Derail Valley takes a different path than most train simulators in a couple ways. It's fully VR, which means you interact with every lever yourself if you choose to, and includes - as the name suggests - fun-to-play-with derailment physics.

DV's most important point-of-divergence is the setting and trains. Rather than try and painstakingly analyze and replicate a real area, DV is a genericized, but believable playground which could easily fit anywhere in Southern Europe. It being generic by no means indicates a lack of care - every detail in the map makes it obvious Altfuture meant it as a love letter to their native Serbia.

This extends to the trains. While most obviously take some inspiration - the DE2 from various small Czech shunters, the DE4 from German center-cab diesels, the DE6 from EMD's Export lineup, and the S060 being easily recognizable as a S100 0-6-0 Tank Engine, they aren't exactly 1:1 replications. However, this doesn't matter - every lovingly crafted spot of rust, dust, dirt, and wear on a given locomotive makes it as believable as anything in TSW.

Gameplay, for me, does occasionally get boring. It's mostly a loop of running trains to and from the various industries, and getting access to bigger locomotives and contracts that way. Some of it is convoluted, but most of it is pretty sensible. You also have to be careful not to derail or wreck your train - again, a main focal point of it, but not entirely unenjoyable if you fail.

The devs haven't really given any reason for us to believe they'll go back on their promises - and so, hopefully in a couple years DV will be extended with fully-fledged passenger service and electrification.