Train Valley is a railway management sim with a bit of a difference. Rather than dryly recreating a rain-lashed commute through the greyest parts of Europe, the game looks more like a child’s toy train set; colourful, lively and focused more on fun puzzle-solving than ticket prices and cost ratios.
It’s been in Early Access since May of this year, but developers Alexey Davydov , Sergey Dvoynikov and Timofey Shargorodskiy are ready to release it in full on September 16.
Currently players can control railways in three historical periods; Europe from 1830-1980, America from 1840-1960, and the USSR from 1880-1980. The full release will add Japan from 1920-2020. There’s the option of a Story mode, which adds new challenges based on historical events like the Gold Rush of 1849 and World War II, or the procedurally-generated Random mode - in both you can enable Regime mode, which basically removes time and cash limits.
There’s also 15 types of train, from steam-powered locomotives to modern bullet trains, and 18 types of car. To make sure everything runs with causing some horrible accident, you’ll need to build effective rail tracks, and manage traffic by adding spurs, switches and sidings to create a safe flow.
Not your average dry simulation, then, but not simply a pretty box of toys to gawp at either. Train Valley is currently available for £6.99 on Steam.
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