PS5

Published on March 28th, 2026 | by Dean Yamak

Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor PS5 review

I was disproportionately excited to be invited to review Dovetail Games’ new release Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. Their timing couldn’t be more perfect given the alignment of my own nostalgia with my toddler’s current obsession with Thomas and his many friends… so, so many friends.

I think my experience of Wonders of Sodor suffered due to my expectation of a Thomas game, rather than a rail simulator. Simply put – if you are looking for a game about Thomas and his friends, and I emphasise “game”, then make sure you do your research first. But for those of you looking for a rail simulator that pays homage to Thomas and his friends, then this is probably perfect for you.

Without wanting to be reductive, Wonders of Sodor is a rail simulator. You can role-play as the driver in first-person from the cabin, or escape to third-person or free camera and recreate all the narratives from the books and shows you remember. Dovetail Games have used the Unreal Engine to create what is probably the most realised Thomas and friends world around – at least as far as I can imagine. However that comes with all the usual Unreal issues you might expect regarding lighting, shadows and physics.

Graphically, I was initially impressed. If you are familiar with the books, toys or shows across a variety of streaming services, then I suspect you might be as impressed as I was at how faithfully Dovetail Games have designed and modelled Thomas and his friends. Perhaps I have been spoiled over my years of gaming – it was unfortunate that my pleasure with the visuals did not last long. Each introduction of a new character reminded me of when I got a new toy as a kid – or better yet, when I get to watch my son open and play with a new train. I’m not entirely sure, but I found myself wishing they had kept a less realistic visual style. I have no idea how hard it would have been to lean into the toy aesthetic, if it would have involved a stop‑motion style or not – but the closer I looked at my son’s favourites the more I wished for something different. But I suspect this is a matter of personal taste.

I cannot express how many different eras of Thomas & Friends I have been exposed to through my own childhood, let alone my son. The YouTube hole is deep and offers access to so many different interpretations and voices, let alone what’s available on streaming services. Whilst the different generations have their own visual and audio character, the differences are not usually too jarring… if you have watched ‘too much’ maybe it will bother you that the voices for Edward and James are the same across a few seasons, but I think the average gamer is not going to care. But I have to ask – what happened to the Controller? Let alone the audio… I can appreciate narration, and the whistles of the steamies were lovely links to the shows and books. But the audio is otherwise unremarkable. I was often asking what happened to this world, that it was so empty of life and buzz and activity. I caught myself turning up the volume on the TV only to find out I hadn’t missed anything – there was simply no significant sound except the haptic feedback from my controller, the whistle of my train, and sometimes the hum of my engine.

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Gameplay is… challenging to describe as fun. Again, this is likely a matter of taste – but only to an extent. As I opened with, I did not do a good job of managing my own expectations going into Wonders of Sodor. Given Dovetail Games’ pedigree for rail simulators, you should do better than I did, and expect a game heavy on simulation. The downside of this? After maybe 30 minutes of playing my son asked “can we do something else?” …which fit with my own experience. It did not take me long to tire of the emphasis on simulation, even when I adjusted the accessibility settings and difficulty options. It’s not too difficult to get the gist of driving trains, switching from forward and reverse, managing speed to avoid consistently passing signals (or deliberately de‑railing for the joy of it). Managing ‘points’ was unpleasant until I adjusted the difficulty settings to allow myself to enjoy the driving gameplay without worrying about being too manual.

There are some small issues that might have made my experience less onerous. I absolutely detest it when I can’t skip dialogue and text. Especially when each simulated failure resulted in my being forced to watch all the dialogue again. Maybe I am particularly sensitive given how many times I have read each book to my son, again and again. The Story mode was great at letting us act as the traditional favourites of the ‘Steam Team’ (with Diesel) – and I can’t help but assume that with time Dovetail will add more and more characters and depth. True fans of rail and Thomas who connect with the simulation gameplay will probably no‑life the story mode before getting absorbed in challenges or role‑play in timetable modes – and knowing more content might be anticipated is a strong hook.

Overall, I suspect fans of Dovetail’s prior games are best served by Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. If you are new to their style of game, you might find it as difficult as I did to look past the usual game language along with other lifestyle improvements. Forgive the pun, but I truly enjoyed episodes of my time with this game. But given my taste does not tend towards simulation (and apparently neither does my son’s), I can only unreservedly recommend Wonders of Sodor to people who love simulation or think they might. I reviewed on PS5, and can’t help but wonder if Steam might offer a better graphical impression and, of course, the option for community mods in the future.

About the Author

Dean Yamak

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