Reviews

• 

  DJ117HALO

  Dec 24, 2021

  ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second live for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☑ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10
• 

  stenahr

  Jan 24, 2022

  Fun game still learning mechanicks but emjoyable for 66 year old
• 

  seh-eye

  Mar 9, 2022

  I'm 67 years old. So this game is to fast for me? - NO PROBLEM, can make the game slower. I´m not good playing with enemies! NO PROBLEM, you remove them! It takes a very long time to chance the locomotives, when a new one is developed. NO PROBLEM, you can do this in one move! So all of my "problems" disappeared, when I learned to know the game. It's ADDICTIVE, played 223 hours the last three weeks (please don't tell my wife!). Love it! My only problem is some cluttering of trains when many around crossings, and I can't see which train that is the problem. Best wishes Svend Erik Hansen, Broager, Denmark
• 

  Pops

  Jul 21, 2022

  I am weirdly obsessed with this game. I've been trying to put my finger on what it is that makes it so appealing. I didn't even know how much I liked trains until I started messing with this. A lot of comparisons have been drawn between this and Sid Meier's Railroads, and while I think SMR does have a cooler presentation, I don't think it's the better game. This game just feels like it has more meat on the bones. Track laying is easy, and I feel like I cracked some sort of code once I figured out the best way to use the signaling system. There are some odd bugs that pop up here and there (issues with a city's demand not calculating because I deleted a train or a station while it was full, for example), but they are uncommon and they haven't detracted from my enjoyment of the game. I also play this on my Nintendo Switch, and it plays surprisingly well on Switch considering all that is going on - far better than other simulation games like Civ 6 or Cities Skylines. Also I'm a child in a man's body and I just love riding along on the trains in this game and blowing the whistle. So there's that.
• 

  making a deposit at taco bell

  Jul 21, 2022

  I really enjoy playing this game but it is quite expensive for the amount of gameplay you recieve. Recommend but only if you are ready to play 20 hours of base game and all else will be unlocked with dlcs or playing free mode.
• 

  Gr8Sharpun

  Jul 22, 2022

  not as complicated as RRT2 and more focused on railroads than Transport. Fun to play and replay.
• 

  ----------

  Aug 2, 2022

  unfortunately, i realized after a while that, while it looks nice, it's not very, especially for a train game.

  random broken train logic

  deadlocks that require you to reset trains, which you can't do without deleting the entire rails they're on: i've had this experience several times, where a train will conflict, and any attempt at correcting the conflict (I.E, adding a parallel track) will not save the conflict, and will in fact just leave the trains stuck next to eachother for MONTHS, in-game time. this causes massive financial losses while trying to correct, and doesn't resolve.

  lack of degrees of control

  tries desperately to mimic a more grand strategy game, but it's more of an arcade game that's impossible to reach a point where you're making enough profit to expand in a stable manner, due to: -being unable to control unloading (so you have to make another line to stop at a station without unloading the cargo you wanted to bring to another town.) -the auto-rail laying making you spend as much as possible (so it takes at least 2 minutes to set up rails around say, a mountain, without going completely bankrupt) -the "employees" system that only randomly provides hirable employees, (maybe, EVERY FEW MONTHS) regardless of their affiliation with the underworld, making it impossible to even have stable hires because of the headhunters -the inability to control how many of 1 type of cargo can be loaded in cars at each station, requiring you to make multiple lines (thus adding MORE deadlocks)

  and then the true gripe with this game! the train selection!

  or rather, the fact that the game is absolutely stuck in the steam era, (aka, where trains were first just steam powered hand cars, and then almost all had that thomas look) forever. that's interesting, but it's not enough to keep me coming back to RP the same exact span of, oh, less than 100 years? you could argue that the designs/models are quite nice, but you can barely ever see those in-game. in fact, there's not even a front camera for the trains. incredible!

  conclusion

  maybe i was looking for something a little more simmy? i dunno. but a lot of stuff being left up to random chance put me off from even trying to enjoy this game after a while. good initial 2ish hours, bad 18, and okay 10 hours trying to put all of my 4 brain cells into the economic systems, which, worked, but ended up with random profits, once again. gonna try out a different game, i've been recommended Cities: Skylines, and it seems to be moddable, and have a micromanageable train system (when it's not even about trains.) which is great. nice try, gaming minds. i'm not going to be purchasing any DLC if this isn't even the INITIAL quality of the game. (apparently this game has been receiving updates! (which i find to be mildly offensive, if my trains are getting deadlocked in impossible ways!)

