This review was made the 1st of April 2018, comprising the contents of the Early Access launch version of Train Valley 2


Train Valley 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to Train Valley that we all have been patiently waiting for. And not only does this game improve on the concepts and gameplay basics laid down by its predecessor, but also manages to innovate and bring the gameplay one notch further thanks to the inclusion of new mechanics.


Fret not my concerned reader as the twists, bends and general polishing that the product has undergone have resulted in a substantially more satisfying game to play. In this 2nd installment, you can dispatch your trains yourself which I've come to notice turns the game from the tense, somewhat hectic gameplay of the original, into a markedly more puzzly endeavour. As now, there are several resources you have to deliver to the different towns and you have to really plan ahead as the space available and terrain features are rather constricting.

Your typical Train Valley 2 level, then, involves transporting people to different raw material producing stations (wood, iron or gold ore, coal, wheat...) and afterwards ship those raw materials into a secondary processing plant (that also needs workers) where they will be converted into "consumer goods" (Glass, rubber, bricks, cows and so on) for then to finally ship the end product back into the town. Sometimes this process iterates on itself and it can be complicated ad infinitum

Also, my memories are vague at this very moment, but I want to think I recall TV1 not having tunnels and/or bridges. So maybe these are also a newly addition. If so, they are a welcomed inclussion to the title as they open up more possibilities. Moreover I reckon terrain is too a new feature, again giving a little bit of nuance to the gameplay. There are small irks I have with them, but I will comment on them later on.


I am quite pleased both with the graphical style and the interface design, as they are approachable, cute and cheerful, maintaining the theme of TV. The game looks great, the trains change depending on what you're transporting not to mention the different maps have a lot of fluff to them to give them flavour. It definitely is an aesthetically pleasing title.


I mean, well, not on this game, as you can pivot a train 180º degrees on itself, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief when it comes to it. However, I would like to make use of this review for politely asking maybe for a mode where you cannot do that? Or a challenge/star condition(we'll talk about this later)? I am aware there's an editor in the works (we'll come back to that, too) however I am not 100% sure of the scope of it and I don't know if something as a basic mechanic can be changed, or if you will have to program your triggers for Star conditions or there's a preset array of them to choose from. Anyways, please, let me not be able to pivot trains.

At the moment of this review I have beaten (with either 4 or 5 stars) the content that was available at launch, 20 levels, which is fair, however, because of the type of game and the previous record of the involved devs, I assume the title will continue to be worked upon until it releases adding more levels and the promised map editor.

Now considering this is a title in progress I would like to comment on a couple of problems I have faced within the game:

- The framerate tanks a lot when building either tunnels or bridges,for as long as you are using the respective construction tools, and you can build them with the game paused, so it does not necessarily affect you much. However, sometimes it can take a little bit for the tunnel/bridge to appear and there are a bunch of weird tunnel spots that lead out of the map and completely wreck my FPS. I must say that the game does not suffer from this when either using the Build Tracks or the Railroad switch tools.

- The tutorial prompts look like placeholders to me, as they are rather plain, difficult to dismiss and, to be honest, they kind of clash with the aspect of the rest of the game.

- This might be that I am bad at the game, but sometimes I found there's not much leeway for error specially when you are starting the level as a misplaced rail might mean restarting the level because now it's unbeatable. It's the Dark Souls of Train Simulators.

- Some of the mission Star conditions are, not wanting to be rude, a tad nosensical? I mean, I get the one that you gotta take trains to the wrong station, and I can work with that. And I can work with overspending money for the star even if I don't really want to, or having to send more trains than what's optimal. However, the one where you have to crash 3 trains, I definitely do not like that one one bit, as it goes against everything, and unless you purposefully crash 3 trains near the very end , it's going to set you back a lot, considering tracks explode and leave debris and you have to repair the engines.


In a nutshell, I recommend buying Train Valley 2 even at it's current unfinished state, as it took me around 8 hours to beat it which I consider a rather fair amount of content for the 7$ price tag. It has some minor issues, but it's completely playable, and, in my opinion, an enjoyable experience that has a lot of good prospects going forward.