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 Strategy Management 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
Sid Meier’s Railroads!
Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon was the third game I ever purchased back in the 1800’s, no, I’m kidding (Though it feels like it at times.) I actually purchased it in 1990 not long after acquiring my first desktop PC. I have played the series religiously since. I have roughly 100 hours in this game in the original 2006 disc retail box version. It certainly isn’t a successor to the venerable Railroad Tycoon III, but it’s still quite enjoyable if you realize this going in. The game is more of a “beer & pretzels” type real time strategy game with an emphasis on attracting more casual type gamers. The game has a charming art style more akin to an HO or N scale model train layout than the ostensible real world look of the previous Railroad Tycoon games.
– Real player with 131.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Management Games.
I’m big on train games. I’m also not the most educated on the finer details of signalling and routing, and find the concepts confusing. I enjoy the business aspects of railroad games more, and like games that let me focus on that.
Sid Meier’s Railroads does just that. It is a very approachable, enjoyable take on the transportation tycoon genre. Block signalling is automatically done for your tracks, and is easy to understand. You get to focus on the fundamentals: what industries have goods? What industries need goods? How can I get from A to B profitably? That is what the game gets fantastically well.
– Real player with 85.9 hrs in game
Miner’s Mettle
I like how the game has minimalistic control for units, where they traverse over a fixed path, kind of reminds me of physical board games where i have to move my pieces. I would like to see efforts at reducing micro management over time so I can control the units more comfortably, being able to do things like patrol a route or carry minerals back and forth on their own.
The in-game music also feels good and complements the chosen factions. The maps are also unique between different biome types and look good, but feel a bit sparse at the moment, they can also be improved with some weather effects that could add some visual/auditory ambiance to the game, hopefully that will change overtime.
– Real player with 71.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy RTS Games.
I’m not one for leaving reviews that often, but this experience is so frustrating and unbelievable I couldn’t help but say something. My complaint isn’t about the game play mechanics but the games functionality. This game is very prone to crashing even on a computer that’s more than capable of running it on the most intense settings. I was in the middle of a campaign mission and all of a sudden the battle field goes black. I thought “No biggie, I’ll just save and reload the game.”. I reload the game and every time I do, there is a fatal error including from auto saves, which crash the game. If you don’t mind bugs that ruin the game and force you to effectively restart everything you did since saving and reloading isn’t an option, have fun! Otherwise don’t waste your time nor money.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Art of the Rail
Inspired by the classic transport tycoon games, Art of the Rail brings the spirit of these games into a modern context. Build, grow, and manage your transport empire and use it to shape the economy of your game world for the better.
Features
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Construct transport networks using roads, rails, tunnels and bridges
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Develop your vehicle routes to maximize profits
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Establish and upgrade stations and vehicle hubs with bays, cargo yards, and more
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Meeting economic needs directly grows and develops the economy of your world
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Edit the terrain to improve your transport networks
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Full multiplayer with up to 16 other players, either cooperatively or competitively
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Entirely moddable; including a built in asset editor to create and configure anything for the game
https://sketchfab.com/models/0f59fa935948494d877f63b0f4e28fe2
Fully moddable
Core game data itself is created and loaded using the tools available to all modders, and includes a detailed asset editor for making new buildings, vehicles, or any of the assets in game.
Performance as a Feature
High custom rendering, network, and spline simulation tools allow a huge amount of vehicles - giving intense levels of scale seen by the great tycoon games of the past. Art of the Rail makes extensive use of custom batched rendering, multithreading, and high levels of network optimization designed specifically to achieve scale.
Built for Multiplayer
Run either as a hosted game or a dedicated server; Art of the Rail offers the true tycoon gaming experience in multiplayer. From the ground up the game has been designed and built around a multiplayer experience.
Create and share
Procedural worlds to play in are within a click of a button, but you can also load maps from heightmap data and create your own custom scenarios and maps. Upload them to share with others, or challenge yourself and complete those made by others.
Detailed financial simulation
Corporate management and detailed statistics are provided in game to allow maximum control of your transport empire. Analyze individual train expenses and profits; through to complex lending and financial planning. It’s not just good enough to built the routes - you also need to manage the business as well.
Locoland
I first played Locoland back when it was called Steamland, on a loose CD in a stack from an estranged family member almost 15 years ago. I spent hours attempting to play it on my already aging Windows 98 computer set up in my bedroom, and boy did I suck at it. Fast forward to about two months ago and I find it on Steam and, despite never being any good at it, I bought it.
