The WhatsNext verdict
If you enjoy physically operating trains, planning freight work, and learning through hands-on mistakes, Derail Valley delivers an open-ended railway career. Skip it if you want passengers, NPC activity, story missions, or a constantly busy railway.
What it does best
The most satisfying train handling of its era
A train simulation you learn by doing
An open railway that trusts your decisions
Railway work you can physically inhabit
What might put you off
Slow, solitary, and intentionally unstructured
Punishing logistics and limited content
The setup
What you are walking into
Drive massive trains and build your career in a vast open railway network. For both PC and VR. What makes Derail Valley different? You can feel the physics. Walk without restrictions, in and out of locomotives, changing them as you see fit. Couple and uncouple trains as you complete your deliveries. Choose new deliveries freely. Take many at once if you will. Service your trains after derailing. Do this all spontaneously, and at any point you can save and continue later. Built from the ground up for Virtual Reality - optional Derail Valley fully supports playing on a regular PC, using mouse and keyboard on a flat screen, but virtual reality is where it really shines. In VR you can, for the first time ever, truly be inside train cabs and operate controls with your own hands. Derail Valley supports all major PC VR headsets, such as Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality, Valve and HTC.
Where it lives
Genre
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