Train Sim World VR: New York Makes Driving Trains Fun For All

There’s perhaps no medium better suited to deep simulation than VR, which is why it’s surprising that we haven’t seen more train simulators on either PC VR or standalone devices like the Meta Quest. The most hardcore simulator fans will recreate the driver's seat of trains or invest in lavish setups and controls to recreate the experience of driving a train. Imagine having that recreated all around you in VR? Enter Train Sim World VR: New York.

Developed by Dovetail Games and Just Add Water, the game is a slimmed-down version of the PC version Train Sim World, tailored to the Quest platform and centered on the Harlem Route of the New York Metro. This is an impressive 1:1 scale recreation of the over 29 miles route, taking you through Manhattan and up to Harlem through the underground and overground scenic passages of the route, with real trains licensed and recreated in partnership with MTA.

It’s a rather grand ambition to recreate this route in VR, but one the developers took in their stride after seeing the potential of the platform.

“I’ve been a lifelong train fan, and I’m a big simulation fan too. When Microsoft released Microsoft Train Simulator back in 2001, that was a gateway to a whole new world, and I’m still wondering where the exit is!” explained Matt Peddlesden, executive producer at Dovetail Games, of his history with the genre that brought him into the world of train simulators. Alongside working with Dovetail, Peddlesden founded his own community-driven UK Train Sim website.

Working on such a project in VR required a different approach to the company's prior work on PC and consoles. “The key thing for me was figuring out how is a Quest platform different to a non-Quest platform,” continues Peddlesden. “I will sit in front of a PC for hours at a time meandering over 300 miles of mountain pass, but a Quest user probably doesn’t want to do that. That’s why we ended up with the Harlem Line [in New York] too, because it’s short, sharp bursts.”

It's designed for newcomers just as much as it is for the hardcore fans the team has fostered over the years on PC. The dedication to detail and accuracy is apparent, and none of the controls for running these trains, whether the older M3A stock of trains that run the New York Metro or more modern M7A models, have had their controls simplified. You will have to balance opening doors, adjusting the speed on a variable control lever, honking your horn, sticking to train schedules and speed limits just as you would if you were actually driving the trains.

That said, there has been some minimizing of unnecessary controls, and attempts have been made to ‘gamify’ aspects of the experience to add a bit of color to what can otherwise be a dedicated simulator. Unlike the PC version, a full campaign mode has a point scoring system for adhering to speed limits, honking at passerby fans or mechanics on the track, and for stopping in the station at the right time and location. This provides good incentive to replay select routes and perfect your skills, even if you’re not a geek for all the details.

What follows is a fun blend of high-score hunting antics and replayability with a relaxing amount of zen and immersion, where you may not notice how long you’ve been playing until your headset battery reminds you to charge the system. The team have impressively recreated the feel without physical controls using the immersive nature of the platform, while considering how to adapt the experience to a VR audience more likely to be unfamiliar with similar titles.

“We had to please both the VR community and train enthusiasts, which is why we still have the authentic controls for driving the train, but we’ve added that more arcade mode into the main experience so that those users who want that fast-paced experience we have these score gates and objectives,” adds Nick Dent, lead game designer on the project from Just Add Water.

Blending accurate simulation with high scores, bonus activities and more game-like goals is a similar approach to that seen in arcade-y simulator experiences in the genre like Densha de Go!, a Japanese staple in arcades and on home consoles. Enter an arcade somewhere in Tokyo with one of these machines, and you aren’t just treated to a screen and a game. It's a full physical recreation of a driver’s cabin not dissimilar to the stock seen on the Yamanote line, perfect for train fans and complete with space for a pocket watch, just like a real driver.

Gameplay mixes accurately recreating the feel of driving a train with points and goals and accessibility settings that allow anyone to join in the fun, even if their skills are far more modest. The team admitted their inspiration from the game and its intent to include everyone on this journey.

“We leaned on the Densha de Go side [of balancing fun with realism]. Played it for hours on the Switch!” explained Dent. “Especially on Quest, it needed that similar arcade element to bring in the VR community. There’s millions of headsets out there, you can’t ignore that.”

What’s most satisfying about the experience is that, the better you become, the more relaxing it is to play. With an understanding of the controls, it’s easy to just handle the controls without even needing to think, allowing you to appreciate the details of the world around you. While much has been visually simplified to cater for the hardware constraints, particularly on Quest 2, the recreation is accurate enough that I can pick out things I remember from my own trips to New York.

Even simply listening to the sounds of the train and adjusting the levers scratches an itch in the mind that soothes and relieves the world around you as you travel endlessly, which was far from easy to achieve.

“One of the key things about Train Sim World from a route’s perspective is that they’re 1:1 scale, which has definitely been one of the more challenging things about bringing the game to VR,” points out Peddlesden. “In video game terms, 29 miles is massive so the fact you can travel across this at 70 miles per hour without loading screens was perhaps one of the biggest challenges. Accurate simulation is important, but 72 frames per second is more important.”

Leaning into this zen-like tone while adding to the game-like elements of the experience, your menu is designed like an apartment, complete with smooth jazz to ease you into the game. Journey mode lets you get off the train to wander through the stations to find collectibles to decorate that apartment, appreciate the route and what it’s like to drive without the stresses of needing to hit management goals.

Train Sim World VR was made in partnership with MTA to ensure the accuracy of the train and line, letting the team gain a deeper understanding to ensure it’s as close to the real-world line as possible. But not too close, as the team were quick to note.

“We have regular meetings with MTA and Metro North where we would show them in-progress builds of the game or screenshots from various elements, which they could then provide feedback. If anything, the biggest concern isn’t about it being accurate but being too accurate because there is a safety and security concern, particularly with the Metro because you do feel like you’re in the train, which presents these safety concerns.”

The game balances what the core simulation fans want while making adaptations, not simplifications, to the experience to attract the uninitiated to the genre. So much so, that alongside creating an experience for less-experienced players to jump into train simulators, they brought hardcore fans from PC to VR as a result of the new dimension and depth VR could bring. Dovetail admitted that showing it off at events led to some fans who played the PC version going out to buy headsets for this game, with some even serving as beta testers.

As we closed off our conversation, the team noted its hope that this could be the springboard to bring more lines to VR in the future, provided it’s a success. I hope that happens. Whether more New York journeys or another location entirely, having spent time with this game, the idea of hopping back into Train Sim World VR to drive a train into somewhere new is exciting, not intimidating.

Now that I’ve finished writing this article, perhaps it’s time for another ride.