Sid Meier's Railroads Review
I came across this game at a friend’s place and thought I should do a short review for TechEnclave. Sid Meier is a well known personality and a legend in computer gaming fraternity. He is the designer of many commercially successful strategy gaming titles and has won high praise for all his works. One of the most popular being the Civilization series which is a turn based strategy game and highly popular with computer gamers throughout the world. When it was announced that he’s working on this new title, it instantly generated a great amount of interest. Now that it’s out, let’s see if it lived up to the expectations. Sid Meier’s Railroads is a real time strategy game from Firaxis Games, a company founded by Sid Meier himself in 1996 after he left MicroProse. As the name suggests, Sid Meier’s Railroads is all about rails and trains and how you go about managing these stuff and eventually setup your own railroad empire. It’s just like any other business tycoon or business empire simulator but the fact that it’s created by the legend, Sid Meier makes it special.
[BREAK=Installation]
A game all of 700MB is hard to find these days but this one is an exception. At a time when game companies are rolling out games in 2 DVD Sets, Sid Meier’s Railroads which comes in a single CD is a bit of a surprise. Don’t let the size fool you though. Even for a game that’s 700MB worth, the graphics are quite brilliant and doesn’t look dated. The graphics are comparable to games like Civilization IV but still falls short of the standards set by games like Rise of Legends and Age of Empires 3. Though, the hardcore fans of Civilization IV might disagree with me. The game starts with a brilliantly done cut scene which beautifully sums up the whole game in just about 2 minutes. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a beautiful in-game movie. It’s an intro and it makes you want to play the game as soon as possible. The game automatically detects your computer configuration and sets up the graphics detail levels accordingly. Of course you can later change it to your liking whenever you want. Once you get the main menu, you can select different modes like Tutorial, Single Player and Multi Player etc. If you’re unfamiliar with strategy games, I strongly suggest you go through the tutorial once. Even if you’re a strategy game guru, you might want to check out the tutorials. You will surely pick up a few tricks along the way and to top that, it’s a lot of fun as well.
[BREAK= Game Modes]
I was unable to test the multi player part of the game and hence, I won’t be touching that aspect at all. I find the single player modes more exciting than the multi player. So, I’ll stick to the single player mode only in this review. Once you are in the single player mode, you are provided with a settings window where you can chose the type of game you want to play. There are various different scenarios available, each one having a different level of difficulty and clearly marked as beginners, intermediate or advanced. You’ll be given a set of tasks to complete and a time frame within which you’ll have to complete the tasks. You have the option to select the start year, end year, game play difficulty, routing difficulty and number of AI players, all of which play significant roles in deciding the outcome of the game. You can also randomize the landscapes and city names if you want. This way you’ll end up having a completely different map each time you load that same scenario. Once you’re done with the settings, it’s time to hit the okay button and let the game load. The game loaded pretty fast on my PC but the absence of a progress indicator was disappointing.
[BREAK= Game Play]
Once the map is loaded, the clock starts ticking and fast. You can adjust the game speed to make it faster or slower. You can also halt and resume the game if you want. As years go by, you begin to wonder if you’ll be able to complete the objectives on time. Here decision has to be taken in seconds and your hands should move that mouse continuously as you think. The game play as a whole is quite simple. All you have to do is lay tracks between two cities, a city and a farm or a city and a coal mine etc. and build terminals at each of them. Then buy an engine, finalize the train route and decide on the carriers depending on the demand and supply of goods for each of those cities. You earn money and lots of it for delivering the right goods to the right place. Technology will continue to be developed and you’ll be provided with newer and faster engines at certain intervals. Needless to say that the most advanced of engines will cost a bomb but they can make traveling more convenient and much faster than the outdated engines. You’ll have to upgrade those engines if you are to keep up with the competition. You also get to upgrade those railway terminals and a modern terminal means more money in less time. It’s all about balancing your funds, utilizing your resources well and building your own railroads empire before your rivals do it.
