Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends Visit The West Somerset Railway Review (PS5) – Well Bust My Buffers
To be completely honest with you, getting deep into Train Sim World 5 wasn’t on my 2025 bucket list. I don’t have an vested interest in trains, nor do I have any real desire to learn how to make a train go forward and stop it at its desired destination. And yet, here I am. The past two weeks, between bouts of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Split Fiction and Atomfall) I’ve been learning all about what exactly a train driver does do and it’s been, well, something. You can read my review of the Cardiff City Network DLC here if you’re at all interested in the digital recreations of Rhondda Cynon Taf train stations. Here, though? Well, if Train Sim World 5 wasn’t on my list of games to play this year, its Thomas The Tank Engine DLC certainly was not on my timetable. Ergo, reviewing games sometimes throws you curveballs, and I found myself rather interested to see what they’ve done with the most treasured of train-based licenses.
Thomas & Friends Visit The Somerset Railway appealed to me for two reasons. One, I’m from Somerset. so my curiosity peaked. Sadly my hometown’s train station isn’t a stop where Thomas finds himself in this DLC (Taunton representation when?), but there were a few dotted nearby that I recognised which make me somewhat giddy.
Secondly, it’s hard to not be excited about actually getting to drive Thomas the frikkin’ Tank Engine himself. If I can do that around my home county then I’m all for that. The sheer number of DLC for Train Sim World 5 (seriously, there are tons of the bloody stuff) means it could have easily gotten lost in the fray but there’s nothing quite like this available, which lets it stand out quite nicely. Kids should be able to find it rather easily, and they’re going to have quite the adventure with everyone’s favourite blue train with eyes and that can talk. Is there another one?
I digress. You see, Thomas and his friends Clarabel, Annie and that mischievous Diesel aren’t just in the beautiful Westcountry to see the sights, across eight chapters they’ve got parties to plan, places to be and throughout you’ll be picking up presents that are stranded on the tracks between destinations, filling up fire buckets and meeting a veritable smorgasbord of station managers, all who seem completely fine with talking to a sentient train that can’t move its mouth. Much like other DLC’s there’s a few activities to do when you reach each of the stations, and here it’s no different. Thomas wants to prove himself to Sir Topham Hatt, but Diesel has other plans. It’s about to go off.
And it’s all just harmless fun. One of the aspects I was curious about was the difficulty. It’s no secret that Train Sim World 5 is hugely realistic. It takes a damn near two hour tutorial to learn everything you need to do about operating these machines so it intrigued me how the game is going to appeal to a much younger audience with its mechanics as complex as they are.
I needn’t have worried. Developer Dovetail games have clearly thought about this and instead of a seemingly endless checklist of button presses to get Thomas moving, you simply have to stay in position and use the triggers on the controller to start and stop. Simple. I wish all of the controls were like this. It brings the games complexities to a simple start/stop system – with all you have to really do is keep an eye on the speedometer to ensure you’re not going over the recommended limits. It’s beautifully rejigged for the younger audience and I’m delighted to see this was taken into account.
All in all this is a thoroughly enjoyable DLC for the younger audience, and there are nice additions for players of all ages to get stuck into, should they wish to. If you take Train Sim World seriously and find such a DLC shockingly not in line with the realism of the rest of the franchise then it’s best to stay away as there is next to nothing for you here. Everyone else though will find joy in tearing through Minehead as an iconic character that has been taken care of by Dovetail to a level he deserves.
Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends Visit The West Somerset Railway is available now on PC, Xbox Series S|X, PS5 (review platform)
Developer: Dovetail Games
Publisher: Dovetail Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.
