Fans of the 'tycoon' style of games can point back to Railroad Tycoon as the original, and perhaps most hallowed, game of its genre.
Now, after a solid performance by a sequel , software developer Gathering looks to extend the life of this great franchise with Railroad Tycoon 3. But will this title live up to expectations, or will it be as disappointing to this author as was Sim City ?
First let's look at the nuts and bolts: RT3's graphics are absolutely fantastic. Whether scrolled out in world view or in nice and tight near the moving trains, detail is crisp and well executed. Especially well liked is the nature of the zooming view, where terrain details come into view as you scroll. Audio effects are also excellent, as is in game music and cut scene sounds. The complexity comes into effect in the gameplay. While controls are rather easy to manage and are set into a mouse driven interface, the true complexity of the game becomes more apparent as you play.
Building tracks, trains, and the infrastructure to maintain them are only a small aspect of this title. Learning logistics, issuing stocks and bonds, and even dabbling in other industries connected with the railroads are all important aspects of this game, and are very well realized in the available scenarios. Developer PopTop delivers gamers to the age of steam, steel, commodities, and capitalism in this sequel to its hit Railroad Tycoon II.
As did that game and also the classic original, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon , Railroad Tycoon 3 casts players as the captains of an up-and-coming railroad system, in competition with other, like-minded entrepreneurs to claim as much of the lucrative 19th and 20th century rail trade as they can.
Beginning with a modest amount of start-up capital, players found a company, purchase cars and locomotives, lay down track, and choose the kinds of cargo their fledgling rail systems will move and trade. Track-building tools include bridges, overpasses, and the return of tunnels from the original version of the game. Players can choose from over 35 different commodities, the value of each tied to a dynamic in-game economy. More than 40 locomotives, from the earliest steam-powered machines to the latest electricity-driven "bullet" trains, are available to haul these goods from town to town.
This third edition of Railroad Tycoon challenges would-be captains of industry to prove their capitalist savvy in 25 scenarios set in locations around the world.
A sandbox mode is also available, for those who would rather build their rail empires on their own terms. Online multiplayer support includes a matchmaking service. While Railroad Tycoon 3 is designed to retain and improve upon favorite gameplay features found in the earlier titles, it also makes some changes -- the biggest of which may be the switch to full 3D, thanks to a game engine PopTop developed itself for this project.
Players can now view any part their developing empires from nearly any angle, with a camera angle that spins, pans, and zooms smoothly on most contemporary computers. To ease recognition and make management easier, the trains, stations, towns, and other landscape features are not completely accurate in scale to their surroundings, but they now appear much more realistically across the game world countryside.
It achieves a kind of holy grail for strategy gaming: It's easy to learn, easy to start to play, and yet underneath the surface there's an incredibly deep economic simulation that takes hours to figure out and even longer to master It's a game that could be played on many levels, online or off, by casual train buffs or hardcore strategy addicts alike.
It's got some rough edges, and the economic model might frustrate micromanagers out there, but like a temperamental lover you tend to overlook the faults to immerse yourself in a boxcar-load of intense strategy gaming.
For longtime fans of the series it's been a long wait since Railroad Tycoon 2 -- about five years. Cosmetically, the new 3D engine will be the most obvious difference, but it's the underlying economic simulation that is by far the biggest change to the franchise. But first, the basics. Like any Tycoon game, Railroad Tycoon 3 is about making money. Lots of it.
And stopping other people from making money that, by all rights, should be yours. You'll start with a map of some region of land such as the Northeast U. You'll look at where the big cities are, take into account the lay of the land, and then you'll start connecting places with rail lines. Little trains will move along your railroads carrying cargo from one place to another, hopefully for a big profit if you planned it right.
Then you expand your network, routing rail traffic, perhaps even buying up other industries, until you've got more money than Rockefeller and you regularly put the president on hold. New to this incarnation of the theme is a 3D graphics engine that really brings the rail era to life. You can hover above in a satellite view, looking at the network of rail lines stretched from tiny city to tiny city, and then you can zoom smoothly and seamlessly right into the action, down to individual trains.
The 3D terrain works well. Instead of laying down track on some pre-determined grid, you stretch pieces of rail, bending them like noodles until they snap into place.
This results in nice, fluid tracks. You can also build underpasses, overpasses, bridges, tunnels, and rail junctions with click-and-drag ease. A big part of the gameplay in Railroad Tycoon 2 is that you have to make your way from one point to another. Build stations, buy new locomotives, etc. Use vehicles to transport valuable cargo or passengers.
When you get money, spend money on upgrades and upgrades. Profit from assignments varies on the level of difficulty, economic condition of the country, type of cargo, delivery time, demand for goods, distance and other parameters. Companies can interact and split income in half. Costs are the cost of fuel, maintenance of tracks, transport, etc. Fuel costs depend on various parameters: cargo weight, train type, distance traveled, and much more.
Maintaining old locomotives is worth the additional cost, and track maintenance costs are directly related to mileage..
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