SimRail – The Railway Simulator

SimRail is an excellent train simulator based on the Polish railways. Train Sim World is honestly left in the dust by this simulator on several key things:
1. SimRail actually runs well. In TSW you will frequently experience stutters, in SimRail there is almost none of that.
2. Multiplayer is a huge feature in this simulator. Not only can you drive trains, you can also play as dispatcher and direct trains around the station you control. The people in game are friendly in my experience.
3. The DLC's are fairly priced. Where TSW easily charges you €40,- for a single route nowadays, SimRail asks way less.
4. The developers actually care about making the game better. TSW still has major bugs that have been present for years. In SimRail a lot of stuff gets fixed with each update and the developers are pretty open on the direction they're taking.
There's tons of variation in stock to drive and again, the multiplayer will keep you busy for hours. Each time you drive a route in multiplayer it's different, cause of delays, slower trains ahead of you, getting pulled to the side cause you're the slower train etc. It's quite a dynamic experience.
If you're looking for an interesting train simulator then I'd definitely recommend this one.

Puts Train Sim World to shame, full ETCS functionality on the ED250 is so awesome, and so is the multiplayer aspect.

It's well-done, some of the stuff that was still missing at launch is (slowly) being added, it looks good, the performance is okay and it's still being developed. The DLC prices could be more reasonable though (just because your competition does it, doesn't mean you should too).
8/10

nice game but you have to be aware of your surroundings
pro tip: in order not to get yelled at by polish people read the signalling guides

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure whether or not I should recommend SimRail or not.

Personally, I really enjoy the game. The combination of a genuinely good train simulation with the ability for players to signal trains is excellent and creates a very immersive and enjoyable experience. Having said this, there are quite a few problems I have with SimRail, some of which may or may not be fixed in the future.

In an attempt to make this a little less rant-like, I'll lay it out into simply the good things and the bad things.

The good things:
- The train simulation is genuinely quite good. The trains do feel like they've got character, and some of the trains are quite difficult to control sometimes (in a fun, challenging way). I also adore the inclusion of a timetable, which is something that has been missing from simulation games like Train Sim World and Train Sim Classic for years.
- The dispatching (signalling) mode is excellent. This is the main reason why I purchased SimRail in the first place, and after I got around the small learning curve I have to say it has provided some of the most fun I've had in any simulation game.
- Team both of those features with multiplayer mode and you truly do get something very special in the world of simulation. For example, signalling a large station and having three player-controlled trains communicating with you via the radio generates a super fun, immersive, and unique experience.
- The use of non-player-controlled trains and signalboxes is also executed perfectly (although the signallers can be a bit buggy at times). If you want to signal at a particular time when nobody is driving - that's fine. The trains still run on their timetables and you notice almost no difference than if every train was controlled by a player. This is excellent, as it means there's never an interruption in the frequency of trains/signallers just because players aren't occupying those roles.
- You do get a good variety of trains and a huge variety of signalboxes to control.

The so-called bad things:
- Shunting movements don't exist in multiplayer. The functionality is clearly there, but you cannot use shunt signals at all as a signaller. Apparently it's being worked on, but there's been almost no news on the subject.
- The game is quite unstable. I've had it crash multiple times, long loading times, etc. But there aren't an overwhelming amount of bugs.
- The presence of DLCs in early access leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I think the developers should focus on getting the game out of early access than releasing more paid content, but this is just a personal opinion.
- No mechanical signalboxes yet despite them apparently being worked on - with no further news either.
- The interaction system in trains is just absolutely horrible. It's finnicky and annoying to use.

It's up to you to decide. I think personally SimRail will appeal to anyone but take this review as a word of caution - there ARE problems, and there ARE missing features, and we don't hear much from the devs.

Why bother buying a new TSW every single year, when you can just buy a long-term supported train-sim better than it, with only the price of one of its DLCs?

great game, just a little laggy on my setup so i have to stick to low quality. but overall? amazing game, very realistic.