Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022 is one of those games that clearly wear its heart on its sleeve – you know just by reading the title exactly what is entailed within. For those that are looking for a new and exciting entry into the world of driving your own locomotive, this title might be of some interest to you. Originally released on the 31st May, 2022, on Steam, the game is both published and developed by N3V Games.
How to Download Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022
You can download the game from Steam. Click on the Download button at the end of this review. If you like train simulators, check out also the previous edition of the game Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019, or have a look at what the competitor – Train Simulator 2022 – is doing.
The Game Review
Gameplay
With Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022, there are two main ways to play the game. There’s the general gameplay of taking control of a train and driving it through your chosen map. You can increase or decrease the speed of your locomotive at the drop of a hat, and simply take in the environment that you’ll be driving past. This part of the game isn’t particularly in-depth and is certainly not the highlight of the game, but it can be fun to just relax in a train car and watch the world roll by.
Easily the most impressive part of the game, however, is the Surveyor mode. New and improved from the previous title, Surveyor 2.0 as it’s been dubbed allows the player to make their very own train routes to follow.
The environment, tracks, trains, and so much more can be edited and swapped around to fulfill whatever train-based dreams and fantasies you’ve always wanted to create. Surveyor is the game’s best feature and could easily suck up hours upon hours of your time if you’re not careful, as there is just so much you can do with it.
You can tell how powerful the tool is by the fact that there are players out there that use Google Maps to re-create a train route first of all, before implementing it into the game.
There really is just an impressive amount that can be done with the Surveyor mode and it’s honestly the main reason to pick up the game. For anyone that isn’t into making their own routes, you can instead choose to download other people’s and just enjoy the creativity that others have at their disposal.
You can even use the Surveyor tool with your friends if you’re up for paying extra for the Trainz Plus subscription service. Admittedly, that’s a bit of a cheeky extra.
Graphics
One element of the game that could be construed as a bit of a mixed bag is the graphics. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022 has some really good graphical fidelity in certain parts, but then, there will be some textures that just come across as rough and low-quality, which can really drag the game down visually.
Thankfully, though, when it comes to the important aspects like the models of the trains themselves, they tend to be of pretty high quality and it really goes to show where some of the best work went.
Audio
In any simulator-type game, audio is one of those elements that need to be focused on. Bad audio can really take away from a simulator game providing a level of reality that no other element can match, so it’s good to see that this one has such good audio as you play.
The sound of the trains on the track, the halting of the brakes, and even the sound of smoke billowing out of the top of the train, they’re all exceptionally well done and as a result, become one of the game’s biggest highlights!
Conclusion
Overall, Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022 comes across as a great overall package if you’re looking to delve into your own creativity, along with the communities.
The freedom that the Surveyor tool provides is almost unheard of in the simulator space and for anyone that wants to learn how to utilize it, you’re in for endless hours of entertainment.
While the game has some issues with textures at times and taking control of a locomotive isn’t quite as engaged as other simulators, Trainz Railroad Simulator 2022 is definitely a worthwhile addition for someone that’s loco for locomotives.