Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SID!!! SID!!!! Did you ever play RRT2 or RRT3 or Locomotion????? In the media excitement leading up to the release of Railroads!, preview authors often commented on the possibilities stemming from Sid Meier and his reconnection with his old game, Railroad Tycoon. I, too, was ecited. I had spent many hours playing the original, Railroad Tycoon 2, Railroad Tycoon 3, and Locomotion. Locomotion wasn't the game I was expecting, and Poptop stopped developing the Railroad Tycoon genre after releasing the Coast-to-Coast expansion for RRT3. However, after playing Railroads for a few solid hours, I'm must say that Sid has disappointed me. Poptop released Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3. After they released RRT2, they made some awesome changes to RRT3. The economy was dynamic in that goods would move even without a railroad, if the demand was high enough for a good. That same dynamic isn't in Railroads; you get paid for moving goods (supply and demand does play a role, but only on a global scale). Poptop created a tool by which you could see the amount of the goods on the map and the price difference between different points. Again, nothing like it in Railroads. Poptop allowed players to upgrade all engines of one type into another type with two mouse clicks. Sid has no such tool, so the player must upgrade each engine one at a time. RRT3 (and RRT2) had an interface that meshed with the game (For example, setting routes was handled in one window and it was easy to stay on top of things); Railroads seems clunky and a throwback to the original. Finally, my biggest complaint is the rail system. In the original game, there were signals that allowed trains to move; the system was simple, and if you double tracked, trains did pretty well. The genre expanded with Transport Tycoon. In TT, there were some serious signal and track work (for examples of what I'm talking about, google Transport Tycoon). RRT2 and RRT3 simplified this and put in place a hierarchy; trains that stood higher in the hierarchy would pass over trains that didn't. Signals weren't used. It wasn't as sophisticated as TT (or Locomotion, TT's successor), but it made gameplay simple, and maps could accommodate massive amounts of trains without the tediousness of trackwork late in the game. With Railroads, the signals are back however, in TT, you could make smart signaling decisions (one way signals, non-reversing trains, and loops). In Railroads, the signals just indicate whether a train can proceed or not (and you can't place them, like you could in the original! They just appear at intersections and at stations). Even then, if a train has stopped at a signal long enough, it will just decide to move forward. The design of the rail network attempts to replicate the original Railroad Tycoon, but the genre has moved on. If a game is going to use signals, then give the player some control over them! If the game isn't going to use signals, use waypoints! Both RRT3 and Transport Tycoon advanced the genre using these tools; Railroads lacks both. There is more to this list, and I'll add to it as I think of them, but Firaxis and Sid Meier have really disappointed me with this game. It seems that they brushed up the original with new (I admit they are very cool) graphics and sound, but the gameplay hasn't really kept up with the time (Did anyone at Firaxis actually play RRT3 or Locomotion?). If you're thinking about buying the game, I advise you to first download and try the demo. Railroad Tycoon 4 this is not! Andrew