Train sims have been around for ages, but do you know anyone who actually plays them? They attract a dedicated, highly specific audience of rail enthusiasts—but not many players outside of that bubble. , however, is a rare example of a sim that has crossed the tracks and is now being played by people (myself included) who have no real interest in trains, or previously had no desire to drive one. Even rarer, it's a realistic simulator that has found a comfortable home on consoles, despite these games typically requiring a keyboard.
I ask Dovetail Games' Matt Peddlesden, producer, why he thinks this game has managed to find an audience outside of the usual circles. "There's a growing interest in simulation generally, and a growing number of games that recreate real-world tasks," he says. "Driving a train is something most people will never be able to do. You could pay to go to a race track and drive a fast car, but driving a train is something quite different. Seeing what's actually up in the cab, and what's involved in driving these trains, it tickles people's interest."
As for bringing a game like this to consoles, it involved some experimentation. "We needed it to work with a controller, but not in a way that inhibits what we can do with the simulation," says Peddlesden. "We still want it to have realism, and depth, but not be limited by the number of buttons you have access to." Playing the game on PS5, I'm impressed by how well it works. Essential functions like accelerating, braking are mapped to the pad, while others are performed by simply looking at the button in the cab itself and pressing it.
"It's about giving players immediate access to important functions on the buttons," says Peddlesden. "You don't want a load of menus that pop up. The first iteration we designed for the console control system did this, but they pulled you out of the immersion. If you see a menu on the screen, it doesn't feel like it's a part of the train. Everything else, you can just literally point at the real control in the cab and operate it. It's taken a lot of work and several iterations to get right, but I think we've found a happy medium."
The trains in Train Sim World 2 are incredibly realistic. But how do you take a train—a complex feat of mechanical engineering—and translate that into a video game? "We look at as much reference as we can get hold of," says Peddlesden. "We watch videos to see what the trains look and sound like. We ride in them, or even better, get up in the cab and talk to drivers. We have a lot of experts in our community too. They'll provide their insights. Even if they haven't driven the exact train, they might have driven one that's similar."
"We also get hold of technical documentation whenever we can," he says. "It's out there if you look hard enough. Sometimes we're even able to get it from the operators or the manufacturers themselves. They'll give us circuit diagrams and schematics, and we can take that data and bring it into our Simugraph system." Simugraph is a tool developed by Dovetail, built in Unreal, that underpins every train in the game. It lets the developer simulate every minute detail of the vehicle, down to valves, motors, and cylinders."
When I interviewed the creators of Euro Truck Simulator 2 (another great sim), they told me that truck manufacturers love the game because it's a great advertisement for them—and even a recruitment tool. I ask Peddlesden if Dovetail enjoys a similar relationship with train operators. "It varies wildly," he says. "Some don't necessarily recognise the benefits and they just see it as a game. But since we launched on consoles, because we're more visible there, the operators have been more interested to get to know more."
Caltrain, a commuter rail line in California, is one organisation Dovetail Games has a fruitful relationship with. "We worked with Caltrain on the game's San Francisco route," says Peddlesden. "That was fantastic. They invited us out there and we spent a week riding the line, recording things, sitting in the cab, and talking to staff." But Peddlesden notes that these companies operate incredibly busy railway networks, 365 days a year, so they might not have as much time to spend accommodating game developers. "There are safety issues too," says Peddlesden. "It's really a matter of balance where we fit in their schedule."
Train Sim World 2 is out now on PC, PlayStat💮ion, and Xbox. The next expansion is London Commuter, which launches on October 7.