  Not recommended!

  Especially not for 9 dollars, let alone 20 dollars, let alone 30 dollars, let alone 60!

• 

  Saiga

  Aug 7, 2022

  Meh, a neat little clone of Sid Meier's Railroads, but it's very shallow. When you're working with 3-4 cities, it's easy and fun, but as you connect more, the lack of tools makes managing your trains a headache. You can't select multiple trains and modify each, you have to tediously go through each individial train menu, clicking 3-4 times per train. You can easily utilize hundreds of trains in a single game, but you won't want to because managing them takes so much effort for very little effect. Some tools for managing larger train networks is a must or this game is only good for a few hours at most. After that, you'll be stuck in menus, clicking for hours, if you care.
• 

  Glivko

  Aug 9, 2022

  Choo Choo
• 

  19D Rooster

  Aug 23, 2022

  A bit deceiving from the title and the gameplay trailer making it look like you have "total control" over the trains and what you get to do when in reality it's very linear, don't get me wrong the train modeling is cool and it is kind of fun but it gets repetitive really fast. There needs to be more trains than the ones that are on there because there's a lot more than the select few that are available. So would I recommend you to buy this game? No in all honesty I can't because the game feels like it's missing something, maybe someone in developing within Kalypso had a disagreement with someone because it feels like it lacks core mechanics.
• 

  WickedRaven13

  Oct 23, 2022

  You want to love a game all you want, but when the game itself gatekeeps players from enjoying, thats when im done. Usability is key with gaming these days, and this game explains nothing to casual players.
• 

  ShadowDragon8685

  Nov 14, 2022

  It's hard

  not

  to like this game... But I can't. The user experience is just

  bad

  . The UI doesn't have any good methods of handling the number of trains you'll have running in no time flat if you know what you're doing; there's no means of pagination or sorting by region or anything, resulting in you having to resort to alphabetization tricks and your own naming scheme to make any sense of it. Worse, however, is that the game

  does not have

  any ability to plonk down complicated-but-predictable sections of track that a player might

  reasonably

  and

  foreseeably

  wish to install, even when the specific section they want is already implemented as part of stations-with-switches. It's to the point I'm spending 200k on using maintenance depots JUST to get their track switches and route mainlines through them, but they have an

  enormous

  footprint, so this "solution" does not often work where you need it to. The game frankly seems out of scope with itself. The lack of automation and convenience features and all that would be tolerable if you were managing a much smaller section of track. I want to love this game so much, but... I don't. I keep trying it, but the problems keep cropping up. And let's not even get into the abject failure of central distribution unless you put in

  obnoxious

  levels of micromanagement. You'll wind up flooding your tracks with trains just trying to get basic goods into cities, let alone the advanced goods they require.

• 

  Lucky Dan

  Mar 12, 2023

  This is one of my comfort food strategy games that I come back to every other year or so. Just seeing it here in my list as I go through cleaning out is giving me the itch again.
• 

  Favedave

  May 14, 2023

  VERY confusing interface. Terrible tutorial. Worse than unhelpful, it was extremely annoying! It's like the designers have never played game before. I am super disappointed I didn't try it before the return window. Poorly designed very bad game. Avoid!
• 

