Finished Sid Meier's Railroads. What a bitter disappointment this game is. I initially bought it right when it came out in 2006, but barely played it back then, and didn't have fond memories. I consider the original Railroad Tycoon to be one of the greatest games ever made, and with that in mind I decided to give this one another shot.
On initial boot, it reminded me of why I loved the original RRT so much. The basic conceit of the game is that you build railroads from city to city, carrying passengers, mail, and various forms of cargo from place to place based on supply and demand. If you have a city with facilities to turn ore into steel, for instance, you can ship or to the city to create steel, and then ship steel to another city to turn it into cars, and ship the cars to another city (perhaps even the original city) where they are sold. Some cities use resources directly as well, such as oil, food (which you can make by transporting livestock or crops) and the like.
And while this all resembles the original RRT, it somehow manages to feel hollow and charmless in this one. For starters, the scenarios are absolutely tiny in comparison. Less landmass, fewer cities, smaller everything. Even with this, the game still runs like absolute garbage. If you're on a 64-bit machine, it also eats up more RAM than it can process, and will crash constantly towards the end of a scenario. I can't even imagine how bad it would get had they included scenarios the size of the original game.
In addition to the tiny map size, the game also has entire levels of detail streamlined into oblivion or eliminated altogether. While I'm tempted to go into detail on each of them, I'll save us all a few thousand words with a simple list.
Capital Improvements (city upgrades such as post offices, hotels, etc.)
The Stock Market, Debt, and Stockholder complaints
Rate Wars
Bridges and Tunnels
Speed and Distance revenue calculations
And probably some others I'm missing, as I haven't played the original in a couple decades.
I suspect a lot of these cuts and changes were made to accomodate multiplayer, which I didn't play as the game runs like garbage and crashes all the time, and some of them because, well, it runs like garbage and crashes all the time. Other streamlining was probably due to the general pussification of games in the modern era.
The game is also incredibly easy. I was able to take the top possible ranking in the second scenario I played, and got it easily again in every other scenario I attempted afterwards. I suspect I would have made it in the first one too, except for the fact that I accidentally set up the game without any competitors, which cut me off from some major revenue streams.
All in all, I can't really recommend this to anybody who is looking for a serious strategy game, and certainly not for anyone who holds any reverence for the original Railroad Tycoon. Perhaps if you're new to the genre and want something in the "My First Tycoon Game" mold, you could get some enjoyment out of it.
Overall Score - 2/5
Bought in 2014: 6
Finished in 2014: 11
Backlog Blitz 2014 Score: +5
On initial boot, it reminded me of why I loved the original RRT so much. The basic conceit of the game is that you build railroads from city to city, carrying passengers, mail, and various forms of cargo from place to place based on supply and demand. If you have a city with facilities to turn ore into steel, for instance, you can ship or to the city to create steel, and then ship steel to another city to turn it into cars, and ship the cars to another city (perhaps even the original city) where they are sold. Some cities use resources directly as well, such as oil, food (which you can make by transporting livestock or crops) and the like.
And while this all resembles the original RRT, it somehow manages to feel hollow and charmless in this one. For starters, the scenarios are absolutely tiny in comparison. Less landmass, fewer cities, smaller everything. Even with this, the game still runs like absolute garbage. If you're on a 64-bit machine, it also eats up more RAM than it can process, and will crash constantly towards the end of a scenario. I can't even imagine how bad it would get had they included scenarios the size of the original game.
In addition to the tiny map size, the game also has entire levels of detail streamlined into oblivion or eliminated altogether. While I'm tempted to go into detail on each of them, I'll save us all a few thousand words with a simple list.
Capital Improvements (city upgrades such as post offices, hotels, etc.)
The Stock Market, Debt, and Stockholder complaints
Rate Wars
Bridges and Tunnels
Speed and Distance revenue calculations
And probably some others I'm missing, as I haven't played the original in a couple decades.
I suspect a lot of these cuts and changes were made to accomodate multiplayer, which I didn't play as the game runs like garbage and crashes all the time, and some of them because, well, it runs like garbage and crashes all the time. Other streamlining was probably due to the general pussification of games in the modern era.
The game is also incredibly easy. I was able to take the top possible ranking in the second scenario I played, and got it easily again in every other scenario I attempted afterwards. I suspect I would have made it in the first one too, except for the fact that I accidentally set up the game without any competitors, which cut me off from some major revenue streams.
All in all, I can't really recommend this to anybody who is looking for a serious strategy game, and certainly not for anyone who holds any reverence for the original Railroad Tycoon. Perhaps if you're new to the genre and want something in the "My First Tycoon Game" mold, you could get some enjoyment out of it.
Overall Score - 2/5
Bought in 2014: 6
- Broken Age
- Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall
- Inquisitor
- The Banner Saga
- Kingdom Rush
- Super Amazing Wagon Adventure
Finished in 2014: 11
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies: Turnabout Reclaimed - 9 hours - 4/5
- Shadowrun Returns - 11 hours - 4/5
- Dark Souls - 3/5
- Binding of Isaac - 3/5
- Kingdom Rush 3/5
- The Banner Saga 4/5
- Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 1/5
- Icewind Dale 3/5
- Icewind Dale : Heart of Winter 3/5
- Icewind Dale : Trial of the Luremaster 2/5
- Sid Meier's Railroads! 2/5
Backlog Blitz 2014 Score: +5
