Reviews for Take 2 Interactive Sid Meier's Railroads!

Sid Meier's Railroads!

Strengths: Fun and very satisfying game to play. Easy to pick up and play from the box.

Weakness: Game can be glitchy and buggy at times.

In this game, the player is tasked with becoming a railroad baron and creating a railroad empire while driving competitors out of business. The gameplay of railroad building is very detailed, with the player able to choose the types of materials to be used and the types of trains to be built. The graphical interface used in the game is very straightforward and there are no endless menus to navigate through even when doing things such as selling stock or upgrade facilities. The game can be glitchy at times with facilities refusing to build and other bugs.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Sid Meier's Railroads! (PC)

Strengths: graphics, certain aspects of track laying

Weakness: can't zoom out very far, doesn't work in Vista, simplified version of Railroad Tycoon, scenarios

I have played Railroad Tycoon Deluxe and Railroad Tycoon 2 and enjoyed those games very much - especially RT2.

When Sid Meier's Railroads! came out, I was excited to give it a try, but I waited until I could get it under $10.

The game is fun and looks great. The cities and landscape are 3D and colorful. When you build a railroad into a city, the railroad gets right of way and the buildings in the city will actually move to allow the railroad to be placed.

The track laying process has been streamlined so that the game will automatically level the land, or build tunnels or build bridges to keep a low grade. Bridges aren't just used over rivers, but will be used in valleys to keep the grade low. But other aspects of track laying take some getting used to. When you double track a railroad line a train on one side of the line won't automatically use both tracks like in the old game. You actually have to connect the double tracks together with a crossover single track. You can keep "double tracking" to make a triple track or quad track or more so that your trains will flow smoothly and your rails won't get as congested. But a terminal (highest level of station) will only "work" four rail lines coming into the city. It takes some getting used to using double tracks, branch lines, crosssover tracks, etc.

I have played the game on my Windows XP PC but it will not work on my Windows Vista PC without crashing even though I have the latest SMR patch.

One thing I find frustrating while playing is the inability to zoom out very far. I lot of time I want a much wider view of my railroad or the area around my railroads in order to plan routes efficiently... but the zoom out is very limited.

Also, the scenarios are less like scenarios and more like single player "skirmish" modes. They lack cohesiveness and a story.

I do like being able to use more than just double tracks and I like how a railroad can cross over another railroad using bridges. But there's fewer train engines available, no buildings that you can buy for the station to improve profits (you can only upgrade the station itself) and all the maps are fairly small.

That said, I still enjoy playing the game, especially as I get better will track laying and route planning.

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

All Aboard!

Strengths: Fun little game. Take control of, manage, and maintain railways and trains.

Weakness: Somewhat tedious after playing for a while.

Sid Meier's Railroads! is fun little game that are similar to those tycoon and Sim City games, except it focus mainly on railways and trains and some surroundings of the railways. The game allows the player to take control, manage, and maintain the railways and the trains to ensure they are in proper working order.

The game also shares one of the problem as the tycoon and Sim games, it is basically endless. Therefore, after some playing, the game gets tedious and lose its appeal.

Railroads!, like many simulation games, is virtually endless, the player's main goal is to do whatever possible to keep everything going smoothly. However, Railroads! is a good little game that is fun, even for a certain period of time, and while it is not a real business model and exact simulation, it can still teach player(s) some managing skills on how to manage and maintain while trying to keep it going.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Railroads

Strengths: Challenging

Weakness: None

Sid Meier will probably go down as one of the most prolific strategy program designers of all time, and for good reason. He delivers. Like many of his past efforts, like the Civilization series, Sid's attention to detail shows in this Railroad strategy game that is both engaging and challenging.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Get on this train

Strengths: Nice graphics with addictive gameplay

Weakness: Simple mechanics(But that could be an attraction for some)

This is a strategy game where you manage your train transactions, the railroads connecting cities & then later you can own resources in a city to maximize profits
Even with lower graphic settings, the game looks great. Sound is OK & the gameplay is simple but still has depth to it. You buy out the competition to win them. Once you play multiplayer it gets addictive in no time.
This game is one of the best pick up & play games & if you are a fan of train or sim games, you cannot afford to miss it

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Sid Meier's Railroads

Strengths: A good Sid Meier game.

Weakness: A bit dated.

A slight updating of Sid Meier's Railroads. I have not played the original, but this one is pretty good. I'm not a railroad nut, but it is still a good simulation game that pulls you in. It is kind of cool that you get to deal with some well-known railroad tycoons from history. If you are into trains, you'll absolutely love this. If you just like simulation games, you like this one a whole lot.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

For Sid Meier Fans

Strengths: 3d, Sid Meier,

Weakness: May not run smoothly on older systems, nothing really new

Having played the original as well as the Railway Tycoon 2 I was looking forward to new innovations from the original creator. However, I haven't seen much of it, compared to the innovations introduced for Civ 3 and 4.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Sid Meiers Railroads!

Testseek.com has collected 17 expert reviews for Sid Meiers Railroads! and the average expert rating is 72 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

Read Full Review

Sid Meier's Railroads!

Sid Meier’s Railroads is Railroad Tycoon Lite. The level of enjoyment will depend on whether micromanagement and tough economic challenges is your style, or whether you just want to build a booming rail empire and watch your trains chug along. This is the type of game that anyone can immediately jump into and begin playing, even if the player hasn’t played any previous Railroad Tycoon games...

Read Full Review