Locomotion, Chris Sawyer's

The amount of hours I put into playing this game's demo when I was 6 is immesurable. I don't know why, but I loved this game. And now, I can play it and actually understand it more than using it as a digital trainset. Chris Sawyer's Locomotion is Chris attempting to remake Transport Tycoon in the RCT1/2 engine, and it's almost good. Almost. If you like Transport Tycoon, try this. If it doesn't work for you, go download OpenTTD. Locomotion operates on the same basic framework of RCT with TT's skin attached. Slap down trains, stations, truck depots, roads and so on to maximize profits on everything from passengers and mail to food and oil. It seems simple, and it is for the most part. The big issue with Locomotion to me is the AI rivals. They're hilariously overkill. To steal from my review of this game on Steam, whatever problem you have with this game, the AI will take it and multiply the result by 10. You set up one railroad line and one train between a cow farm and a food processing plant, the AI will make a two line, heavily signal driven murder machine that ferrys hundreds of cows to the plant even after said plant goes under. It's HILARIOUS to watch the AI bankrupt themselves making these overly elaborate freight lines, and in my opinion don't even bother competiting with them. Find your niche, make your objective and watch the map get overfilled with useless railroad lines.

Much more detailed than the original 1983 game.

This is a great game, it has aged considerably well. I am disappointed that I am unable to play multiplayer at all with any other GOG member as the duplicate key message will always appear. If GOG fixes that, then Locomotion will become gem in my hands.

The game is by no means perfect, but the one and two star reviews seem to solely be based upon the fact that OpenTTD exists, which is unfair criticism that a game that came out years ago is not on par with a game that is still being updated (As of July 2014). It's still a fun game with a lot of strategy, depth, and complexity. Just because there are better options does not mean that the game is bad, Another World should be proof of that since there are better platformer options today but it is still considered good.

Bought this game in Elementary school at the book fair, so glad I can replay it now 10 years later!