Train Valley 2, meanwhile, has gameplay focused around pre-set supply lines. Basic Train Valley 2 gameplay – no reason to connect sand production to anything but town. Every decision is a decision made in the moment, as you feel the pressure to manage trains and make money and yet relieve that pressure constantly with every train successfully delivered. Train Valley 1 had procedural trains needing to go to randomized destinations, forcing players to adapt on the fly to changing conditions, which meant that gameplay was about adapting to changing conditions in the moment, so its focus upon challenge to cram as much traffic onto overloaded lines as possible aligned in gameplay terms to make a challenge-focused game. The problem with Train Valley 2 is that it exists in that in-between world of not being built for challenge and being what should be that much more relaxing form of experience like a Train Simulator, but winds up forcing that challenge into the game, regardless. A game like Train Simulator, where you simply keep a train going forward while you enjoy the scenery or walk up and down a simulated train’s interior may be something for very particular tastes, but it is delivering a very relaxing experience to those who truly just love trains. There’s been plenty of talk in games media about difficulty and its role in how much people will enjoy games, so I’ll start off by saying that “hard games” that exist purely as games meant to be enjoyed purely because they are hard (think Getting Over It, which deliberately had no production values so that there was nothing to the game but challenge) are perfectly legitimate ways to make enjoyable games, yet at the same time, games do not need to be challenging in any way to be legitimate and enjoyable. While it may be a little esoteric, I think the best way to discuss why two games that seem so similar on the surface can have people giving such different ratings is to start by talking about what aspects of these games people really enjoy.
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