Sagrannus Gaming: Sid Meier's Railroads!

Welcome to the inaugural installment of Sagrannus Gaming. The idea behind Sagrannus Gaming is to write up a small article on a game selected with neither rhyme nor reason from my respectable game library. These are not so much reviews, or recommendations, but short discussions on various elements of the game in question, and my thoughts on the game as a whole.
Sagrannus Gaming will make an appearance every months or so.
I am not receiving any financing from anyone involved in the game industry, and my opinions are independent.
So, let's kick this off.

Image sourced from wikipedia.org

Sid Meier's Railroads!

Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre: Business Simulation Game
Released: October, 2006

As many gamers know, if it comes with 'Sid Meier' on the box, odds are pretty good that it will be a simulation game of some description. Personally, I encountered Sid Meier's games fairly late in my gaming life, with the first of his games that I bought being Civilization V, despite being a strategy/simulation lover. However, since then I have come to love the themes and gameplay of the games coming out of Firaxis games.

After playing Civilization V to death, I hunted for something new. My love of all things mechanical led me to Train Fever. Into that, I sank many more hours of my life, but the lack of any competitive elements, along with a number of other quibbles, resulted in me being left wanting. Then, dear old Steam recommended Sid Meier's Railroads! and, it being cheap, I snapped it up. 

Immediately the art-style caught my attention, and the simple and intuitive gameplay sucked me in. But enough praise, let us get into the nitty-gritty.

Gameplay

As I said above, the gameplay is quite intuitive. The game introduces concepts in a logical manner, and everything proceeds in a way that makes sense (at least to me), allowing the player to grasp the concepts quite quickly - as you progress through the game however, the difficulty ramps up...to a point...and the player is forced to build on the basics. 

Being real-time (though with a pause function), the player does need to be on the ball. Whenever in menus however, the game does pause, which is a godsend at times.

The player is given (at random) a starting station within the chosen map, and from there can choose to build up their rail empire however they so choose. They may connect to resources and link these raw materials with their related industries, selling the materials upon delivery - the next step is to link these manufactured goods to cities that will purchase them. Or, the play can transport passengers and mail between cities. Or any combination of the above - there is no one 'right way.' Here, with this in depth system, Railroads! trumps Train Fever.
Railroads! also offers competitive elements. While the player can go solo on a map, they can choose to have up to 3 rival railroad owners (who, as is Sid Meier's wont, are based on various famous historical figures, depending on the map you choose). The player competes in several ways - all resources are limited (e.g. a mine can only provide so much ore at any one time) so there is competition for resources/goods/passengers. Railroads can be used offensively to deny areas of the map to others. Various patents come up as the game progresses, offering technologies that may reduce costs, increase profits, or offer operational advantages to trains (better cornering, greater pulling power). Players bid on these patents, and they really can be game changes. The final competitive element is one I personally haven't seen elsewhere - stocks. Players can buy and sell stocks in their company and in the others - the end goal being to buy out their opponents to either merge companies, or liquidate their opponents' assets. This is a great gameplay element that adds that little bit of extra difficulty.

Objective complete! Image taken in-game by author.

All the developer made maps include a series of objectives that anyone can complete. Completion of these objectives are displayed as newspaper articles that help immersion. Random news events are reported in a similar fashion. There is generally some comedic element to these newspaper articles, which often brings a smile.
As time progresses in the game, new trains become available, and the player can upgrade their trains - once again asking them to balance efficiency and costs.

The AI ranges from pathetically simple to dangerously aggressive and I find it enjoyably challenging at the higher levels.

The simplicity of the overall gameplay means once you are good, you are nigh unbeatable.

Graphics

Despite being 9 years old now, it is a good looking game. Using a 3D cartoon aesthetic that was clearly well developed and implemented, the game has an appealing art-style (in my opinion), that is bright and charming. It can get a bit muddled late in the game as the chunkiness of the art means copious railroads begin to obstruct the view. Thanks to this neat art-style, the game doesn't look particular dated.

Charming and not too dated. Image taken in-game by author.

Those familiar with Sid Meier/Firaxis games will find the disproportionate art-style very familiar. Cities grow into massive sprawls, and the trains and railroads are larger-than-life against the backdrop.
An element I find really great is the animations of resources, and their interaction with trains. You can watch trees being felled and being drawn into the sawmill, or animals grazing in their fields. All raw materials have animations showing them being loaded onto the trains (see screenshot), which adds to the charm.
Best of all, because of the age, it isn't going to be a burden on your rig, whether it is a study laptop, gaming beast, or something in between.
Soundtrack
There isn't a whole lot to say about the soundtrack. It suits the game, and does not intrude, but isn't outstanding. It never becomes annoying, which is always good.

(Re)Playability

As with most Firaxis games, there is a lot of replayability. The open-ended nature of the game, and the variety of approaches available makes it worth many replays. The developer has provided a good number of maps with scenarios, and some custom maps. There is also a relatively active modding community that provides new maps (and I believe, trains) which extends the playable life of the game as well. Add the range of difficulties and the charming aesthetic. into the mix and you get a game that offers a long playing life. I play 5-10 hours every few weeks, and enjoy myself every time.

Overall, I think Sid Meier's Railroads! is a highly enjoyable game, and one of those rare few that despite its age, still doesn't feel dated or in need of a sequel. Hardcore sim/strategy players may find it a bit over-simplistic, but for a more casual simulation experience, this one fits the bill. If you are craving something to fill the business/railroad simulation shaped hole in you life, this might just be what you need.

Sagrannus Rating – 8.0/10 (Good Game)

I hope you have enjoyed the first installment of Sagrannus Gaming - as always comments and shares are welcomed. Next week, The Narrative Within will be back with the next Creation Myth installment.

Thanks for reading!

Sagrannus (aka N N B Clarke)