  Gungy

  Jan 27, 2018

  I have played many Hours in the Beta. BETA PLAY TIME WAS NOT COUNTED. (50-70hrs) And this game changed very little since the last beta before release, if at all. Yes this is a wall of text, but it is also honest and hopefully well worth your time to read. The game is a good game in terms of time that can be wasted playing it. It has many endearing features that you might enjoy, but in the same respect some you may feel lack polish. Pro's Good track laying system Reasonably well polished UI Decent difficulty level build from one scenario to the next Many scenarios Many game modes Simple tracks laying for beginners Complex track system for the more capable Many pre scenario configurations to increase replayability Hopefully a Good workshop support ethic (expected first day) Lots of maps with some unique challenges Weather that affects trains :) Good challenging AI (when playing in simple track mode - Also a con) Con's Poor UI for mangement of trains Poor demand information, can easily be mis-read Signalling can be very confusing to begin with Trains go to a specific platform Trains will not choose empty platforms, you must micro manage Trains will use shortest route, even if it's blocked Waypoint system, not very well explained or easy to use. No cross junctions - building bridges over your own track? AI uses simple track even when you choose complex Stock exchange is very limited in options Buying stock appears to be a huge money sink unless you buyout the competition (no dividends) Must use dirty tricks to restrict the AI from expanding way too quickly mid game. The game feels and looks really nice at first impressions. The UI looks welcoming and the options for starting scenarios etc are really clean and nice. The team behind the game have taken some advice and requests onboard for the game during the beta, like adding the option to choose a pause function before you start playing. The difficulty against the AI can however be a bit of a mixed bag. If you try the game using the simple track system you will find it easy and relatively fun to compete against the AI. The AI is quite adept at using this track mode and ultimately gives you the most balanced game play available in this title. However If you choose to use the complex track system you will get the highest and frankly best sense of achievement once you have several trains all servicing a couple of cities and several resources. The signalling system once you have the hang of the nuances used within the game will be quite rewarding, although it doesn't jump straight out at you how to use it properly. The warehousing system which set this title apart from many others is a nice addition, although it does have the potential to increase your costs considerably. Especially as there is currently only one warehouse size available, which makes it not a viable option for areas with only 1 or 2 resources. A Typical Game on Complex track You spend a consideral sum of cash developing your stations, tracks which you will have several. Siding to allow your trains to pass eachother, with signalling that can be quite complex to get to work. Upgrades for workshops and water towers added to the track in strategic locations. You finally have 10 trains servicing 3 cities and 4 resources. It all running smoothly and you are making a good income. You decide to take a look at your company value and you are 3rd... you take a look at company in first place. The AI has 1 track servicing 5 cities and 7 resources, with 19 trains. these trains seem to plough on regardless and stack in stations till they empty and move on. They never seem to break down, they never stop for another train, they all use a single platform. BUT that's OK They had to spend more cash building their track, so it's fair. (sarcasm) Essentially the AI is set to cheat it's way through the game, unless you use under handed tactics you potentially will be bought out by them for no reason other than you cant compete with them after they get to a certain critical threshold of trains and stations. The only way to combat them is to gimp them using mechanics of the game. Placing 2 stations in every city instead of one large station. As any area you are able to build a station has a maximum allowance of 2 stations. Buy them out early on, and then play the rest of the game in peace, why bother starting the game with AI in the first place? Which brings us to the stock exchange, what is the point? buy the AI out straight away or dont bother, you can't protect your own interest in your own company. Investing capital in the opposition is like throwing money away, they don't pay dividends or interest, so until you complete the take over, its dead money. Once you do take the AI over, because they were using the simple track mode, their network is pretty much useless, and sometimes trying to follow what they had setup to make it complex compatible is so confusing, it's just easier to delete and start over. The the worst part of the scenarios etc, after you have completed a few, they will start to go stale very quick. Tricks you have learned whether under handed mechanic exploitation or pure skill will make the next scenario easy regardless of difficulty settings. What would of made this game more appealing? AI using complex track or AI with a mix of complex train movement on simple track. E.g. trains entering stations 1 at a time. Not been able to enter the section of track ahead, if it was occupied with a train traveling the same direction. A more fleshed out stock market with better options Multiplayer or Coop Choice of warehouse sizes. AI that has visually represented handicaps when the player is in complex track mode. currently we only have the word of the devs they pay more for tracks, but this can not possibly put them on a level playing field with the struggles of a player using complex. Overall Verdict. The AI is broken, It doesn't play the game it just plops down rail and cheats. The dev response to many posts about this was they felt it was ok as it was. And it would take too much time to code a better AI. Frankly I don't believe they know how to code better AI. Which for a SINGLE PLAYER game is pointless, the AI is one the most important features. Since these issues were raised the AI now seem to start with pre-built tracks and connections with several trains. So their disadvantage of more cash for tracks really has gone out the window. Do not buy on release, wait for some major additions/patches. Unless you are prepared to get bored of playing after 20-50 hrs. When to buy? When the game has had several changes made or multiplayer is added. In a sale of more than 50% off the RRP, preferably 75% or more in it's current state.
• 

