buttons to decrease/increase throttle, and the L1/L2 buttons to decrease or increase braking instead of the more tactile and engaging swipe method.

Things vary slightly between locomotives but widely remain the same, with a strange familiar first-person shooter-style layout that controls the main movements perfectly. Opening closing windows, pressing buttons and twisting dials with the Cross button, sitting in the driver's seat, or stepping up into the cabins with the Triangle button, and using the D-Pad left and right to open or close the left or right side doors respectively.

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Plenty To Experience, Play Your Way

The more you play the game the more you come to get a feel for the pattern it takes to ready your cabin for departure and then accelerate, coast, decrease speed and finally break when necessary. It's a weird sensation of drill and practice that gets you in good stead to know how to operate the majority of vehicles in the game with minor adjustments as the electric diesel locos have multiple break stages to add and subtract from your motoring calculations, because driving is one thing, but stopping and stopping in the right areas is a completely different and more challenging matter altogether.

The game tracks your speeds, areas of braking, acceleration, and timing on a nice little chart with curved lines tracking your data points. If you speed you incur a penalty, if you slow down too much and stop prematurely, you incur a penalty, and if you miss your stop or overshoot the platform, you guessed it: penalty.

For beginners, there are automated player assist settings that you can employ to get you better suited to trickier tasks such as coupling, uncoupling, and setting your points on the rail map pre-journey. I had to use a few of these in areas where I forgot to do a task, namely set the points before my journeys, I just kept forgetting!

Before too long you understand the premise, you have the controls dialled in, and you're ready to steam away cross-country, or even, cross-continent to rack up action points. I chose to visit the new Antelope Valley Line and checked out the Vectron and Flying Scottsman immediately as these are the latest additions and will be the most popular to check out upon installation.

You can choose your route, and time and plan your destinations to minute detail and also take part in some intriguing co-curricular activities through the scenarios, some of which are a little off base with my expectations but inject a much-needed burst of enigma to the monotony of providing a core travel service to your countrymen. No spoilers here!

It's worth noting that there is also Southeastern High Speed, East Coast Mainline, S-Bahn Vorarlberg, Nahverkher Dresden, Linke Rheinstreke, LGV Mediterranee, and Boston Providence to check out with hundreds of kilometres of lush scenery to coast around and observe with incredibly realistic locations to marvel at in passenger mode too!

It is impressive to see fully modelled interiors for all the trains, fully interactive and viewable throughout with signage, materials and lighting looks particularly good on PS5 hardware with even the smallest intricacies from the rivets, dials, decals and even latches and links of chain between the carriages are all there down to the most minute detail. Even the real-world safety features make your virtual journeys all the more realistic, by not allowing maximum acceleration if a door is still open, or preventing you from disembarking altogether.

Sadly I don't think The best use of ray tracing is employed here, because I did notice some screen space reflections acting funny and looking a little fuzzy and remedial around the edges. The use of "screen space ray tracing" is perhaps employed to give the impression of ray tracing but with fewer overheads, which is a shame because the photorealism aspect could certainly benefit from better reflections, especially in areas of water.

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Along the routes, you see workmen NPC's along the embankments pointing and gesturing, cars and traffic motoring around outside the cabin, houses, bridges, buildings and platforms sail past, but internally you have quite literally hundreds of knobs, dials, switches and action points to interact with too. Most of which bag you more action points for completing relevant tasks, such as turning on lighting when it's turning dark outside, or closing blinds when the glare of the sun is getting too bright.

Lighting in-game is quite stark, dare I say bland and stretching into excessively "photo-realistic" in places, however, the overall aesthetic is a little too perfect, with not enough weathering, rust or aged quality applied to the used and often abused railway vehicles.

Train Sim World 4 is a train lovers delight, and a busman's holiday for actual train drivers as it delivers the most unadulterated simulation I have ever seen. This outing brings enhanced features such as 4K textures bringing each environment to life, enhanced AI traffic and pedestrians/passengers that give you the feeling of a living breathing operational world outside of the train tracks, and volumetric fog and stunning weather effects such as rain dribbling down your windscreen, to bring even more visual realism than on previous generation hardware, but I feel like it's still nowhere near maxed out on PS5 yet.

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Difficult To Get Onboard

As a person who never wanted a trainset or wanted anything to do with the driving or function of commercial and haulage trains, this is very much not in my wheelhouse, so there was a great deal of learning and a very small amount of thrills to be had. On the other hand, if you're a train nut and you live breathe and sleep locos then clearly the top of its class simulation game for you with so much to experience and so many routes, trains and schedules to salivate over, I certainly see a lot of appeal for that demographic.

TSW4 allows you to import your pre-existing profiles, DLC and progressions from the previous games in the series, which will be a big draw for fans of the series, and the ability to purchase an ever-expanding arsenal of engines and routes that are planned for seasonal DLC by Dovetail, there is a lot of steam in this engine for longevity, but is an entirely new instalment required every year, or should it remain an upgradeable base game plus updates and DLC?

I see a lot of the hardcore fans in the Dovetail forums saying it is time for a new instalment rather than the "DLC machine" it has become, so it is an extremely fine line to walk for the developers to decide to either produce an entirely new title and ditch all prior content, make it an annual release and remix existing content into the fore with new content as the USP (ala FIFA for the past 20 years), or make one base game with years worth of updates to the core mechanics, game engine, textures, and content as and when it becomes available.

You cannot please all the people all of the time, and this includes die-hard train fans.

Verdict

What We Liked ...

In-depth module-based learning system
New UK, USA and European-based locations
New Steam, Diesel and Electric trains (depending on edition)
Plenty to drool over as a hobbyist
Scenario planner 2.0 & livery editor 2.0
Cinematic and photo modes
Saves space setting up a massive model railway in your house!

What We Didn't Like ...

Extremely formulaic and repetitious at its core
Zero fun for people who don't like trains

Gameplay

Rail buffs will go loco for this latest instalment, with free roam mode, enhanced weather effects, updated livery and schedule designers, an "action points" system, and hundreds of kilometres of new routes to chug around on.

Presentation

This is almost the Gran Turismo of Train sims, with comprehensive menus and modular tutorials that gradually guide you through the entire simulation until you're ready to venture out alone. Graphically the game looks reasonably realistic, with 4k textures, volumetric fog and detailed environments with realistic weather effects.

Lasting Appeal

There are so many scenarios to complete, and routes to master, and the free roam mode gives you the freedom to spawn any train you have and do pretty much any scenario you can imagine: there are almost infinite possibilities to keep you going forever.

7.7

out of 10

Overall

A definite bump to TSW3: TSW4 brings more trains, more routes, and more freedom to craft your own fun within the sandbox available. Dovetail is continually improving and refining the formula for avid train lovers.

Reactions: DS1, Mama Looigi, anjanimal and 4 others

Can we cause crashes in this? Like, how much freedom are we talking here?

Are you able to put two trains on a single track, going towards one another at full speed?

If this is the Gran Turismo of the train simulators, then there is some distilled experience, yes?

My son would love this.

KiiWii
Oct 10, 2023

eyeliner said:
Can we cause crashes in this? Like, how much freedom are we talking here?

Are you able to put two trains on a single track, going towards one another at full speed?

If this is the Gran Turismo of the train simulators, then there is some distilled experience, yes?

Yes you can crash: check the screenshots, but the game resets your position almost immediately, and there is no deformations or luscious explosions

Reactions: eyeliner

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Product Information:

Game Features:

FPS Control Style, Ample Learning Modules

Plenty To Experience, Play Your Way

Difficult To Get Onboard

Verdict

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