Just like conducting your very own train, without all the messy derailings.
Trains are one of those things that spark a little interest in all of us. Whether it is the sight of a 50-car freight train blocking traffic during our daily commute or dreams of riding the Orient Express through the Alps one day with a loved one, trains-like airplanes-are one of the few things in our society that merge the practical with the fantastic. Microsoftīs latest simulation title, Train Simulator, looks to capture that fascination and let train fans realize their dream of conducting trains on a number of famous routes. Train Simulator accomplishes that task quite well, providing an accurate, immersive, and extensible simulation of conducting a train that train fans and general sim fans will find simply irresistible-although it might not do much for the gamers not enthused about trains.
Any simulation gamer worth his salt will tell you that the one thing that a sim game must provide is an accurate and detailed recreation of the operating environment the game is based around. Microsoft, publishers of realistic commercial flight sims for well over a decade, knows this well, and have no faltered a bit in delivering on that requirement. There is no part of Train Simulatorīs environment that is not painstakingly detailed.
The most apparent application of this philosophy in Train Simulator is in the implementation of terrain, which consists of hundreds of miles of geographically-accurate land spanning three continents, all modeled from real satellite data. The terrain is more than just simple topological data as well-buildings, bridges, tunnels and crossing data are also included, right down to the classic bumpkin doublewide on the side of the track in the middle of nowhere. Kuju Entertainment has also provided ample means to view all that land-multiple pannable camera angles, both external and internal, provide a great view of the landscape as it whisks past your train. There terrain is also very alive-deer sit on the tracks, cars and trucks wait at crossings (provided you toot your horn properly), and other trains populate the tracks alongside yours. It will not take long to notice one missing element in the environment, though-the game suffers from total lack of people to populate the game world. This omission isnīt so bad when doing freight runs, but not being able to see people get on and off the train during passenger rail activities is really disappointing and detracts from the immersiveness of the simulation a good deal. Itīs far from a fatal flaw, but I was quite disappointed that the feature was nonexistent, even if it was presumably for performance reasons.
Kuju was also did a superb job making the trains themselves look as close to real life as possible. Both locomotives and boxcars are extremely well modeled and sport some excellent textures that resemble the real article almost perfectly. Passenger views are different for the passenger trains and cars, and huge freight trains really look like the ones that back traffic up for miles. Instrumentation and controls for the different locomotives seem authentic (this reviewer is not a hardcore train enthusiast) and match the `feelī of the different locomotives perfectly. Causal sim gamers need not worry about having to relearn interfaces for each locomotive in the game-Kuju has provided a common keyboard interface for all controls, and acclimating to different placement of instrumentation is facilitated by context-sensitive mousing. This kind of adherence to authenticity without compromising playablity is prevalent throughout the game, and is to be commended-it is a hard balance to strike, but Kuju has done it well.
If you have ever lived near train tracks (as this reviewer has in leaner times) you know all too well the sound of a train, from the telltale clank-clank of the cars on the track to the middle-of-the-night-shaking wail of the horn. Sound is an essential component to any simulation game, and Train Simulator has it executed perfectly. Steam engines sound exactly like they do in the classic movies, freight trains are as frighteningly noisy as this reviewer remembers them from his college days, and high-speed electric passenger locomotives hum along the tracks, a stark contrast the loud cranking from the diesel combustion locomotives. Environmental sound usage and positional audio make the effect that much more realistic, as the sounds from inside the locomotive cab and outside on the tracks are very different, as are the differences in intensity depending on the distance from the train to the camera angle currently being used. Kuju is to be commended on this dedication to accuracy, as far too often even simulation games forego quality sound work in lieu of more operating environments for the players.
