Sid Meiers Railroad Preview

They say that an old man never forgets his roots no matter where life takes him. Sid Meier seems to have caught this bug pretty badly. A year after re-designing his 1987 classic, Pirates! and releasing it on PC and Xbox in a span of 8 months, Firaxis and 2K Games bring out yet another pioneer game of the “God”, Sid Meier’s Railroads!

As you can guess this game is a modern take on the all time classic Railroad Tycoon, developed by Sid Meier when he was with Microprose in 1990. The game saw players playing a role of railroad tycoon (what else!!) who had to lay tracks, buy locomotives and cars and try to make as much money as possible, both for the company and for themselves, in a given time frame. They also had to keep an eye on their rivals, plunging ruthlessly into the stock market and try to buy out the barons. Railroads! has all the original ideas with additions and a new 3d engine.

Gameplay is the same as it was in the original version. You start as the CEO of a startup railroad company having rivals such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Henry Flagler, and Rich Uncle Pennybags etc. To begin with, you will have to lay tracks connecting cities. The method of laying new tracks is same. You will just have to drag the track from where you want to start and the computer decides whether bridges over waters or tunnels through the mountains are necessary. You will have an option for the latter task though. You can either build tunnels or lay the tracks over the mountains. Stations spring up at appropriate positions as you drag on the tracks. The next task sees you purchasing an engine which fits into your budget and at the same time you decide what kind of cars you want your train to contain. According to the needs of the cities you can have either passenger cars or numerous cargo cars available in the game.

The game has around 30 different cars available, which have been grouped according to their presence in a particular period. Each scenario contains around 10-12 trains that were available during that particular time in history. There are reportedly some 10 different scenarios, which have been fitted into campaigns spanning from peaceful North America to a Europe in the jaws of World War I. The psyche of the region determines what type of goods will be produced there. For example, steel in America will be used to produce fancy cars while the same commodity will be used to produce munitions in Europe.

Maps in Railroads! are a lot smaller than its predecessors. The reason given out was that there was not much action between the long stretches of wilderness when tracks were laid between two far-away cities. Now maps have been limited to just a single country or in some cases between two cities. Some of the other additions in the game are thought provoking, literally. For instance you will have to keep a close eye on the stock market because some one of the winning condition in the game is buying out the opponent. Though you can’t go on buying your rivals stocks as soon as the game starts, but as the game progresses you can slowly build up your share in the company to more than 50% and then take over the company. But you will have to be careful, as your rivals too will have the same plan in their mind.

Another interesting addition is the introduction of technological innovations. Now if some new technology has been invented, all the players can bid for the right to have the patent for that innovation. This goes a long way in improving your efficiency and hence your profits.

Graphically, the game has been improved by a long way. You can now see tractors in the fields plowing the grounds, trees being felled and converted into limber at the mills and oil coming out of high towers while it is being poured into barrels at a refinery. Tracks have switches near them at regular intervals. One can even see passengers getting off when they pull into stations. The game has multiplayer support with up to 4 players playing at a time over either internet or LAN.

Over the years Railroad tycoon has built a solid base of loyal fans and with Sid Meier jumping on the train, the popularity and the publicity of the game will surely go up. Coupled with interesting additions and a 3D engine, the game already looks like following the tracks of its predecessors to success. The game is scheduled to be released by around October this year.

Vinay Mallabad