With an autistic like focus, train spotters are generally a breed that are fanatical about their chosen love. Able to reel off names, dates and routes at the drop of a hat, these are the people that frequent hobbyist fairs and keep journals of engine numbers and models they’ve seen on their travels. So when a game comes along that centres on what many of its fans have such an amazing passion for it better hope that it captures everything involved in their pet topic. Train simulations are few and far between so as things currently stand Trainz has little to compete against. This may partly be to blame for it being an only slightly above average affair.
Not easing those playing your game into the control scheme is a sin that can limit the accessibility of your game greatly and, unfortunately for Trainz, the developers seem to have committed this unholy piece of gaming blasphemy. The control scheme is difficult to learn, although not over the top once you've figured out that there's three types of brakes etc. It would have been nice for a more complete tutorial to be provided than the manual or the text based tutorial with its jargonistic approach to teaching, especially to assist those not overly familiar with trains or those not used to playing sims.
Unfortunatley the trains in this game don't have faces, nor Ringo Starr narration.
Driving a train is far more complicated than many would at first think. Stopping at at a platform requires a great amount of timing, junctions in tracks need to be changed in order for you to make it to the stop you’re after and not fly on past toward some unplanned destination, schedules have to be kept (so there's no snoozing on the job, even if it is virtual) and speeds limits need to be kept in check. All these things add up to a task that is more involved than simply pressing a couple of buttons. Trainz Driver does a decent job at relaying this to the player and doesn't give you an easy time of your job. This is definately not a game for your Sunday driver (although you can ask the PC controlled engineer to take over whilst you become passenger to watch the scenery rushing by).
The visuals in Trainz are fairly decent although not as detailed as what we've seen in some sims from other genres or games in general. What is most impressive are the cargo and passenger moving stars of the show. Detailed enough so even a non-trainspotter can tell them apart, with each chrome fitting and marking lovingly rendered, you can see that this is a series that was born of fans of the machines that helped form the early backbone of many nations and to this day provide transport to people and goods alike. There are a few camera modes under your control. There's the view from up front, an outside view and the odd addition of a passenger style view. The view from outside is great and reminded us of watching a model train, however it would have benefited heavily from some more detailed surroundings.
For the most part sounds are limited to the sounds of your engine and its horn. Fairly simplistic, these do the job but it would have been nice to have seen a little more emphasis placed on ambient noises such as crowds at stations and other things, which are there but feel somewhat tacked on. That said, one of the best things in the game is to be able to speed on through those boomgated areas as the Doppler effect causes their sound to smear and you pull on the horn to warn imaginary cars waiting to cross.
And you thought driving a train would be easy.
Similar to real world model train hobbyists, Trainz fans all over the world have banded together and formed somewhat of an internet based counter culture as a result of a love for the subject of their interest. User created maps of real world rail networks and the steam and engines themselves that are all available online as is a community waiting to discuss their favourite topic.
Something that should appeal greatly to the train geeks out there is the gallery of all the engines and things that these engines tow (can you tell that we don't fall into the aforementioned group). Each part of the available trains is presented with some detailed stats. We would have liked to see some more historical facts with this but otherwise it is a worthwhile addition considering the target audience.
Trainz is really designed for those that are already into the world of locomotives or fans of heavy going sims. Whilst not amazing, the game’s quality is reasonable. The title does its job well, offering what we can only assume is an experience analogous to actually being the guy/girl controlling the hulking metal beasts as they snake their way across the tracks laid throughout the countryside. If you're a fan of neither trains nor the sim genre (we suspect you've either skipped to the conclusion of this review after reading the introduction or haven't got to the end of this review) this game is definately not for you. On the other hand if you've a love for trains, model or otherwise, [/i]Trainz Driver[/i] will give you a chance to play in greater detail than you've been able to play before. It's not great but, with little other competition it should give you a few hours enjoyment.
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