Spanning the years from 1804 through to the next millennium, you establish a transportation empire and outmanoeuvre fellow businessmen. Mind you, the original suffered from about 20 colours in blocky resolution - but hey, it had that magical gameplay thang. Hopefully, this will be fine-tuned for release. Some of the info boxes take up too much space and the animation can act up, with the trains jerking around akin to Ronaldo on a stressful evening. Indeed, it does look like a bizarre hybrid of SimCity 2000 and a Talonsoft game, which can be quite strange. Railroad Tycoon II boasts about its 3D Studio-rendered buildings and its spanking high resolution, starting at a minimum 1024x768. I would say that if you like games such as Sim City and Theme Park, you are in for a good time with this. The game may seem like it is not for everyone, but you do not have to have an interest in trains to get any fun out of this.
However, Railroad Tycoon 2 is a game that I have spent many hours with on both the PC and the PlayStation.
I am not exactly what you would call a trainspotter or a train enthusiast. The gameplay overall has a rather relaxing feel to it and it is the kind of game you can waste many hours with. Some of the scripted events are fun and range from train robberies to a rival starting to get a bit too big for their britches. From fuel to train and track maintenance, someone always wants your money. You have rivals and they would tend to make most of their money from the stock market, but their tracks would be trash! You need to spend money to make money. I know that some people love this kind of thing, but for me, it was the weakest part of the game and something that I felt was far too easily abused. You get paid for being able to have loads be hauled from one place to another, the amount of money you make will depend on the haul that is being transported.Īnother way that you can make money is by dabbling in the stock market. Making money is what is at the heart of Railroad Tycoon 2. You need to think about what you are doing and make it so all the main businesses and industries can be connected together thanks to your tracks as this is where you make money. I made the mistake of building over hills and rough terrain before I really knew what I was doing and my trains would derail all the time. There is a fair bit of strategy at play here when it comes to building your train tracks. The main things that you will be taking care of are building the tracks, the stations, and taking care of your trains. Most of what you will be doing in the game is building your railroad empire. There is no “story” however, the game does throw some scripted events your way that change things up and keep you on your toes. It is a massive scope of time that you play through in Railroad Tycoon 2 and this is something I have always thought was really cool. The game starts at the inception of the railroads and goes all the way to modern times and even into the future a bit as well.