[BREAK= Added Elements]
There are various added elements to this basic game play. You have the chance to participate in auctions from time to time and bid for new technologies. If you win, you get an exclusive advantage. It might be 25% reduction in maintenance costs of trains or something else. A technology patent usually lasts for 10 game years. You can also bid for a goods industry or production house to gain complete control for that industry. Once you do that, you’ll have to take care of all its input and output sources in which way one can end up having a monopoly for that industry. There are obstacles one may face like delay in delivery of goods due to trains being stationary most of the time. You’ll have to manage those problems by laying alternative tracks or double tracks. The game automatically manages the signaling and routing of trains once the tracks are laid so that you can pay attention towards other aspects of the game. The game will auto save periodically but you can turn that off from game options. When you have too many trains and routes on the map, auto save feature slows down the game quite a lot.
[BREAK= Objective]
The game features impressive and detailed reporting of your financial status, the patents you own and when they’ll expire, trains that you own along with their maintenance costs. You can easily figure out the routes which bring you most profits and the trains that are responsible for most loses. You can see the share values of your company and of your rivals. It also shows you what percentage of share you own and what percentage of share is up for grabs. You can buy and sell shares of your own company and also buy the shares of rival companies anytime you like provided you have the money. Once a player buys out 100% shares of a rival company, the rival company is out of the game. Same happens if the rival company is able to buy out 100% of your shares. So, you need to keep an eye on that as well.
[BREAK= Conclusion & Rating]
The game is very interesting but the concept is not new. I remember playing a similar game 4-5 years ago. You don’t expect too much from such games and there’s not much scope for improvement either. The background score is superbly done and it won’t give you mild headaches. The game looks pretty polished barring a few performance issues. The game slows down quite a bit after 20-30 game years and with too many objects on screen when each change takes ages to come into effect. The zoom range is very limited and I couldn’t figure out a way to rotate the game map. It’s a fun game no doubt but don’t expect the fun to last for more than a week or so after which it will become monotonous and boring. If you’re looking for a time pass game and have money to spare, go get this. Otherwise, stay out of it and save your money for something better. There are much better games out in the market. I’d have given it a rating of 3 but it gets 0.5 less due to those terrible performance problems.
Rating: 2.5 / 5
Test Rig:
I came across this game at a friend’s place and thought I should do a short review for TechEnclave. Sid Meier is a well known personality and a legend in computer gaming fraternity. He is the designer of many commercially successful strategy gaming titles and has won high praise for all his works. One of the most popular being the Civilization series which is a turn based strategy game and highly popular with computer gamers throughout the world. When it was announced that he’s working on this new title, it instantly generated a great amount of interest. Now that it’s out, let’s see if it lived up to the expectations. Sid Meier’s Railroads is a real time strategy game from Firaxis Games, a company founded by Sid Meier himself in 1996 after he left MicroProse. As the name suggests, Sid Meier’s Railroads is all about rails and trains and how you go about managing these stuff and eventually setup your own railroad empire. It’s just like any other business tycoon or business empire simulator but the fact that it’s created by the legend, Sid Meier makes it special.
[BREAK=Installation]
A game all of 700MB is hard to find these days but this one is an exception. At a time when game companies are rolling out games in 2 DVD Sets, Sid Meier’s Railroads which comes in a single CD is a bit of a surprise. Don’t let the size fool you though. Even for a game that’s 700MB worth, the graphics are quite brilliant and doesn’t look dated. The graphics are comparable to games like Civilization IV but still falls short of the standards set by games like Rise of Legends and Age of Empires 3. Though, the hardcore fans of Civilization IV might disagree with me. The game starts with a brilliantly done cut scene which beautifully sums up the whole game in just about 2 minutes. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a beautiful in-game movie. It’s an intro and it makes you want to play the game as soon as possible. The game automatically detects your computer configuration and sets up the graphics detail levels accordingly. Of course you can later change it to your liking whenever you want. Once you get the main menu, you can select different modes like Tutorial, Single Player and Multi Player etc. If you’re unfamiliar with strategy games, I strongly suggest you go through the tutorial once. Even if you’re a strategy game guru, you might want to check out the tutorials. You will surely pick up a few tricks along the way and to top that, it’s a lot of fun as well.
