Train Station Renovation (Review)


It may seem odd to say to give this sim title a hard pass when I spent 33 hours finishing it, but I do.  I have so many mixed feelings about Train Station Renovation, though the overall impression is negative.  I quite enjoyed it when I started it, but it has some major issues that have me recommending my fellow Sim gamers avoid it and where I finished it just for the completion version any real passion for it. This is particularly sad as it clearly has great potential!

Maybe, if was labeled Early Access I could forgive the issues, but it’s a full release, not that cheap, and it crashes SOO much. I had to repeat all but the first four levels because the game would crash when a level finished, the auto-save would be corrupt, and sometimes it would take a reboot to fix it. People reported these issues, the devs seem to not care.

When it runs, though, I could still maybe recommend it if it wasn’t for how monotonous each level was and the absolutely anemic selection of items, paints, and flooring. Literally, your decoration items are a billboard, maybe a dozen or so plants, some useless signs… and Christmas items? There are only nine options for flooring, wall styles/paints, and ceiling options, and in many of the maps, you can’t redo those anyway. You would at least expect that there would be color variations on the paint but nope, just white!  That isn’t encouraging the creativity or fun elements that fans of these kinds of games look for. I’d presumed at first I just had to unlock more, but nope.

In terms of other gameplay elements, the trash/recycling mechanics are decently done and satisfying, though the segregated cans have too little space. There are collision/border issues with item placement, where the edges of the room don’t count as placement, and you have to do weird back and forth before some items will come out of the floor to place. The game will also let you “throw” trash, but they can get caught on top of stuff making them nearly impossible to reach. The train paint colors are fun, even if painting a train still leaves it rusted. The sanding of rails is also a nice satisfying sound.

But yeah… there are some good things in this game, but at $19, it’s overpriced for all the issues and lack of options. And with this game being out two years, it seems like the company has no intention of fixing the issues with it, so I’d skip it.