  sandzoo

  Jan 28, 2018

  I am not a "hard core" gamer so don't know how valuable this will be. I played the beta for a few hours and have finished the formal part of the first campaign of this final version. I am enjoying the games and the challenge of getting goods to market. I haven't really figured out the warehouse issue so am not utilizing all the tools, even so its fun! For those who like "building/tycoon" type games it should be a blast. As I am in my late 70's I have lots of time to futz around with this stuff and am not too stressed about some of the issues that "real" gamer's seem to be concerned about. There has been some discussion about price but by the time I've played this for 300 or 400 hours the amortized cost is pretty low, besides my wife bought this for my birthday! I have really enjoyed the graphics and riding the trains. I'm not sure about all the info available but it would be nice to be able to have a side bar pull down that shows all my stations and their current conditions. Scrolling across the map to check on my towns is not real efficient and in the beta cost me a lot of time in the second campaign when I had competitors. I would recommend the game to peope like me. Hope this helps the tyro's out there.
• 

  Shonky

  Jan 28, 2018

  Enjoying the game so far, but it's hard to agree with how the AI cheats with rail, we have to have signals and they don't? If I turn on collisions and have to lay track to pass as needed, it's only fair that the AI has to do the same. Current game, with signals, my competitors have 2-3 times the quantity of trains running because they don't have to worry about collisions, this is absurd, fix this and I'll be able to recommend the game. Maybe I should just play with collisions off as well???
• 

  Noobsuks

  Jan 29, 2018

  To those who are thinking about buying. Wait until they fix some issues. I put a lot of hours into this game already. The main complaint I have is the AI. Most of the people who rate this game on positive probably play on easy mode or huge fanboy. You can not compete with the A.I unless you play dirty. Go for the weak one and liquidate. The A.I cheats, They can have 100+ train and not be affected by maintanence. They can load and unload quickly. They have an absurd amount of cash mid game, they will outbid you. I do like this game, but the A.I are making me not enjoy it as much.
• 

  snowdemon14

  Jan 30, 2018

  TL;DR SAVE YOUR MONEY or BUY ON SALE UPDATE: The Dev's have announced upcoming updates including available in ‘free mode’, we will introduce one huge North American map covering West to East coast, including a tech-tree covering all the tech innovations from almost 100 years of the steam revolution. A roadmap of further free updates, which will include new content, enhanced AI, bug fixes and other general improvements inspired directly by player feedback. I will have to wait and see before I can fully recommend this game. Fingers Crossed! (ORIGINAL REVIEW) I wanted to love this game and spend many hours losing track of time playing it. Who doesnt love trains! Sadly once I booted it up, I knew that would not be the case. First off, its 2018 and you can't even play the entire US map at once. It’s chopped up into sections to play. A 14 year old game (Railroad Tycoon 3) let's you play the entire US map coast to coast. The Dev's have responded that it’s this way due to technical reasons, I call BS. They also said modding the map would not be available. OK fine I can look past that and only play sections...then it gets worse! Once you pick a section of map to play it forces you to pick a starting time (no biggie) from 1830 to 1910. Of course I want to start in 1830 and play all the way through past 1910. WRONG! You get a small section of time to play. If you pick 1830 to start you only can research items from 1830 to 1850 and that’s it! No progressing any further. This is in both sandbox and free mode. Dont even get me started on the A.I. in this game. UNACCEPTABLE for a $50 game. In my over 10+ years on steam I have only refunded one other game (No Mans Sky), this sadly will be my second refund. PROS -Looks Good -Audio is great -Ride along is cool CONS -Full US map not playable -Time Era is cut into sections/scenarios -A.I is terrible -Auto Routing of trains is broken -A.I cheats - 100 trains on single track
• 

