Train Life: A Railway Simulator

Don't expect any updates, the devs bailed on this shortly after launch. Could've been a great game, especially if you're looking for a less involved train sim game that is relaxing. Won't buy any of their products again though. Too bad they didn't properly communicate with the players of this game.

I almost skipped this one because of some of the reviews, but for $2 during the Summer Sale I figured it was worth the gamble. Turns out, I wouldn't have been mad at it for retail! It's a fun little indie sim built around running a railway company, progressing through a career and skill system, and, of course, driving a loco. More or less an RPG about being a train engineer that owns a company, pretty much like what it says it is. I am going to do something new and attack the most negative review. I get some of the negativity, but it is clearly an early access review or before any game updates, because it is flat out wrong in multiple places. We get lights two ahead, and I can see a blue then red indication for an oncoming train, as an example. At a switch, when changing lane, it updates the lights to tell me if the track is clear ahead. Uphill/downhill grades absolutely very much affect speed. There is absolutely a way to turn around a train without using the service center, and also plenty of Y's to turn around yourself. I've had zero issues with saving in 100 hours. There is a matrix of skills and 30 upgrades for you, and your employees also have skill trees. Complaining about the career mode not being how they want it is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥... if it ever was fair, it is not a fair review of the current game state. My take, it starts a bit slow, and some things don't line up with reality or the more realistic driving simulators, but it doesn't bother me for what it is trying to do. Couple of things can get annoying like oncoming trains and speed limit changes near switches, and running through interchanges at 120 kph is basically a QTE minigame. Randomly derailing at switches for no apparent reason when driving the speed limit can get old after 100 hours. Can feel buggy at times, and it's still mostly enjoyable to drive, IMO. The career mode gets fairly deep, too. At 20 hours of play, I completed a small fraction of scenarios in career mode, did not have even 20% of the map unlocked, had yet to level up an industry, and had 25% of the achievements. 100 hours in, I had all the scenarios done (and DLC), almost all of the map discovered, almost the entire map to level 2, and 75% of the achievements. Still going. If you like trains, management games, and indies, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.