Playing it now, I realise that the game isn’t necessarily any easier - I’m just more patient. It’s still tricky, and isn’t exactly monumental as far as strategy games go, but I still enjoy playing it. As frustrating as it can be fighting against the enemy trains, mounting attacks on their factories and repair depots and fending off zeppelins, I think it makes the victories even sweeter because you really need to fight for it.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Locoland:
A happy and peaceful civilization of hard working robots with an extensive railroad network, enjoying robotic life as best they can. Cherishing the ancient “Golden Gear” relic as their ancestors have, unfortunately the evil Khon-Kaa-Doo has other things in mind. On a beautiful night, he sent his troops to steal the relic. From now on, your mission is to get it back!
An interesting strategy game involving trains as your main units. Building wagons containing canons, artillery, missiles and more to destroy the enemy’s forces. Make sure to build plenty of engines to pull or push your trains into the enemy territory. No good building an arsenal and being as slow as a snail!! This game is all about the manoeuvrability of your trains and how efficiently to attack the opposing forces.
*– [Real player with 4.8 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198003030375)*
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## Railroad Tycoon 3
Ah Railroad Tycoon 3, my childhood. Before I go any further, the game WILL work on Vista and Windows 7\. Go to http://hawkdawg.com/ to find patches for blurry textures and the Vista fix.
Railroad Tycoon 3 is the third installment of the Railroad Tycoon series. Developed by PopTop Software and The Gathering of Developers, Railroad Tycoon 3 introduces the 3D engine to the Railroad Tycoon series. Railroad Tycoon 3 has three main game modes. Campaign, Sandbox, and Scenarios. If you want to play a challenging campaign mode, you have it, or if you just want to go and lay some track, you can do that too. In campaign mode, there are three difficulties; Easy, Medium, and Hard. You can choose between 25 different games to choose from, and can go from left to right, or start at the hardest one. In scenario mode, you play against a computer player on a selected map, and race to be the highest company to win. In sandbox mode, you pick a map and time period, and then go have fun!
*– [Real player with 160.5 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198022861438)*
The game gets a thumbs up. Classic and tons of fun.
Edit: It does seem to crash very frequently, however. I guess that's what you get with a game as old as this one.
Cannot, however, give a thumbs up to Steam support on this one. As many others have said, you will most likely find that it crashes within seconds of launching the app. This is because of a default setting that conflicts with just about every modern video card. You won't be able to get into the settings menu to fix this, crashes too quckly. If you run into this problem, you will have to go to a third party site and download an updated config file, replace the original, and then the game will function. The file is safe, the people who created this have my gratitude, but customers SHOULD NOT have to be subjected to downloading a file from a third party site in order to use a product they've been charged for. Upon contacting Steam support, they offered no assistance with this matter. I asked for a refund, was denied (i was outside of the timeframe so that was expected), but I also received no attempt from support to get the game running. The last part should not have happened, no excuse for that. At that point, I finally went ahead and downloaded the file (I was not comfortable doing this). Glad to say it worked :)
*– [Real player with 158.5 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198173212798)*
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## Railroad Tycoon II Platinum
### I have played this game from the CD for many hours, just bought Steam version. You may trust my review.
_This ain't yo mamma's kind of game._ No this ain't. Railroad Tycoon 2, in my opinion the best of all train games new or old, is one that'll make you frustrated by all means whilst keeping you up till all hours of the night. Let me explain why.
The rail building is not easy. You must pick your terrain carefully and stategically. Mountains will cost you more, and slow your trains down. Plains are cheaper and don't require heavy-duty 3-Truck Shay trains. Deciding which cities to connect together via a rail also takes thought. The larger the city, the more passenger and mail revenue is to be had. The maps in this game are realistically made (Alaska map looks like Alaska).
*– [Real player with 281.2 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036331210)*
10/10
Quite possibly the perfect game!
RRT2, how do I love thee, let me count the ways! The original RRT was a brilliant game that launched a whole new world of strategy and simulation that had nothing to do with devastating enemy civilizations or killing orcs. You combined construction, trains, and building a business in a way that created almost limitless hours of play. Almost! RRT2 did away with almost.
