i bought the game more than a month ago, but only started playing this past weekend because I was waiting for a patch to resolve some problems many people were complaining about.
now I've played it for several days winning ~10 games with various scenarios I'd like to share some of my opinions
the visuals of the game are gorgeous. the terrain looks rich and colorful and the trains look realistic. I also really appreciate the animations, everything from the resource specific annexes which load whatever resource onto freight trains to the way the trains chug down a track with smoke billowing out.
Track laying is also great visually- the way the tracks curve is very natural and looks realstic unlike the tracks that come out in RRT3. Even bridges and tunnels can curve which is really awesome to behold.
Given such great visuals and beautiful animations it surprises me I can't zoom into the map close enoughl, nor for that matter zoom out far enough. Also I can't believe there is no camera like RRT3 that follows a train like you are flying right along side it (instead of fixing on it from a sky view). Did they really not add such a camera or am I just not finding the hotkey to activate it?
While the resources and industries look and work great the economy is very simplistic. I can flood one city with endless shipments of cars and they never seem to lower in price unless there was some random news event triggered. Also even if an industry fills up its inventory to the max (like say a gold smelter has 10 units of gold and cant produce anymore) it will continue to buy up whatever ore you send to it
And yes like many people have complained the maps are very small. For me I don't mind the scope of the map in how many cities are in each scenario but I think the distance between the cities and reosurces should be much greater. The worst part about this is that it makes the latter trains complete overkill because you won't want to pay such high maintenance for modern trains that would do not better than a 1850s train since the distance is so short
I am still having a really hard time with routing trains using signals. They don't seem to work as expected because I have too many siutations where I have two trains staring at eachother even if I made a small switch-off right in front of one of them so it can bypass the other. I find it's best to avoid relying on signals entirely and just make a separate track for each train, the problem though is getting the train you want on the right track
Overall I do enjoy playing the game but I don't really think it's worth the original full retail price. It definitely makes a good buy from the bargain bin though.
now I've played it for several days winning ~10 games with various scenarios I'd like to share some of my opinions
the visuals of the game are gorgeous. the terrain looks rich and colorful and the trains look realistic. I also really appreciate the animations, everything from the resource specific annexes which load whatever resource onto freight trains to the way the trains chug down a track with smoke billowing out.
Track laying is also great visually- the way the tracks curve is very natural and looks realstic unlike the tracks that come out in RRT3. Even bridges and tunnels can curve which is really awesome to behold.
Given such great visuals and beautiful animations it surprises me I can't zoom into the map close enoughl, nor for that matter zoom out far enough. Also I can't believe there is no camera like RRT3 that follows a train like you are flying right along side it (instead of fixing on it from a sky view). Did they really not add such a camera or am I just not finding the hotkey to activate it?
While the resources and industries look and work great the economy is very simplistic. I can flood one city with endless shipments of cars and they never seem to lower in price unless there was some random news event triggered. Also even if an industry fills up its inventory to the max (like say a gold smelter has 10 units of gold and cant produce anymore) it will continue to buy up whatever ore you send to it
And yes like many people have complained the maps are very small. For me I don't mind the scope of the map in how many cities are in each scenario but I think the distance between the cities and reosurces should be much greater. The worst part about this is that it makes the latter trains complete overkill because you won't want to pay such high maintenance for modern trains that would do not better than a 1850s train since the distance is so short
I am still having a really hard time with routing trains using signals. They don't seem to work as expected because I have too many siutations where I have two trains staring at eachother even if I made a small switch-off right in front of one of them so it can bypass the other. I find it's best to avoid relying on signals entirely and just make a separate track for each train, the problem though is getting the train you want on the right track
Overall I do enjoy playing the game but I don't really think it's worth the original full retail price. It definitely makes a good buy from the bargain bin though.
