I was very surprised at how fast I became addicted to this game. It took a couple of hours to get used to the gameplay mecanics, but it's pretty straight forward after that. I noticed some comments that the play is unbalnaced, I haven't found that at all, so maybe those issues have been addressed. There are several aspects to this game, the trading side is the dominant one, the rpg side not so much, but it adds a nice touch. Basically it's all about making as much money as you can so that you can obtain the majority shareholding in you late faters railway company. To do that you trade goods, move passengers between cities, smuggle contraband, fight off bandits trying to rob your train, take out wanted criminals, deliver urgent mail, complete quests and make good on contracts with local cities. All all while trying to stay alive. To be successful you will need to upgrade your trains and carriages and round up a crew to help you fight the bandits/Indians. The combat system takes place between cities when your train is stopped and raided. It's like a mini-game. The tactical pause helps a lot and it's a bit of trial and error before you figure out ow to beat them off. There is no tutorial as such, you simply need to figure it out yourself, which I dont mind at all. On normal difficulty I didnt find the bandits too difficult to defeat. Occasionally I lost, but hey, thats wat saved games are for! Finally, dont t try to trade & move passengers at the same time. Its better to trade for a while, build respect with cities and factions. The game changed completely when I switched to the large cargo carriage and a fast engine aka John Bull. I left the passenger carriage in Philly and zipped around like crazy. It's a lot of fun and dont be shy about going around the long way if it satifies more quests and contracts. At times the game feels like the pressure is on to complete the main quests but in reality there's plenty of time to do most side quests with a bit of planning.
