Sid Meier's Railroads!

Have you ever felt the burning desire to put on a engineer's hat and manage trains?

Neither have I.

But Sid Meier thinks you do. In fact, Sid Meier thinks you do SO bad, that he purposely dug the corpse of the game known as ?Railroad Tycoon 3? and give it a new version- ?Sid Meier's Railroads?. Being the creator of some massive hit games (Civilization, to name one), it is of no doubt that he would be picked to re-invent a series that has gotten a rather variable audience in an attempt to give it a new polish. But the question remains- is the game good?

Well, it's all up to you this time. Unlike my previous review of Civilization 4, I will not be running around trying to gloss over flagrant errors and show the game off as perfect. That only deserves to be done to games I spend a lot of time over- and Sid Meier's Railroads is not that game. In fact, Sid Meier's Railroads has to be one of the first strategy games in a while that I have picked up, installed, and then simultaneously uninstalled in the span of under two hours. Why? Well, let me explain.



First off, Sid Meier's Railroads has to be one of the most arcane games to hit the market recently. Built around the development of railroads from the early 1800s to the late 1900s, the game features prominent people in the Rail industry, and lets you take command of the enterprise in order to make money and fame. Long story short, you make railroads. While the game is not completely accurate (Sid Meier must have ?forgotten? the part where America basically built the whole place using Latino and Asian people instead of magically popping the rail out of the ground), the game nonetheless is essentially about management: build rail, make money using the rail, make more trains, make more rail, manage rail, profit.

Of course, this is naturally not as easy as it seems. A good 95% of Sid Meier's Railroads is all about logistics and managing where you're going when. A good example of this is seen even in the early stages of the game- figuring out how the hell to make a train go through (or around) a mountain, town, cliff, or sea without having to spend excess money to do so. By linking different towns scattered around your landscape, you enable trade between these areas, and thus profit from how they develop between each other.

Yes, this sounds like Civilization 4 minus the warfare, turn based work, diplomacy, intellectual stimulation, town building, civilization developing, and general fun. Long story short, Sid Meier's Railroads feels like the kind of bastard child to a really good son- the kind of redheaded step child that abuses small animals and plays with knives.

Sid Meier's Railroads never really presents anything special as it stands with graphical or sound quality, either. Graphically, the game is no doubt fun to look at- it is a little basic and bland, but it passes. The sound is quite the same in the fact that it is by no means bad, but it still does not stand out beyond being manageable during gameplay. Hurray for another ?Well, you didn't land the plane but you sure as hell didn't kill every passenger on board? reward.



I don't mean to bash Sid Meier. He is an inventive guy. But, after someone releases what is about as close to a magnum opus as they will ever get, releasing something that resembles a toilet with a smiley face printed on it is really going to look stupid. In fact, if you want to get down to it, Sid Meier's Railroads never had a chance in hell- no matter how hard he would try, it would no doubt look horrible compared to the game before it. It may be slightly unfair, but come on- you know it had to happen. Think about how Star Wars began to look really bad when George Lucas began to do the first three episodes. It's that kind of mentality.

When I sit down and look at Railroads, I cannot really bring myself to say I like it. I really can't bring myself to say I hate it, either. Railroads is not the kind of game I would recommend to augment your strategy game desires, primarily because it fails so horribly at doing that. If you want something Sid Meier makes that's actually good, go try his game ?Sid Meier's Pirates!? or ?Civilization 4?, not this. Definitely not this.

2.5 star(s) out of 5

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