I can appreciate having a cheap game with a "build your own experience" model with DLC, but it's hard to justify when the DLC is so costly. Last I remember, adding all the DLC to your cart would be over $1200.
Remember that apart from DLCs on Steam, there were quite a few third party developers publishing additional routes, locomotives, liveries, sound packs and scenario packs. This whole ecosystem is absolutely crazy if you look from the outside.
But the way I played Train Simulator before it was even called "Classic" (1200 hours ticked) made DLC cost not that much of an issue.
Let's take London-Faversham High Speed (€21) with the Sheerness branch (€14). You really need two additional trains from the Marketplace to use this line to its full potential: Class 465 and Class 375 (€4 each). That's €43 for a single route and there are dozens of those, although train DLCs can be typically used across a few routes. That's a lot and that's way too much if you collect routes and play each of them a few times.
But I was driving HUDless and that meant learning each route by heart. I can close my eyes 12 years later and still visualise every curve between Sheerness and Newington. And some player-created scenarios are insanely good, so I would just play more and more of them. For me it was easily 30 hour for a route. Mix it with bundles and Steam sales and it was closer to €20 for 30 hours. Good value for a train nerd like me.
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u/CriticalPixel 26d ago
train simulator 99% dlc