Recommended? More yes than no, although "Neutral" would probably be the fairest rating.
It's an interesting and highly realistic simulator. For me, it could be fantastic... but there's a catch.
Its greatest strength is the multiplayer experience and the real-time interaction between train drivers and dispatchers. However, that only works if there are actually people to communicate with.
Unfortunately, at the moment only the Polish server (PL1) has a healthy player base. And don't expect to be able to use English there. It's not an official rule, but in practice that's how it is. If you're unlucky, some players even claim they've been banned for it.
The German server (DE1) is more tolerant, but it's much less populated. The same goes for the "international" server (INT1), where English is the standard (see below for a real example).
This is the current multiplayer problem:
One Polish server with a healthy population. As I'm writing this at 6 PM on a Saturday, about half the trains are being operated by human players (74/144), and the same is true for traffic controllers (29/61).
Then there's a whole collection of servers in other languages, plus the international one. Individually, none of them comes close to those numbers. For example, right now the German server (DE1) has only 17/143 train drivers and 19/61 controllers, while the international server (INT1) has 19/144 train drivers and just 6/61 controllers. On top of that, there are plenty of other servers that are practically empty, with anywhere from one to five players at best.
The only real solution would be to keep one Polish server and one international server, removing the rest and bringing all non-Polish players together. The trade-off would be a much healthier multiplayer experience for everyone.
Is it worth trying? If you're a railway or train enthusiast, or simply curious about the subject, I'd say yes. The game has a lot to offer. I've had some genuinely enjoyable moments both as a train driver and as a dispatcher. When the phone rings, things can get a little awkward because of the language barrier—especially on the German server, where the other person is often caught off guard when you try to speak English—but somehow you manage.
For me, it's a great game. At the moment, though, this is its biggest limitation.