Train Simulator delivers all this accuracy, however, without the prerequisite inflated system requirements that so often plague simulation gaming. Despite all the detail in the game, the graphics engine is surprisingly fluid and consistent. On a high-end machine, cranking all the settings and resolution up to maximum values leaves very playable framerate (i.e. 20-30 fps), and the engine scales down to lower end machines quite well-something that big fans of trains but casual PC gamers will probably appreciate greatly. There are some issues with aliasing and noticeable level of detail switching even at high resolutions, but the visual gains made by using such detailed landscapes in addition to a very nice draw distance more than make up for the slight degradation in visual quality.
Simulation games are still games, however, and as such they demand good gameplay formulae in order to be enjoyable, regardless of their quality of simulation. It is in this regard that Train Simulator lacks the kind of polish that the rest of the product has. At the core of Train Simulator are activities, which are simple, objective-centric missions that require the player to fulfill tasks such as picking up passengers from stations and delivering freight with a variety of environmental (weather, time of day) and situational characteristics. There is also a activity generator for each route that allows the player to customize their own activities easily. These activities are quite fun on their own-they depict both common and extraordinary train activities well-but they lack the kind of addictive `one more runī type of gameplay that a career or campaign mode would have provided. Also, while the player is given performance evaluations at the end of a mission, there is no real determination of pass or fail other than making sure the player reaches certain critical objectives. For example, you might be five minutes late to a passenger stop, but itīll only get mentioned at the end of the report in a footnote, whereas in real life youīd be chewed out by your superiors. Train Simulatorīs gameplay is by no means flawed-it is actually quite good, but I feel it does lack a certain level of innovation in design that would propel it from good to great.
Learning curve is usually a problem in simulation games, but Train Simulator has taken great steps to try to alleviate the learning process and acclimate the player to the interface and concepts as smoothly as possible. Three step-by-step tutorials for each type of locomotive (steam, electric, and diesel) are provided, and each route contains a tutorial that covers in more detail the kind of actions that will be required on that line. The game also includes a number of useful panels to provide vital information at any camera angle, such as how far the player is to the next passenger stop or how far the player needs to go before the switch changes tracks, thus removing the need for the casual player to know every inch of the track to be successful. Players more experienced with the instrumentation and terrain of the tracks can turn off the aids, rewarding them with a very realistic experience. Train Simulator also has a detailed online help system that is fully indexed, although I did find it lacking for some things, such as why my Acela kept mysteriously derailing outside Philadelphia. There is something that needs addressing, though, and in a major way-Microsoft decided not to include a printed manual for the game, presumably to reduce per-unit material costs, instead opting for the classic `PDF file on the CDī. For a simulation game that costs nearly $50, that kind of practice is unacceptable-one of the time honored traditions of the genre is back-breaking manuals chock full of useful information that is readable when not in front of a computer. It was a cheap and stupid move by Microsoft to do this, and only the smart design of the tutorials and the consistent interface keep it from being a near fatal flaw in the game. People (including this reviewer) donīt read online manuals, and when they do, they sure as heck arenīt happy about it-itīs a very two bit thing that should be reserved for budget re-releases only, not fully priced brand new products.
One of the largest reasons Microsoftīs flight simulation lines have been so successful is their incredible extensibility-games like Combat Flight Simulator would have probably never achieved their soaring popularity if it were not for the ability for the games to be expanded upon in almost every way by their users. Train Simulator comes with detailed tools and (gasp) good documentation to let ambitious users tinker around and create their favorite cars, routes, and activities. A cursory glance around the Internet reveals a very enthused fan base for the game already, which bodes very well for the long-term playability of the Train Simulator well after the content shipped with the game wears thin.
Train Simulator isnīt the kind of ground breaking game that is going to bring more casual PC gamers to simulation gaming, nor will it appeal make hardcore PC gamers who prefer the faster pace of a combat flight sim over commercial airline sim offerings. However, despite some minor flaws and shortcomings, Train Simulator does exactly what it promised to do-bring train enthusiasts and commercial simulation game fans a complete, well-executed package that is the next best thing to actually engineering a real train itself. And for that Kuju and Microsoft are to be commended-just make sure to put people in the inevitable expansion pack.
