An Unexpectedly Complex Train Sim, but it’s Authentically Thomas
Having finished Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor, I can say with confidence that it is a game that shouldn’t exist. Licensed games have become more risk-averse than ever, as larger game publishers panic about whether they might even exist in a year’s time. Every game looks like it has been carefully focus-grouped and market-researched, calibrated for a specific niche or market. But I honestly can’t see that market for Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. It’s in demographic limbo.
Where is the Venn Diagram overlap of people who love Thomas the Tank Engine, people who want a slightly dumbed down version of Train Sim World, and people who can still manage the intricate controls of a simulator? I can only think of niches within niches: train-loving parents who play with their younger Thomas fan watching; nostalgic adult fans of Thomas who still love their trains?
Where did the Fat Controller go?
But, you know what? I am so happy that Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor exists. It’s such an oddball; a weird anomaly in today’s ultra-safe gaming marketplace. I want to live in a future where more games are odd, illogical punts, rather than safe, it’s-been-done-before ventures. And we’re game reviewers rather than sales forecasters, so we’re more interested in whether the game is good or not. And it is good.
In some ways, Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor being good was predictable: this is a sanded down, simpler version of Train Sim World, which Dovetail have been making for seven or so iterations now. You would hope that they would have it polished by now. And in terms of delivering a boots on the ground, realistic take on what it is like to be Thomas (or at least driving Thomas) it does a fantastic job. I never knew that I wanted a realistic Thomas the Tank Engine sim, but yeah, why not?
The game is as open-world or level-based as you want it to be. Sodor is a lattice of railway tracks, and you can head off to explore should you want. But you can also teleport via a game map to Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor’s various scenarios. And these are presented as episodes of the TV show/books, with opening narration voiced by series stalwart Mark Moraghan (I’m old enough to expect Ringo Starr to come through the speakers, but Mark is such a spiritual successor to Ringo that it feels natural).
Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor stumbles a little here because – spits on the floor – the cutscenes are unskippable. It’s entirely possible to fail a mission, and fail it repeatedly (sometimes for no reason of your own – more on that later), so hearing about Thomas pulling into the station, over and over, can be galling.
A Covers Album That Plays all the Hits
But what’s important is that the spirit of the books and TV show are conveyed beautifully. I recognised levels and even snippets of text from the books growing up, so I am willing to bet that these are included almost verbatim. And the engines look spot on, with their slightly wild-eyed (perhaps creepy?) faces gurning at each other. I can imagine that the modders who add Thomas to every game will have a whale of a time with Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor.
What slapped me round the face when first playing Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor, though, was how surprisingly complex it is, certainly from the perspective of a young player who loves Thomas. This is not your typical licensed game. You are expected to make almost every action that a train driver would. You are moving the train into drive, neutral or reverse. Speed limits need to be obeyed, and you need to be travelling at suitable speeds for shunting carriages, pulling into stations or towing other vehicles. Go and No Go signage needs to be obeyed, and even the tracks need to be manually switched if you want to take another line.
My finger-in-the-air guess is that Thomas fans are roughly in the 2-7 year-old bracket, but the complexity of this game is such that only 8+ year-olds will be able to play it. It’s that demographic limbo I am talking about. And I’m wary that 8+ players might still find it too difficult. There are so many spinning plates to manage when performing simple actions like shunting carriages up a hill.
An Engine That Lacks Some Spit and Polish
Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor doesn’t help things by being unforgiving and slightly unhelpful, certainly from a usability perspective. The screen can be awash with notifications. The game hounds you with stuff you just don’t need to know. Do I really care whether a traffic light 400m in the distance is currently green? Of course not: it’s likely to change by the time I get there. But Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor chucks in speed limits, information about upcoming hazards, distance to destination and more. The problem is they all overlap on the game screen, and they look similar. I have real trouble picking out the information that matters to me; heaven knows how a pre-teen will do it.
But for all these issues, I had a good time with Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. Perhaps I’m that demographic that it’s hunting for: a nostalgic Thomas fan who gets a thrill out of seeing Toby, George, Harold, Duck and all the others at the start of the mission.
Because there’s several levels of enjoyment to Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor, at least for me. There’s the enjoyment of replicating something iconic from Thomas’s world, for example. You probably have a favourite story, and there’s a good chance it’s here. Being able to experience that story from inside the cabin, pulling all the levers and LARPing it as a train driver, has its special kind of appeal.
Train Sim World: Sodor Edition
There’s also a level of enjoyment that I suppose is also there in Train Sim World (I will admit to not having a huge amount of experience there). There’s a delicate precision in going about an objective. You can take your time, abiding by the various rules on the UI, fulfilling the objective and watching point-multipliers ticking over at the top of the screen. There’s probably a name for the feeling of being as exact and precise as a real-world counterpart within a simulator game, and I suspect that word is in German.
And the final level of enjoyment is just being in Thomas’s world. Sodor feels authentic and believable, from the text panels that look drafted from the books, all the way to the train whistles and music.
I honestly have no idea who will buy Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. And if those people do buy it, I have no idea whether they are the ones who will enjoy it. But I can say, from an aging Thomas fan’s perspective, at least I was happy. This is a slightly distilled Train Sim World, redone for the world of Sodor, and – some usability issues aside – it reaches its destination with a degree of style.
Important Links
Steam Into A New Railway Adventure With Thomas & Friends: Wonders Of Sodor – https://www.thexboxhub.com/steam-into-a-new-railway-adventure-with-thomas-friends-wonders-of-sodor/
Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor Brings The Island To Life On Consoles And PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/thomas-friends-wonders-of-sodor-brings-the-island-to-life-on-consoles-and-pc/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/thomas-and-friends-wonders-of-sodor/9NZCW04MDFP0
There’s a Deluxe Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/thomas-friends-wonders-of-sodor-deluxe-edition/9P383J58QD7H/0010
