Have you ever taken the train and suffered from delays due to various reasons? It seems that trains in the digital world have the same issues as well – at least that’s the case with TrainStation 2. The game apparently takes some kind of twisted delight in making you wait forever, even when your destination is just around the corner.
This entire simulation experience feels like a pointless grind whose only redeeming quality is its bright, colorful art style, and you'll probably wonder why you bothered getting this game shortly after you began playing.
Full steam ahead
Right off the bat you are greeted by George Stephenson himself – who, in case you didn’t know, is renowned as the "father of railways". He then proceeds to ask you to bring him different types of resources to get started.
The tracks are already made, so you only have to tap on a resource location, assign a train to go and grab it, then wait a little while to collect the resource then give it to Stephenson, which prompts another timer to appear.
At the beginning, you can only a maximum of 3 trains active at the same time, though this number can be increased by using the premium currency, gems, or by reaching certain levels. When you’ve helped Stephenson enough, other people will also start asking you to deliver them this and that, meaning you will have to start thinking about which train goes where.
And while all of that is happening, you will also have to create new resources using the raw materials that you acquire, such as making steel in a factory. Naturally, that also pops up more timers.
And that's basically everything. Just a few minutes in, you are already thrown into a repetitive pattern of gathering resources, using some of them to make different resources, then deliver them to customers to gain XP and keys.
These keys can be used to unlock more trains through a loot box system, and these trains can in turn be upgraded with the parts that you can earn by either dismantling trains that you already have, or, you guessed it, opening loot boxes.
Idling engines
TrainStation 2 feels and plays like an idle game. All you do is just levelling up to unlock new stuff, but that new stuff doesn't actually give you anything new. It only allows you do keep doing what you do at a slightly faster pace.
And there’s no autoplay here. Normally, that would be a praise, but not in these types of game. You have to manually do everything – you can't assign a train to automatically collect resources while you're away, for instance. That means every time you open the game, you practically start from square one all over again, which gets dull incredibly quickly.
Even the story campaign – though we do have to note that this term is used very loosely here as there is not really a story to speak of – runs out quickly before you can unlock anymore, so you are left with a pointless grind for a really long while before you can unlock access to the next area.
So, any strong point? Well, the art style pretty pleasant. The trains are well-designed, and the in-game world is colorful, resulting in a nice aesthetic. And there is a certain degree of satisfaction about the monotonous task of tapping locations after locations and watching the trains as they transport resources around.
Disruption on the line
But in the end, TrainStation 2 is just a waiting game. You wait to collect resources, wait to craft them, and then to deliver them. Pretty much every action requires time to be carried out, during which you have nothing to do but sit back and watch it happen.
There's hardly any meaningful progression aside from the levelling, and other rewards take so long to come that you'll be stuck with the stuff for hours before you can get your hands on anything new, and then it’s just more of the same.
It's somewhat soothing in its own way, but TrainStation 2 looks like it has glossed over some of the most important aspects of an idle game. The result is a game that require your full attention… for virtually nothing.