Train Sim World 5: Platforming Perfection or Derailment Drama?

Step into the conductor’s boots and brace for a multi-route rail odyssey. Train Sim World 5 isn’t just a simulator; it’s a full-throttle immersion into the pulse of global rail networks. With new conductor mode, live maps, and fast-travel route hopping, this isn’t your granddad’s train game. Whether you’re threading through the sun-drenched San Bernardino Line or tilting into the icy curves of Kinzig Valley, Train Sim World 5 invites you to master the rails with precision, flair, and a dash of diesel-fueled drama.

Train Sim World 5 Review Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 7.19GB download size. This is before you download any of the manual expansions, and the size will depend on what you grab.
• Platinum trophy.
• You get the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
• There is a FREE starter pack edition until October 17th, 2024.
• Dovetail Live integration. (optional, and it’s for community sharing of images, etc.)
• Graphics settings – motion blur, display mode (4K/HD), and volumetric fog.
• Eight avatars to choose from to play as, and you set your name.
• Three difficulties: Beginner, standard, and experienced.
• Photo mode.
• Opening tutorial set in the training centre.
• Routes (when on foot) can be found and followed for action points (AP).
• The action points (AP) act like experience points.
• First-person perspective.
• Satisfying pop-up of completed tasks with earned AP showing.
• When on the train, you can hover over anything to interact with it; some actions, like brakes and acceleration, have button shortcuts.
• The starter pack has no new routes but does have new trains – 8F Steam locomotive, Class 66 diesel locomotive, BR 146 electric locomotive, and Class 323 EMU. You also get access to the upgraded live map and fast travel system.
• Fully animated interactions like the throttle moving, windscreen wipers, etc.
• Accessibility options – subtitles, default movement, speedometer HUD size, Crosshair visibility, auto-hide Crosshair, lighting effects, arcing spark effects, show the score and show the current speed limit.
• Full 3D world, and you can turn a full 360 degrees.
• When sitting on the train, you can zoom the camera in and out.
• Controller settings – signal aspect, alert flashes, throttle, track Rumble vibration, audible alerts on the controller speaker, control hover vibration, lever moved through notches, flicked Switch, and coupling vibration. Two control schemes (classic/immersion), and Invert axis and sensitivity slider.
• Player assist settings – automatic coupling and manual/automatic junctions.
• I found the general performance to be much improved over the last game.
• Full livery designer for each train type and a scenario planner.
• Share and download other players’ Creations.
• My profile shows miles driven in each train, player level, earned medals, etc.
• Four main game modes – train depot, choose a route, rail journeys, and quick play.
• Quick play lets you choose 0 – 30 or 30+ minutes of game length.
• Rail journeys let you pick a location, and then you do the scenarios within each; it’s like a career mode as you do guided routes.
• Choose a route that has the following game types: lifelike timetables, scenarios, training modules, and free roam.
• Train Depot lets you pick – timetables, scenarios, and training modules.
• Save when you want.
• You can reseat the train physics from the in-game menu.
• Skirts the line between arcade and hardcore sim.
• Full day and night cycle with many weather types.
• Highly detailed trains.
• When picking a route or scenario, you get a difficulty rating of 1 to 5.
• You do get handy icons to help get a train started.
• Beautiful locations.
• Realistic sound effects and noises.
• Very satisfying when you nail a stop or get the train moving.
• It has good feedback with constant exp bar pop-ups as you do the actions and scenarios.
• So many scenic routes.
• A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
• Fully voiced narration.
• Very atmospheric, from the noises of the train to the living world, beeps and crackles from the train itself.
• Owners of TSW 2020, TSW 2, and TSW 3 can get any Remastered versions of tracks they had in those games in this new version, including the starter pack edition.

Train Sim World 5 Review Cons:

• Cannot remap the controls.
• To get any of your DLC or content, you have to either go into the slow in-game store and wait for it to populate Free in the box and then download it, or you go into the PSN store and download them individually.
• Even though I had a deluxe edition, I think it was, I still had to go and download all the individual parts of what I owned.
• The upgrade paths are plentiful and can be a bit off-putting, so much so that there is a section dedicated to just telling you how and what to do.
• No way to skip the tutorial, it’s long and much the same as last year, so this is a real bummer.
• A lot to take in.
• The game locks up when accessing the store tab, which can be triggered by accident easily.
• It’s a strange offering, as anything out of the training centre is chargeable, as you have to upgrade the edition.
• Every new train is daunting as the layouts of the cabin are all over the place.
• It leans way more into the Simulator part than the arcade.
• Takes a while to get going.
• You have to have a Dovetail account in order to download/share scenarios.
• If you don’t have a Dovetail account signed in, then you always have a big red invalid/no account signed in message on the menus.
• You will need to set aside a good hour or so in order to get through the tutorial.
• The controls are fiddly just for an authentic feel, when really, they should stay more gamey. Having to click something to then drag the bar is a little bit too much.

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Train Sim World 5:

Official website.

Developer: Dovetail Games

Publisher: Dovetail Games

Store Links –

PlayStation