Sid Meier's Railroads Review

Apex

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.

Rahul · #1 (**permalink**) By Rahul on 9 Jan 07, 04:34 PM

nice review QF ..... i used to play Railroad tycoon 4-5 years back .... it was amazing game ..... willl try this one also ....

zhopudey · #2 (**permalink**) By zhopudey on 9 Jan 07, 05:04 PM

Sid Meier is god of strategy games

He can take any subject and turn it into an kickass game

He can even launch "Sid Meier's Breakfast Tycoon - Make the most nutritious breakfast", and it would be an awesome game

chic_magnet · #3 (**permalink**) By chic_magnet on 10 Jan 07, 12:32 AM

hehe nice review. just got the game... def gonna play it now

.. !

Switch · #4 (**permalink**) By Switch on 10 Jan 07, 12:47 AM

lol... How many of you did actually read the complete review.... He gave it a rating of 2.5 out of 5

Although nice review QF... And i am sure it was your machine slowing down the game

dipdude · #5 (**permalink**) By dipdude on 10 Jan 07, 11:42 AM

^ Both QF's high standards & low system specs coming in middle of a higher rating

Neatly written review, with detailed info on various elements of the game. Might give the game a shot

Thanks for the review.

Josh · #6 (**permalink**) By Josh on 10 Jan 07, 12:48 PM

Wow looks to be a good game. Will try it out.

Private Ryan · #7 (**permalink**) By Private Ryan on 10 Jan 07, 02:57 PM

Hey Quickfire, good review there..but since i've played the game myself and am a strategy freak, i'll give it a bit better rating of 3.5 out of five..i know its not perfect, the railroad tycoon 3 is much better, but the game is quiet addictive and needs proper strategy in the beginning to amass wealth to fuel further expansion and in the later stages to avoid being bought off..

The graphics are good as far as sid meier's other games like civ4 go..though not in the league of aoe3 for sure..but it pretty much turns out to be a good visual experience..
Only problem was tht this game is a big resource hog.. By the last few years, when u have an expansive rail empire with 20-30 trains chugging around, the game uses up all the ram available..happened to my older p4 3 ghz ht,p4p800 dlx, 1 gb ram system..i had a radeon 9600pro 256 mb agp card..
after finishing the game, the computer wud completely come to a stand still..it'll take considerable time to open windows and apps..so a reboot was necessary after every game session..

But i dont know why i kept going back to the game after all these limitations..

overall a good immersive game..but i'll prefer railroad tycoon 3 if they were ever compared...

Renegade · #8 (**permalink**) By Renegade on 11 Jan 07, 02:02 AM

Oh good review and a good game. In fact I just finished 'buying' it today. I am a huge RRT2 fan.
I guess ill again try the RRT3 on private's recommendation even though I hated it the first time, but that was long long back.

Alias · #9 (**permalink**) By Alias on 11 Jan 07, 09:22 AM

Good review! Short and sweet. Being a fan of the railroad tycoon series i checked the game out. Im sorry to say that im very disappointed! Too many bugs in the game + a lot of slowdown as the game goes forward!

Firaxis's merger with PopTop hasnt seem to do well for the Railroad tycoon series, imo

Apex · #10 (**permalink**) By Apex on 11 Jan 07, 11:10 AM

Thanx ppl..good to know u liked the review
this will encourage me to do more such reviews in future.

@switch and dip:
i agree my system has low specs compared to some of the current pcs but its still
way more than the system requirements for the game -

Quote:

Operating System: Windows® 2000/XP
Processor: Pentium 4® 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon® equivalent
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB Free
Video: DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with hardware pixel & vertex shaders
Sound: DirectX 7-compatible sound card or higher
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher

so, basically its not my fault..they need to update the system requirements for that game if thats the case. Those who've played the game like Private Ryan and Alias have also confirmed about the slowdown.

Alias · #11 (**permalink**) By Alias on 11 Jan 07, 01:43 PM

Yup, it aint the machine specs but memory leaks i guess as the game goes on.

I checked out the game forums discussing the game and there were multiple threads on this performance issue as well the bugs. Getting the latest 1.01 patch may fix a lot of problems though as suggested. Havent played much with the patch to check.

Private Ryan · #12 (**permalink**) By Private Ryan on 11 Jan 07, 06:20 PM

Railroad tycoon 3 is much more immersive and deeper game as the micromanagement required is definitely more than sid meier's rail roads..but it sometimes becomes a hassle if u are new to the game..u simply cannot relax by laying out tracks and putting trains on top of them to run between stations.. there are industries to be bought, auctions to be won for technology patents, trading stocks, keeping a check on your accounts round the clock, check on which route u are losing more money than making it..etc.,.

though sid meier's railroads too offers these micro management options, its not too elaborate..so it doesnt give you tht feeling of accomplishment as RRT3 does where u really have to think a lot..
Plus you'll be amazed by the level of graphic detail in railroad tycoon 3 which is chic even when it is 3 yrs older..its definitely better than Sid Meier's..and it is not as big a resource hog as Railroads 2006...considering it is a 2003 game..it'll work gr8 on today's dual core computers..

Only problem is finding it here...i havent had success finding it here in mumbai..the one i had, had a terrible death inside my friend's cd drive..

if u know where to get it in mumbai, pls let me know..btw, i had no luck at FORT, Mumbai.. maybe p2p's the way to go..

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Sid Meier's Railroads Review Discussion under Reviews and Previews, part of the Work in Progress category on TechEnclave; A game all of 700MB is hard to find these days but this one is an exception. At a time ...