1 
0 As a train lover, I grew up with Thomas the Tank Engine. So when Dovetail Games announced a Thomas & Friends pack, I was excited. No, that doesn’t do it justice. I was over the moon. My head derailed with a million different thoughts of what could be. Thankfully, now we have the Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends DLC.
How Does Thomas Eat? He Chew-Chews
While you might be hoping to journey around Sodor, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Which brings us onto something to be aware of. You MUST own the West Somerset Railway pack to be able to utilise the Thomas & Friends pack. Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business.
Gameplay
Thomas and his friends, Diesel, Annie and Clarabel have travelled to West Somerset. After Sir Topham Hatt receives an invitation, he lets the trains head over for a special weekend. However, Diesel, being the mischievous train that he is he just wants to play tricks on Thomas. It’s your job to avoid any delays to the service by working around these tricks.
It all sounds great, and in reality, it really is. The Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends DLC is great. Being able to use Thomas’s whistle while driving around is all round fun. With a simplified tutorial and control scheme, anyone can drive Thomas. Although if anyone wanted to try and stop me playing, they were unsuccessful.
The Troublesome Trucks make an appearance as well, allowing you to shunt and shove them in their own scenario. Bringing more enjoyment to the Thomas & Friends DLC.
The best part of having the DLC was being able to take Thomas on a journey across any of the DLCs I currently own. Whether to Cardiff, or to Carlisle. Having a full narrated journey to take Thomas on was both a childhood joy and a grown man’s joy as well!
Graphics & Audio
As with all the other Train Sim World 5 DLC packs, the Thomas one is amazingly rendered. With the trains looking as accurate as I imagine if they were stabled right in front of me. With moving eyes, the only thing that lets it down is that I didn’t notice Thomas’s mouth moving when he spoke. It’s just a small thing, but nonetheless I enjoyed everything to do with this DLC.
Listening to Thomas’s whistle was the highlight of this. Yes, the characters are voiced and fully narrated, but gimme that whistle every day!
Longevity
Simply endless amounts of fun can be had with each of the DLCs for Train Sim World 5. With Thomas & Friends not being locked to a particular route, and instead usable anywhere. It opened up a multitude of options, whether short trips in America or long trips throughout the London Overground. The train lines are your oyster. Obviously it all does solely depend on what packs you own.
Final Thoughts
The Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends DLC is exactly what you would expect. It’s nostalgic and brings out the boyhood joy of being able to drive Thomas. I could have spent hours just enjoying track life, but the fun had to stop at some point. Only to write this review, mind, I’m going back out onto the ballast once I’ve finished this.
Train Sim World 5: Thomas & Friends DLC Receives the Thumb Culture Gold Award. Only missing out on the Platinum because you need to have another DLC for it to work.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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