Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and as a kid who grew up watching Thomas the Tank Engine some of my core childhood memories centre around the moon-faced blue steam engine and his pals. Having grown into someone who really enjoys the relaxing yet engaging simulation gameplay of Train Sim World, I was curious to know exactly how Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor would speak to me. Despite a few rough edges and some confusion over its target audience, I’m still pleased to say it’s another great outing from Dovetail Games.
Wonders of Sodor takes the Train Sim World formula, simplifies it and turns it into a love letter for the Thomas & Friends series. From the moment the title screen pops up with the iconic theme tune, to hearing recognisable stories with authentic narration (although it was Ringo Starr when I used to watch it), it’s clear that a lot of work was put into making this feel just right.
With the tutorial out of the way, you’re free to explore the isle of Sodor using the island map. Dotted around are stations you can spawn at, or stories to get stuck into. I spent most of my time in these as they give a bit more structure to things, and watching these play out made me feel all warm and cosy as they brought back childhood memories. Each story is fully voiced, with Mark Moraghan back on-board, and they really do make you feel like you’re playing an episode of the TV show. If anything, these story cutscenes can go on for a little too long. There’s no way to skip them and if you fail a mission then you’ll need to restart and sit through them all over again, so I’d argue they at least need a way to speed things up.
These stories do a good job of introducing you to the cast of Wonders of Sodor, including Thomas himself along with friends such as Percy, Emily, Gordon and, my favourite, Toby. In lieu of the realistic locomotives found in Train Sim World, Wonders of Sodor uses these characters to allow for different types of engines, with some feeling much more nimble but lacking the high speeds of Gordon or Emily, who take a while to get going but can push 80mph.
For anyone who’s played Train Sim World, Wonders of Sodor will instantly feel familiar. Mechanically it plays like a simplified version: you have control of the reverser to determine the direction you’re going, then RT accelerates or LT applies the brakes. There’s not too much more to it than that: occasionally you’ll be hopping out to switch tracks or take part in some basic story-related activities, such as cooling down an engine, but largely you’ll be using those core controls to either ferry passengers between stations or shunt carriages around the engine yards. It’s clearly been simplified to appeal to a younger audience, but I think it might still be a little tricky for some kids, especially as there are so many in-world things to consider, such as speed limits, braking speed, signal stops and more.
This brings me back to my confusion over who exactly Wonders of Sodor is for. It’s simplified enough that it could be a bit dull for Train Sim World fans, and you’ll often find yourself travelling between stations with nothing to do. Equally though, it feels too complex for the kids that’d be into Thomas the Tank, and they’d get frustrated or just bored by it. For me, once the nostalgia wore off I realised I was just playing a more basic version of Train Sim World, but found it was a great game play on the TV so my toddler could watch. He loves his choo-choos, and I’ve been trying to get him into Thomas, so Wonders of Sodor turned out to be the perfect way to do it. “Parents playing with their kids” feels like a niche audience, but either way I’m glad the game exists.
I’ve already mentioned that, thanks to the voice acting and theme tune, the game’s audio is excellent. Being built on Train Sim World means the game looks gorgeous too, with bright vibrant engines that have faces bordering on creepy, just like I remember them. Photo mode on PC, and seemingly PS5, maxes out the visuals so virtual photographers can grab some gorgeous shots of Thomas as he steams past Sodor’s windmills, recreating shots from the show’s opening. My only real complaint is that first person mode is a bit redundant: you’re stuck looking through tiny portholes at the rails ahead rather than having the wider windows and full control panels you’d find in Train Sim World, which meant I spent most of my time in third person views.
The game lacks a little polish in places too. I failed more than a few story missions due to bugs, including one instance where I got stuck in the map and couldn’t stop the train, and another where I stepped away from the controls and clipped out of the train entirely. I was stood there on the tracks desperately trying to climb back on as Gordon sped off at 60mph. These instances were made more irritating by the fact it meant restarting the stories, which had me watching those long cutscenes again.
The HUD can be a bit confusing too, and another reason I don’t think it’s well suited to kids. Multiple on-screen elements can overlap, so you might have a signal box coming up in 150yds and you need to see if it’s safe to run through it or not. But then you might also have a speed increase coming up in 300yds, and your destination in 800yds. These can and will all overlap, making it difficult to see what you need to do until you’re practically on top of it. Destination markers aren’t reflective of the carriages you may be pushing too, so on more than one occasion I crashed as I saw the destination was 200yds away but that didn’t account for the 100yds of carriages I was shunting along.
These are relatively small grievances in the long-run, but they add up and made the experience less polished than it should be. Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor is still a fun game though, and although it might be a bit basic for long-time Train Sim World fans, there’s still plenty of love and nostalgia here to keep Thomas fans hooked and keep you exploring the isle of Sodor.