  zanni

  Jan 30, 2018

  So Railway Empire is.. interesting. There's a lot to love here, the music is great and communicates the setting well, the economy is diverse and has many different goods, and all in all, it's just fun to play! Gives a similar feeling to when I used to play Sid Meier's Railroads! as a kid, setting up lines, get cash rolling in, watchin trains go choo choo, all that great stuff! The complex routing as well is interesting and a fun challenge, requiring you to put some serious thought into your infrastructure and lines, increasing the depth to the game. Same with the inclusion of employees that offer company-wide or train-specific bonuses, the psuedo-adjacency system, and the opportunity to sabotage your competitors! The issues mostly arise from the AI and a few design decisions that end up limiting the experience, leaving things to not live up to their full potential. First of all, as Everyone has said, the AI only ever plays on simple routing mode, meaning they can have their trains move through each other with no issues, all on one track, regardless of what track routing difficulty you've picked for yourself. They pay higher maintenance and track laying costs to try and balance this, but it still ends up feeling disappointing when you spend time planning out intricate rail networks and connections, and you look over and Joe McShmoe has 5 trains unloading goods in a one track station at once. I'm personally hoping for a mod maker to come along eventually and figure out a way to get decent routing AI that plays on complex so I can compete with them on an equal playing field, but it remains to be seen if that'll happen. Another slight annoyance is the voice acting; while by no means BAD, it can be irritating to have your competitors gloat every single time one of your trains has a random breakdown, and have the only way to turn this off to be just muting it entirely. Even then, the game automatically fades out other sound when the game Would be playing voice audio, so the irritating distraction feeling is only mildly reduced. Still gotta deal with my fun wild west music turning down to a whisper so I can read Beatrix von Pomp berating me for daring to win an auction. I would also like to be able to set the time period free or sandbox sessions are playing through; instead of the current system of picking one period and having the two adjacent periods be included, I'd like to be able to set start and end dates for technology. Playing from 1830 to 1910 if I feel like it would be nice! There's a few other issues too.. there's a weird bug where every keyboard key takes a steam screenshot until you change the binding to a specific group of keys, and there's no way to take a stuck train off a track so other trains can move without deleting and selling the train engine itself. A search function for finding certain cities without having to scroll the map by hand would be nice as well. The last issue is the cost; for $57 CAD/$50 USD, you get 5 campaign missions, 11 scenarios, and a free mode and sandbox mode, set on 5 maps. The maps are very pretty and the terrain is definitely varied and fun to figure out optimal rail lines, but only 5 maps is still a bit limited. Seeing some variety in settings (for example, Canada, with its own transcontinental railway project in a similar time period), or the inclusion of a random map generator would go a long way to increasing the playtime you can get out of Railway Empire. For what you get, I feel like the price is a bit too much, considering how expensive gaming is getting as a hobby nowadays. I might think $40 USD, maybe $35, would be a bit easier to accept. Overall, there are a few issues with the game; some are initial release hiccups, and some are fundamental difficulties with the game design itself. But in the end, I still have fun playing Railway Empire, and it satisfies that craving for an updated Sid Meier's Railroads! really well. With some time for bugfixes, patches of new content, an eventual price reduction, and maybe even some good mods, I could see these game being excellent! I'd recommend this game to other people that liked Railroads! and anyone looking for a fun economy management/simulation game, but would warn that people who preferred games like Railroad Tycoon 1 or 2 might find that the size of the maps and depth of simulation lacking.