Train Fever

Bought this back on release, played it a bit on my old computer but it ran quite bad so gave up. Decided to give it a go after feeling the urge for some train management. Wow, this game aged badly. It's quite clunky, not really clear how things works and tbh I don't even mind that because I can figure things out but... Transport Fever 1 and 2 exists which I assume are very much superior versions of to this game. Maybe I'll give it another try in another 7 years (doubtful) but for now it's missing too many QoL things to even be worth it.

The whole simple and powerful construction tools in the trailer is a lie. To be able to build something you'll need unlimited money (because you can't undo nor have a grace period to delete and get money back), luck(because the game's logic for placing train lines makes no sense) and a great deal of patience(because it's frustrating...incredibly frustrating). The way the logic of the game checks if a construction is valid boggles the mind. I'll get issues with terrain alignments and collisions out of seemingly nowhere on what looks like flat land.. I'll get no space warnings for 2 trains tracks that are not even close to touching, like so: https://imgur.com/a/SfOTOai Should have tried Transport Fever instead. Should have bought that. But now, considering the "simple and powerful construction tools" in the trailer, I'm lacking trust in the developer.

The title says it all. They built a promising sandbox but never finished turning it into a game. There are no scenarios or challenges apart from "unlocking" the later years, which you can do by just letting the sandbox run for a few hours. UI design is very clunky and unintuitive. I should not have to open 5 dialogue boxes to accomplish something that similar games do with a toggle switch. The tutorials provide the bare minimum of instruction, and don't explain how to use signals on railroad tracks at all. Would recommend giving this game a pass in favor of more refined games in this genre.

This is basically Simutrans how it used to be before adding more and more features. Just a nice sandbox game with trains, trams, and cars--no airplanes, powerlines, or ships. And with a whole lot of beautiful graphics. It does include economical elements but doesn't focus on them. This game is not so much about making money, it is about beautiful trains and building tracks. The economic part feels more like an afterthought to provide an artificial limit--it even can be turned off if you just want to build the railway system of your dreams. The game would have profitted from a tutorial to introduce new players to the sometimes complicated mechanics. On the other hand, veterans of transport simulations in general and Simutrans in particular will have no difficulties, as everything works pretty much just as you would expect, including the menues. Note however that you need a powerful (desktop) machine: Every single citizen, every vehicle, every detail of this world is simulated individually. All of the (depending on map size) potentially thousands of inhabitants have an individual home, and job. They go to work, return back home, and just go about their daily business. This potential "overkill" is certain to make your CPU sweat and get your fans howling, so a laptop might not be the best platfrom to run this on, especially later in the game when the cities start to grow.

cause it needs it. I've played 5.5 hours and crashed three times. GOG might need to look into better compatibility settings with modern hardware for this game. Running Win11 64x AMD with Nvidia GPU. Otherwise, solid game. Not as grandiose as later titles, but it knows what it wants to be and it does it well, bar the crashes. Sometimes the UI gets unwieldy and it lacks many minor QOL features that would make it much more managable, both from a convenience POV and a data standpoint.