Transport INC
Disclaimer: Ol' Il Pallino has Asperger’s, and the characterization of aspies having a high tolerance for repetition is mentioned in the Negatives section of this review. If stereotypes of aspies offends readers (however true) the reader is advised to go read someone else’s review. Ol' Il Pallino and REXCurse hereby disclaim liability of triggering snowflakes who become butt-hurt as a result.
Overview
This is one of those times where writing a review is tricky, because recommendations are purely Yes/No and management sim Transport INC is in a gray area with a slight red tint from what was experienced in the story. Apart from the story, which is a campaign about the son of a bus driver who has ambitions of becoming a shipping tycoon who’s father very early own proves to not share-in on the main character’s ambition, the main character branches out from a bus empire to also trucking, which leads to other modes of transporting passengers and cargo. The game also has a casual Free Play mode and Global Race mode where the player and AI opponents compete against each other to “capture” cities by being the most profitable carrier.
– Real player with 21.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Real-Time Minimalist Games.
[url] Please see my curator page for more games that are well worth your time[/url]
I’ll start this review with something I normally wouldn’t need to do, a WARNING: At the time of writing, there is one achievement in the game that you can’t unlock (yet).
There is an achievement for completing the campaign on expert mode, however, the expert mode appears to not be added to the game. People who’ve completed it on Hard Mode have reported on the Steam Forums that it hasn’t unlocked the Expert Mode. I’m not sure if that is how it should unlock or if there is something else currently causing the issue, I just hope that in the future, this warning will not be needed.
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game
Railroad Corporation
Updated July 9, 2019
I have now played the campaign through twice and have learned a lot since the below review.
The game remains fun and I really cannot wait for the coming updates, because this game has a lot of promise. Some of the problems I had at first have been eliminated by getting better at the game the way it is now.
-Track laying- the first time through I was doing was overloading the network with too many trains and a lot of crossovers and intersections. The routing does need to be improved but with careful planning, future bottlenecks can be eliminated. Upgrade your stations and invest in train research ASAP. This will allow longer and faster trains, that takes care of the problem of clogging the network with slow and over worked trains. Also build sidings frequently so trains can bypass each other easily.
– Real player with 724.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Real-Time Strategy Games.
See those cool videos ? They aren’t in the game. The general overhead view is what you will be seeing. I expected to be able to zoom in and move the camera to see cool things like in the videos (coal beingg loaded, trains going over bridges all like they show in the videos) Unfortunately that isn’t what you get to see, it may be clips you see in some later mission of the video (that I haven’t gotten to yet).
Overall, though, the game is a good financial strategy management game. I do miss the old days of RRT and 2 where you lay each small section of track individually, looking at the cost and elevations and having to decide if it was worth it in the long run to go through, over or around a mountain etc. But, strategically the game is definately a breath of fresh air for those that enjoy doing research, buying industries and managing trains and growing cities whose demands change over time.. I do kinda wish there was a log of how each city is changing as it pops up and is gone what the city is no longer needing or is now needing (it seems the game has been kinda “dumbed down” for those that don’t really want to immerse themselves in the grand strategy of it all).
– Real player with 59.5 hrs in game
Conduct DELUXE!
You’ve seen this kind of game before. The frantic adjust-the-train-switches-so-trains-don’t-collide game, BUT… This is a really good one. I don’t know what about it makes it so enjoyable. Maybe it’s how varied nad interesting looking the tracks are.
Bridges, tunnels that make trains reappear somewhere else, as well as many varying enciromenments.
This, along with the ability to select your own trains, as well as having you actually expected to transport passengers from place to place (Which also means, if your train is yellow, and heading towards a yellow station, any yellow passengers form stations it passes along the way will also board it) all work together to make this the best game of it’s kind that I’ve played so far. (Granted I haven’t played many, but I still feel like this is one of the better ones)
– Real player with 39.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Real-Time Isometric Games.
The best way I can describe this game is: it’s like juggling three coloured balls where they change colour mid air and in which two more balls and a chainsaw are thrown at you during the course of your act.
The levels themselves are mostly fair and well designed (I’ll come back to that in a minute) and the controls are lenient enough to where when you fail you can only blame yourself.
The music is a nice complement to the gameplay and the art style is nice and simplistic.
Another nice feature is that you can choose which levels to unlock first which has the bonus effect of being able to leave a difficult level for another which makes the game a lot less frustrating when you meet a level that you just can’t quite complete.
– Real player with 37.8 hrs in game
Railway Empire
WRITE THIS DOWN: You WILL need to know a couple things.. Writing this review at 647 hours of playtime.. so I’m pretty sure I’m enjoying being an expert at it, and it helps a lot..
If you dont understand these comments, try googling the concepts anyway.. you need to know this stuff.
You will build single lane tracks early on and tear them up later to redesign… BECAUSE you will be short on money - always.. (unless you use unlimited sandbox or mods).
Learn how to use regular or one-way signals to create short lanes on the side of a long stretch of track so trains can pass each other along the way across large empty terrain areas.
– Real player with 1489.3 hrs in game
I spent a lot of my life on Railroad Tycoon, from the first one until the end of the series. A-Train, Transport Tycoon, Rails!, you name it. If it had a train in it, I bought it. So of course I bought this too.
I really, really like this game. There are elements here that feel like Railroad Tycoon 3, and there are elements that do not. Just enough for you to find something you like in this game regardless of how you felt about previous railroad incarnations. I’m going to lay out a PRO/CON/WISHLIST below for you to peruse at your leisure. I may edit these if they change down the road.
– Real player with 332.2 hrs in game
Interstellar Transport Company
Excellent:
Theme. The game brings this out very well. It really feels like you are running the company that is responsible for the interstellar expansion of humanity. The visuals work well. The planets look cool. The ships have fun names. The line of ships you get going from home, out a colony, and back looks good. It is satisfying to see the progress as a colony develops. It feels like you are working to established permanent homes other worlds.
Strategy. You have a lot of choices. You are always deciding what ships to buy, what they should carry, and what route they should take. You usually have options that are either “cheaper and better now” or “more expensive and better later.” You always have “things to work on.” You can choose where new colonies will go. You can tinker with current trade routes to make them more profitable.
– Real player with 324.3 hrs in game
This will be a bit of a long one. But I can’t help it.
On the surface I absolutely love everything about this game. I have turned back to it many times trying to make it work. But it just feels like the fundamentals of the gameplay is not working quite right with what the game is trying to be. And I always end up leaving a bit unsatisfied.
The game is about humanity colonizing the solar system and later going beyond. That’s what got me real exited about the game. But that is not what you are doing. You are there to make money. On the surface this is great.
– Real player with 85.7 hrs in game