United States, 1830: ‘The New World’ is in its ascendancy. Industry is booming, and the race is on to establish the most dominant and powerful rail empire in all of North America. It’s time to outthink and outmaneuver your competitors as you lead your company into the 20th century!
In Railway Empi...
United States, 1830: ‘The New World’ is in its ascendancy. Industry is booming, and the race is on to establish the most dominant and powerful rail empire in all of North America. It’s time to outthink and outmaneuver your competitors as you lead your company into the 20th century!
In Railway Empire, you will create an elaborate and wide-ranging rail network, purchase over 40 different trains modelled in extraordinary detail, and buy or build railway stations, maintenance buildings, factories and tourist attractions to keep your travel network ahead of the competition. You’ll also need to hire and manage your workforce if you want to ensure an efficient train service, whilst also develop over 300 technologies ranging from mechanical improvements to the trains themselves to workplace infrastructures and advanced amenities as you progress through five eras of technological innovations.
However, you can’t just build and research your way to the top – the competition never sleeps, and to keep your business on track you’ll have to survive against up to three rival tycoons. To get to the top you may have to resort to more cutthroat tactics as you attack and sabotage your opponents through raids and industrial espionage.
Exploit the economic opportunities of the United States in an extensive campaign, working your way step by step from coast to coast across this great continent.
Lead your Railway Empire to success by establishing a comprehensive rail network and optimizing transportation of passengers and goods.
Master challenges and objectives through a range of scenarios, or create your perfect railway network in construction mode without any financial pressure.
Over 40 historically accurate locomotives and more than 30 different wagons can be acquired over the course of the game, and must be put to use in the best way in order to take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses.
Invest in over 300 new technologies across five different eras to progress and maximize the potential of your rail network.
Compete with up to three rival companies, and even sabotage their efforts with the use of bandits and spies.
1. At the beginning of the game I put the game on a pause, buy up many farmland at an initial low price, then build a network of railways and stations for 1,800,000 money, and then start the game. In this case, if a lot of auctions are started, the purchase price may be instead of 400 000 money, for example, only 5-10 :) This should be fixed.
2. In fluctuations in the shares of competitors, you can earn too large amounts, which allow you to buy 100 shares of competitors very quickly. It is necessary to reduce the amplitude of course fluctuations.
No key bind configuration. Which makes certain things impossible to do for me.
This is not a tycoon game. It has all the mechanics of a tycoon game, but you are also given a list of "tasks", like "build a line to this city", "earth this much money", etc. And if you fail any of them, it's game over.
If you have spent hundreds of hours playing Simutrans over the years like I have, this game will feel right at home for you. I feel Railway Empire was at least partially inspired by Simutrans and other games of the genre (like Transport Fever) since many of the transport mechanics are very similar to those games, especially in Free mode (free as in “free from a set goal,” if you want to play with unlimited cash, that’s “sandbox mode”).
In short, the mechanics of the game are: connect cities together to transport passengers, connect industries to cities to increase city sizes, and pick the right locomotive for each job.
The locomotives are beautifully modeled (the Shays are my favorites), but the box cars could use some more variations over the years. Unlike in Simutrans, you do not control the entire train layout. Instead you only pick the best locomotive for the line and the wagons get picked based on the demand. This also means trains can be mixed passenger and cargo. But you can also limit trains to cargo or passenger-mail only (the latter may become express trains that make more money).
Signal placement is fundamental in creating functional lines, especially trunk lines with lots of traffic. But they behave exactly like the simple signals in Simutrans, so if you’re familiar with that, you’re all set. Trains might breakdown in long lines so you may need maintenance stations along trunk lines, since trains only get maintenance at stations they stop at (no need to place the maintenance station in the train route though, just make sure it goes through it).
Free mode is like Simutrans but with goals that you must achieve to get max score (the game storyline always ends at some point, but you can keep playing.) The campaign is the same but follows historical events, which is neat. However tech timeline ends in 1930. I hope a DLC will add later technology.
The game is very polished and I’m positively surprised about that. It has quickly become a favorite.
This game is waiting for a review. Take the first shot!
{{ item.rating }}
{{ item.percentage }}%
Awaiting more reviews
An error occurred. Please try again later.
Other ratings
Awaiting more reviews
Add a review
Edit a review
Your rating:
Stars and all fields are required
Not sure what to say? Start with this:
What kept you playing?
What kind of gamer would enjoy this?
Was the game fair, tough, or just right?
What’s one feature that really stood out?
Did the game run well on your setup?
Inappropriate content. Your reviews contain bad language.
Inappropriate content. Links are not allowed.
Inappropriate content. Content contains gibberish.
Review title is too short.
Review title is too long.
Review description is too short.
Review description is too long.
Not sure what to write?
You cannot save your review due to the following reasons:
You need to select star rating
You need to enter review title
You need to enter the content of your review
Show:
5 on page
15 on page
30 on page
60 on page
Order by:
Most helpful
Most positive
Most critical
Most recent
Filters:
No reviews matching your criteria
Written in
English
Deutsch
polski
français
русский
中文(简体)
Others
Written by
Verified ownersOthers
Added
Last 30 daysLast 90 daysLast 6 monthsWheneverAfter releaseDuring Early Access
Your review should focus on your in-game experience only. Let the game stand entirely on its own merits.
Avoid noise
To discuss topics such as news, pricing, or community, use our forums. To request new games and website or GOG GALAXY features, use the community wishlist. To get technical support for your game contact our support team.
Critique responsibly
To keep our review sections clean and helpful, we will remove any reviews that break these guidelines or our terms of use.
Ok, got it
GOG Patrons who helped preserve this game
Error loading patrons. Please refresh the page and try again.