[BREAK= Game Modes]
I was unable to test the multi player part of the game and hence, I won’t be touching that aspect at all. I find the single player modes more exciting than the multi player. So, I’ll stick to the single player mode only in this review. Once you are in the single player mode, you are provided with a settings window where you can chose the type of game you want to play. There are various different scenarios available, each one having a different level of difficulty and clearly marked as beginners, intermediate or advanced. You’ll be given a set of tasks to complete and a time frame within which you’ll have to complete the tasks. You have the option to select the start year, end year, game play difficulty, routing difficulty and number of AI players, all of which play significant roles in deciding the outcome of the game. You can also randomize the landscapes and city names if you want. This way you’ll end up having a completely different map each time you load that same scenario. Once you’re done with the settings, it’s time to hit the okay button and let the game load. The game loaded pretty fast on my PC but the absence of a progress indicator was disappointing.
[BREAK= Game Play]
Once the map is loaded, the clock starts ticking and fast. You can adjust the game speed to make it faster or slower. You can also halt and resume the game if you want. As years go by, you begin to wonder if you’ll be able to complete the objectives on time. Here decision has to be taken in seconds and your hands should move that mouse continuously as you think. The game play as a whole is quite simple. All you have to do is lay tracks between two cities, a city and a farm or a city and a coal mine etc. and build terminals at each of them. Then buy an engine, finalize the train route and decide on the carriers depending on the demand and supply of goods for each of those cities. You earn money and lots of it for delivering the right goods to the right place. Technology will continue to be developed and you’ll be provided with newer and faster engines at certain intervals. Needless to say that the most advanced of engines will cost a bomb but they can make traveling more convenient and much faster than the outdated engines. You’ll have to upgrade those engines if you are to keep up with the competition. You also get to upgrade those railway terminals and a modern terminal means more money in less time. It’s all about balancing your funds, utilizing your resources well and building your own railroads empire before your rivals do it.
[BREAK= Added Elements]
There are various added elements to this basic game play. You have the chance to participate in auctions from time to time and bid for new technologies. If you win, you get an exclusive advantage. It might be 25% reduction in maintenance costs of trains or something else. A technology patent usually lasts for 10 game years. You can also bid for a goods industry or production house to gain complete control for that industry. Once you do that, you’ll have to take care of all its input and output sources in which way one can end up having a monopoly for that industry. There are obstacles one may face like delay in delivery of goods due to trains being stationary most of the time. You’ll have to manage those problems by laying alternative tracks or double tracks. The game automatically manages the signaling and routing of trains once the tracks are laid so that you can pay attention towards other aspects of the game. The game will auto save periodically but you can turn that off from game options. When you have too many trains and routes on the map, auto save feature slows down the game quite a lot.
[BREAK= Objective]
The game features impressive and detailed reporting of your financial status, the patents you own and when they’ll expire, trains that you own along with their maintenance costs. You can easily figure out the routes which bring you most profits and the trains that are responsible for most loses. You can see the share values of your company and of your rivals. It also shows you what percentage of share you own and what percentage of share is up for grabs. You can buy and sell shares of your own company and also buy the shares of rival companies anytime you like provided you have the money. Once a player buys out 100% shares of a rival company, the rival company is out of the game. Same happens if the rival company is able to buy out 100% of your shares. So, you need to keep an eye on that as well.
[BREAK= Conclusion & Rating]
The game is very interesting but the concept is not new. I remember playing a similar game 4-5 years ago. You don’t expect too much from such games and there’s not much scope for improvement either. The background score is superbly done and it won’t give you mild headaches. The game looks pretty polished barring a few performance issues. The game slows down quite a bit after 20-30 game years and with too many objects on screen when each change takes ages to come into effect. The zoom range is very limited and I couldn’t figure out a way to rotate the game map. It’s a fun game no doubt but don’t expect the fun to last for more than a week or so after which it will become monotonous and boring. If you’re looking for a time pass game and have money to spare, go get this. Otherwise, stay out of it and save your money for something better. There are much better games out in the market. I’d have given it a rating of 3 but it gets 0.5 less due to those terrible performance problems.
Rating: 2.5 / 5
Test Rig:
- Intel P4 @ 2.8GHz (HT)
- 1GB DDR400 SDRAM
- nVidia 6600GT 8X AGP
He can take any subject and turn it into an kickass game 
