The Nacon Life games I have been following since they were announced in 2020, since each offered a different type of simulator experience. Despite Hotel Life being the one I was most interested in, I felt it right to give all of them my support, since this label sees many indie developers creating varied simulators under this label. And I love to experiment with simulators and business management games, so this is a great win. The first of the Life games to come out is Train Life: A Railway Simulator, as developed by Simteract.
Seeing a full release on PC after a year of early access in August, it arrived on consoles in October. My intention with all the Life games had been to keep them on the Switch. My reasoning being they’d make for great portable experiences. But Train Life is different. It needs a good few hours dedicated to it for a journey to work. That’s just how these delivery type of simulators work. Even if this game does have a rather generous autosave while out on the rails.
Now, having no experience in train sims, this would be a good test for the game. How well does it teach a new player about the world of driving a train? The answer is well. Starting up the campaign, the tutorial set me to the basics of controlling the train, riding the rails, and delivering cargo and passengers.
And despite the tutorial telling me so, I completely forgot what the signals during travel meant. Plenty of derailments for me across the next few hours of play. Fortunately, if you do need to look things up, there’s a codex within the tablet menu that has everything needed to give a refresher.
With the tutorial of the career done, it was time to explore this world of rails that had now opened up to me from my starting base at the city of Bremen. First, I jumped inside the service centre it had put me at to see the options here. Fuel, repairs, and other train-related business. Couldn’t afford a new train yet, and I wouldn’t want to upgrade the one I had now, so after configuring the train for passengers, I backed out of the service centre to explore the tablet menu.
This gives an overview of the business, with a world map and company management options. There’s also some scenarios to run here as well. Completely ignoring the company management stuff (what company? It’s just me!), I get the map open and take a look at where I can go. Which is where I realise London is a part of the map, so plot a route from station to station that brings me there. These stations are all Main stations, since they’re the only ones where passengers can be picked up. With that sorted, it was time to start driving.
The first thing to notice is the blurry textures. Not everywhere, as the game can really shine at points, but it does seem random as to when they’re blurred. All the ground texture blurriness isn’t as noticeable when at speed, but on buildings around stations it certainly is. And especially on the train I’m within. somewhat A game of this type isn’t set on giving a beautiful world to look at, so that can be forgiven as long as the driving mechanics work. Which they do.
For me, as a novice in train driving games, things worked fine. Using the throttle to increase power and get underway, but making sure not to apply too much at once otherwise wheel spin would cause damage to the train. Slowly, the train was out of the station, and I was paying attention to the speed limits, easing off on the throttle and using a bit of brake pressure to slow down when required to avoid a fine.
When nearing a station, I used the communications menu to request access, and slowly come in to a stop guided by the GPS to the required platform. A transfer of passengers occurs once the doors are open, and it’s off again once they’re shut. Continuing the long journey to London, it is here where I fall foul of the random events. An animal on the track is easily dealt with by hooting that horn, but when it’s other trains on the track, that’s when things can get messy.
As I say, I didn’t understand the trackside signals despite the tutorial telling me about them, so continued straight past the triple yellows at full speed. Then, when it came to the next set of signals, I was unsure of exactly which set of rails I was meant to be on, so didn’t swap. Through the double set of reds, I incurred a fine, which should have alerted me to stop and reverse away – especially when that fine was for intruding on occupied track.
But no. It’s only when I can see the other train coming right at me that I realise I’ve messed up. Impact, fade to black, derailment screen appears. Either incur yet another fine (a hefty one) and continue from where I currently am, or reload the last save. Well, the first time I chose the former, which is when I realised how much the fine was. It was time for me to be ending the play session, anyway, so I just quit out when I realised how much I had just lost.
The next day, I load back in to find the money restored and no random event to cause confusion when I passed the point it had previously appeared. Excellent, I thought. Which is then when I realised that the autosave is extremely generous, meaning you’re never far off from where a derailment happens. From that point on, I always reloaded from the last on a derailment.
Across the ten hours I’ve put in since, there’s been numerous more derailments from me, along with a few near misses. There’s still a bit of confusion as new rules about right of way come into play – such as a junction that was under reds for me despite the fact I wouldn’t have hit the train currently using it, but it’s a learning experience as I navigate the various mechanics of the game.
Such is what I’m currently doing with the business management side of things. There’s a level up and ranking system, where new trains and train parts become available upon progressing, experience points that can be configured to give perks such as decreased fuel usage or a greater bonus upon delivery. Drivers hired also have a levelling system, where they also gain those experience points, which help to improve them as drivers.
Putting them to use as part of a cargo service is for the best, as it helps to bring tier one goods to stations that can convert them to higher tiers. As I travel the map delivering my own cargo, I can keep tabs on them and their tasks, aiming to hit the stations they arrive at when the goods have been produced. I can then deliver them to where I feel best – preferably a city that needs them to level up – while they continue circuiting between the two stations I tasked them with.
Yes, cities can be levelled up by delivering a certain number of goods, passengers, or post to them. The map screen has a cities panel on it which gives the details of what they’re asking for to level up, though what you get for levelling one up I have yet to find out. I’ve only just started putting this plan into action. I not going to assume what it will provide, only that there’s a good reason to want to level them up.
I’m enjoying my time with this one, then. It’s not without problems, such as a sometime dodgy framerate and misplaced objects that sometimes sit on the track (though there’s no collision on them), but for anyone who wants to enjoy the train life, there’s enough to get stuck into here for anyone wanting to build their own railway empire.
And despite what I said at the start about this needing a console that allows for longer play sessions, I still want to grab it on the Switch at some point, as well. Once it releases, as that is another reason I’d gone for the Xbox version. The Switch version has seen a delay, with no date given. I can only hope there aren’t any major problems holding it back from a release. And that the blurry textures can get fixed across all console versions.
Images Taken From:
Train Life – A Railway Simulator (Original Screenshots)
