Train Simulator World: CSX Heavy Haul Beta Preview

Train Simulator has always been very much a niche game: it requires patience and attention, with not a lot happening for a long time. It is - for me, at least - a great game to stick on a podcast and just chill out for a while. Dovetail Games have been busy working on the next update to the series in Train Simulator World, and the CSX Heavy Haul beta has been showing us a glimpse into their new world.

In the beta, there’s three tutorial missions, two scenarios and a services mode where you can select a specific run. It’s not a lot of content, particularly since in the just over two hours I played I saw the same bit of track multiple times. The tutorials are pretty condescending and half useful, though completely necessary because there are so many controls needed to get a train moving and the default bindings are anything but intuitive. Alongside the bindings, all of the controls can be accessed from inside the cabin as all of the levers and switches are clickable.

The controls also suck because half the time they just don’t work. I think this comes down to the dissonance between pressing a key and moving a lever, but sometimes pressing a key will bring up the pop-up for the lever you’re trying to move but not actually do anything. At first I thought this was just the terrible framerate messing with my inputs, but the solution to it was to hold down the key for longer. But this wasn’t every time, and sometimes it had the complete opposite effect where a single key press would change a setting too much.

Visually, it looks like every other Train Simulator, and Dovetail’s signature art style keeps this game looking exactly the same as it has since 2012. None of this is helped by the performance; I had to run this game in low settings to get above 15 FPS which meant the draw distance is two and half feet and the textures all look muddy. Even then, I still couldn’t get above 30 FPS and my average was probably closer to 20. For a game that looks as dated as this - especially on low settings - I would hope for a lot more. I’m not the only one having issues, with some Steam users reporting that the game is unplayable.

They’ve changed the camera, however, which removes some of the best fun you can have in a Train Simulator: seeing things you really shouldn’t. In previous games, you could free cam around the scenery that amounted to little more than cardboard box houses meant to give the illusion of a real world. In TSW, however, the camera appears to be locked to the train, which greatly disappoints me, especially since the game forces you to use the 3rd person camera to see anything. The view inside the cabin, while insanely detailed, gives a letterbox view of the outside world.

Adding to all the issues I’ve spoken of so far, the game follows in its predecessor’s footsteps with five minute loading screens, and I experienced multiple crashes throughout my time playing. I stuck with it through the tutorials and the scenarios, and loaded up a service that I’d already done to see how the free mode stacked up against the scenarios. Less than a minute in the game crashed, so I decided to try the other mission available to me which happened to be travelling in the other direction.

A few minutes in, a warning light popped up on the GUI and the train slowed to a standstill. I checked everything, looked up the manual and hovered over every switch, lever and dial I could to find out what the problem was. I reset the train in exactly the way the game had described to me so I could set off once more. Nothing. I could not get my train moving again, so I decided to set out on foot.

Ten minutes later and I’d travelled such a small distance I stood on the tracks, waiting for a train coming in the other direction. The following screenshots are the result.

 

I think the reason the train stopped moving is because I stopped existing. It’s been nice, readers.

PS. Those were taken with the game on ultra, notice the 12 FPS counter on the side, which means that the frame difference between low and ultra is about 10 FPS.