At it's core this game could be classified as a combat-puzzle game. The closest thing similar to it I can think of would be transistor. Except there the pause function is actually usefull to do combats, not just planning them. While the ideas are not bad, the execution is unfortunatley. I spend way more time fighting with the GUI and Input then the enemies, wich is always a bad thing for any game. Much less one dependant on precise inputs such as this. The "voice acting" is propably from a synthesizer/text to speech engine, at wich point they could just have left it out either way. Even original with subtitles would have been better then this locaslisation. For me the game played a lot better with only 1 dwarf. With 2-3 the challenges just become really just overcomplex and hard to manage. More of a chore then a fun challenge. I guess if you like something like chess where planning several moves ahead across a dozen pieces is fun this game would be for you. But for the average puzzle solving mind it is just too complex, too poorly executed. Do not let the early gameplay fool you into how this game plays. The late game is like the game with 2 dwarves. Squared.
They did thier best to provide something that is effectively a Total Conversion. They did thier best to add a singleplayer campaign. They added some really nice features like Seabattles and Troop techtrees ingame. They added tons of new Interface Options, quests and other comfort/quality of life features. In most regards this is a totally new game. What they utterly failed at is any form of information about the custom stuff: It would be really nice to know that there is perma-death in the campaign and how many troops you need for a campaign fight where there is permadeath. It would have been nice to know that training, riding and archery have been rendered nearly obsolete (kinda a important part of a game called MOUNT and blade). Or even just how the skill/leveling system works with the total rework. It would have been realy nice to have any form of overview over how the alternate rules affect such minor gameplay things as recruiting, getting higher tier units, morale based on loot sharing/travel, the personality types, religions, etc. It would have been tripply nice to know that the Character creation has about 10 times more influence on the play (due to much fewer atribute points). Or what any of those choices DO to your character. It is no fun to play a blind trial and error game that decides the enjoment of the rest of the game more then any decision inside said game. If they had told me any of this or at least told me that not a smidgen of my vanilla experience would apply, I might have been able to remotely enjoy the singleplayer campaign. Right now I am just pissed off at paying for this, but I give it some try later. Required reading/watching for the makers: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GuideDangIt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCPcn-Q5nKE (startin with Point 5 in particular) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6UuRTjkKs (the clarity of information part)
This is a pure Multiplayer expansion, without any singleplayer or sandbox elements. The move deep into the Firearms age changes the balance completely, removing shields/armors effectively and conflating infantery to a single musket/spear like unit. They did thier best to add some extra classes (like the cannon gunner), but since I do not play Multiplayer I can not really comment on how well that works out.
One of those classics that held incredibly well up to age. The norm against wich all other Railroad Simulations have to be measured. The only thing comparable on GoG right now would be Train Fever, and they are more cousins thrice removed then brothers: Railroad Tycoon features an actuall campaign with goals and a sandbox mode, rather then only sandbox. The campaign and scenarios are an interesting mix of handcrafted challenges with randomized building placement. The AI is barely there, but between the Stockmarket, National Access Rights, early/longterm profit and changing times it is hardly needed anyway. And if you just don't like a scenario, you can skip it effortlessly and come back later. Train Fever has a lot more detailed simulation of every aspect trains (down to train wagon performance), but I feel missing that in RT3 is not a bad thing. It makes the game a lot more accessible. Just declaring the wagons to be twice as heavy at same profit simply balances new locomotives against thier earlier counterparts. Where TF chooses a full fledged pathing for every good and person, RT3 simply uses a supply & demand system from station to station. With demand also "expanding" along a train network, to make certain goods will even use slow trains to get anywhere. You can easily leave the exact train consist to the Train, wich just picks up what will get the most bang at the next station. Or you can mircomanage the train to an incredible level of detail, wich some scenarios even require. It seems the balance is mostly geared towards Steam Locomotives, however. The moment Electric and Diesel Trains enter the equation it seems to get almost too easy at times. Not needing to hold for water is just that big of an advantage, not to mention the reliability and other advantages. The Graphics held up exceptionally well considering it's age. However in some situations and some angles with the draw distance it can actually overload a modern GPU.
I only palyed the demo (still running on Win 8.1), but that was about enough to show the flaws. The story and artstyle looks well made. Unfortunatley the whole idea of a "Adapt your army to the enemy army" falls flat in a RTS environment, same as it did in Earth 2160 years later. You don't have enough time to actually look at the enemy army and design+build a counter. So while there are theoretcally a lot of builds, there are only so many optimal ones. They could just have made a limited unit lineup with unlocks and the singleplayer would played a lot better. The unit designer only allows blending 2 creatures (the cover and ingame cutsecene crab/tiger/scropion thing is impossible). Also according to the time this was made it lacks proper filtering and ordering options on the designer (what to cross with what if you want X ability within techlevel Y). For the MP you do get to design the units beforehand so that is not really an issue. And you can just copy other peoples creations from Walkthroughs for the singleplayer. And at that part it is still a fun RTS with a unique setting and well made cutscenes/story for it's time. But don't expect to actually design creatures on the fly. That does not work in a RTS setting.
An interesting and very detailed simulation of transportation, that shows attention to detail by the developers. The lack of a handbook or even tooltips can result in quite a steep learning curve, with lot's of trial, error and wasted funds. It is hard to gauge if there is enough room for the track constructs you need and there is lot's of detail work needed to setup the tracks properly so that multiple trains can use them in quick sucession/concurrently. It is also hard to gauge if you busses can make a U-turn or have to drive a detour to turn around. But since it is aiming for a long playtime, that should not be much of an issue in the long run and for the overall experience. I cannot confirm reports of others that the game is "badly optimised". It runs fluidly on my I5 notebook with Windows 8.1, even at highest simulation speeds.
