Train Sim World 6 hands-on preview: Good fun, but not much different from the last five games

The hardcorest of hardcore simulator fans will likely be familiar with the Train Sim World franchise from Dovetail Games, an ultra-realistic simulation title where you play as a train driver. The sixth iteration of the game is set to launch on the 30th of September 2025, and I was able to try the game out at Gamescom 2025 in advance of its release. I’m worried fans may be underwhelmed.

Don’t get me wrong, the Train Sim World games are great, providing a level of realism to train fans all over the world that just isn’t available anywhere else. If you’ve ever been stung by the Great Western Railway (I know I have been… so many times) and thought to yourself, ‘Hey, I could drive this train better than this!’ Well, now you can give it your best shot.

When first booting into the game, I’d recommend launching into the training centre, and by recommend, I mean you absolutely have to do this. Trying to rawdog this game without completing the tutorial simply will not work. I tried and failed. This teaches you the controls you need, and there are a whole lot of them. Train Sim World 6 – like the majority of simulation games – has an extremely steep learning curve.

Once I was somewhat familiar with the controls, and by that I mean I had close to no clue what was going on and was very glad I had a developer with me to guide me through, I booted into Timetable Mode, the core mode of the game. This allows you to pick a real train route which runs at any time of day, and give driving the route a go.

You’re plonked right in the driver’s seat of the train, with a first-person view, and being honest, it made me respect real train drivers a whole lot more because this was a petrifying experience. As I pulled the lever to move away from the platform, I felt so underprepared for this journey, but I ploughed on anyway.

For those who haven’t dabbled in the series, all of what I’ve described so far is close to identical to Train World Sim’s previous five games. So, I went on a mission to discover what was new, and unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. One of the first new additions to the game is the occurrence of random train faults, bringing even more of a sense of realism to the game.

Oh… there’s a fault in the signal? How do you sort that problem? I’ll be honest, I’ve got absolutely no clue. The doors are jammed and won’t shut. How many curse words am I allowed to use over the intercom to tell people to keep their arms and legs inside the god forsaken train? All of these real-world issues, along with a whole load more, are now in the game, paired with a slider you can adjust prior to loading in to choose how frequently you want them to occur.

Another new addition to the game is in train and platform announcements, which create life outside of the train and add atmosphere when you stop. Dovetail Games has done a fantastic job of adding even more elements to this game to make it as realistic as possible, but that still doesn’t stop me from being slightly disappointed.

As you’d expect, there are new routes and new trains being added, but aside from the random events and audible announcements, nothing else has really changed. These updates feel like just that… updates, not an entire new game.

Don’t get me wrong, Train Sim World 6 is a great game. It was super fun, ultra realistic, and there’s no way to achieve this experience anywhere else other than going out and driving a real train. However, it doesn’t feel like a big step up from Train Sim World 5, which is disappointing considering the £44.99 / €49.99 / $49.99 price tag.

For context, when Train Sim World 5 was released, it added a whole new mode to the game in the form of conductor mode. This allowed the jobsworths of the world to play as a train conductor and check customers’ tickets on board – offence to train conductors fully intended.

Train Sim World 6 just doesn’t feel like that substantial of a change to justify the release of an entire new game. However, I might eat my words considering Matt Peddlesden, Train Sim World 6’s Executive Producer, stated that “random events and audible announcements have been at the top of [players] lists for some time” in terms of what content they want added to the game.

While these additions don’t impress me by any means, hardcore fans may truly be happy with what I believe to be underwhelming in Train Sim World 6.