Game:

Railway Empire (2018)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:13:36

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Developed by Gaming Minds Studio and published by Kalypso Media, Railway Empire was released in 2018 for Windows (I used Windows 10 for this Playthrough), Linux, Playstation 4, and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch port following in 2020. The official website also advertises a Steam OS version, although no Mac version.

Railway Empire is a railway strategy game much like the Railroad Tycoon series, and might be the choice for people who want to focus strictly on steam trains in the Golden Age, especially in America, or strictly on a traditional strategy game with a clear beginning and end (as opposed to a more open-ended game like Transport Fever).

These are, I think, the pros and cons to consider with this game:Pros:

-A beautiful collection of steam locomotives to choose from

-A high degree of historical accuracy (even if the physics model is nowhere close to realistic)

-Realistic requirements for locomotive maintenance facilities (in contrast to Transport Fever and Mashinky)

-Up to 3 AI opponents (in contrast to the Transport Fever series, which doesn't support any that I'm aware of)

-An economic model along the lines of Railroad Tycoon (as opposed to the less-realistic economic model of Mashinky, for example)

-The capability to buy industries your railway serves, in addition to contructing city improvements

-Easy availability and support through Steam (although this is true for all of the popular railway and transport strategy games right now)

Cons:

-Unrealistic train physics (even more so than Transport Fever)

-Heavy reliance on payware DLC's

-Awkward track construction, especially when building beyond 2-track mainlines

-Stations limited to 4 tracks

-Tunnels limited to 2 tracks

-Limited map choices, and no auto-generation (although you can create your own maps)

-A map scale that is too small in comparison to the trains and buildings, making it hard to construct realistic facilities

-Passenger and freight cars that are nowhere near as well-modelled as the locomotives

-Limited time to play each scenario (although these can be continued without a score)

Maybe the best summary of Railway Empire would be to say that Railway Empire's lack of depth is both its advantage and its disadvantage, and to be fair there are some things, like the economic model, which are actually more sophisticated than most other comparable games.

Here's the official website for Railway Empire, if you want to check it out:

https://www.kalypsomedia.com/eu/631/railway-empire/steam-version/pc

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