Let's start with it's a pretty game, designed by the same folks as Tropico. Buildings and locomotives are beautifully rendered and can be viewed from any angle. The terrain graphics were state of the art in 1998 and hold up well today. But there is so much more. You have industries in cities that convert raw materials from farms, mills, mines, etc., into products that you can then further ship on (and make money for.) You can even buy these industries. Haul your own coal and iron ore to your own steel mill, and then send the steel to your auto plant. And cities grow and develop the more you serve them. The economic model is incredibly detailed. All the usual refinements of bonds, stocks, take-overs, etc. And you can hire famous managers who bring their own unique traits to your railroad.
*– [Real player with 178.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198009962850)*
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## Trains of the Orient
This game is a combination of adventure capitalist and a building game. It takes a long time to play. It is a game that you play for a while and then stop and go back to at your leisure. You you want an instant gratification game, it is not for you. It can be tedious at times. So before you buy, understand the game for what it is and is not. I took a chance on the game in spite of the negative posts. I like train games and it was a cheap game to buy. Think of the game this way. It is a puzzle with many pieces that you can go back to at your leisure. Also, you have the ability to start the game over again and try a different strategy.
*– [Real player with 16.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198077590402)*
I'm glad I got this game at 50% off. Because, honestly, this game is the quality of a free-to-play mobile game.
It is an interesting concept, and as a fan of OpenTTD, I thought this sort of game would be fun. But you get to see very little action in this game, and what's more, it gets glitchy when your rail network is big.
*– [Real player with 4.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198179962993)*
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## Bounty Train
### HOLD EVERYTHING!
In the past, when I originally left this review, I was barely even critical of the game (I've left my original review below). It was an amazingly fun railroad management game that was just the right balance of simulator and tycoon. But after long months of waiting and 80 hours played, the NEW WEST DLC has left me disappointed.
I was enamoured when I saw the release note for the DLC. I had purchased the Trainium Edition, which meant I wouldn't have to shell out another five dollars to play the expansion. I loaded the game up, pressed Begin DLC, and was greeted with… Omaha. The map only went as far as Omaha. And here I thought "New West" meant "West Coast". This was a major turnoff. After such a long time waiting and holding out every last bit of hope I had that I'd FINALLY get to build the Transcontinental Railroad, what I got was an INCREDIBLY tedious back-and-forth expansion, a locomotive that wasn't even as good as the one I had from the vanilla game, NO instance of a "New Carriage" as promised, and a lacking map that didn't even go west enough to call itself "west". I played the DLC to completion, and felt like I'd just been slapped in the face. There's no instance of the Transcontiental, the West coast, or anything. The game ends with a newspaper clipping saying you're READY to start building, and then the credits roll.
*– [Real player with 121.5 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198119221840)*
First, let me state this is a pretty fun game. I bought it when it was 50% off ($12.49) and I have enjoyed every minute of it. What I like most is it provides you with a different type of game playing style. A little RPG mixed in with a little bit of management style gamind and garnished with a tad of train simulator. The graphics are pretty good for the game type and minus a few bugs I list below the playability is pretty nice. The combat is pretty unique and I like that you can perform combat while the train is moving or not. It adds for a new dynamic. The storyline is pretty good as well, however I think it could have been drawn out a little longer to give you more gameplay time in the campaign. Now for some of the not so likeable features.
*– [Real player with 97.0 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198072509675)*
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## Chris Sawyer's Locomotion™
Buyers beware (this is a extremely old game and does not properly work with windows 7, 8 or 10\. All I know is when playing on Windows 7 with a Nvidia card the screen at random will go crazy. So save often and you should be fine. Everything else works as normal.)
I do recommend this game even with the issues I stated above and the more you play the longer it takes to break it seems. There's no real campaign just "missions" but its still fun even if you don't play with the missions and just "free play". Its fun and despite the poor graphics it has a nice art style and has great music. There are so many vehicles to buy and use. All have different stats. Also the AI is really dumb or really smart at times. For $6 its a worthy purchase and I would buy it all the time despite its bugs.
*– [Real player with 140.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198059416809)*
I loved this game back when I was younger. It was one of my very first games I ever played on the computer! When I saw it had come out on steam I couldn't wait to play it again. It's even more fun playing it now than it was when I was younger, because now I understand more of the game's mechanics. But even as a kid I was easily able to create and manage my huge transport company! This game is well worth the price in my opinion.
The outdated graphics may be an issue to some people. In my opinion the game looks very nice for its age, and doesn't bother me in the slightest. I experienced no issues running the game on my Windows 10 laptop, and it has a max resolution of 1280x768 (which for my 1366x768 laptop screen, fits nicely!)
*– [Real player with 44.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061983541)*
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