Railroad Tycoon 3

"Never thought laying tracks could be so fun!"

RailRoad Tycoon 3 by PopTop/Gathering is really a special game. How comes a game with little on screen action, no violence and trains as a main subject gets attention in 2003? Read on to find out!

Gameplay: 10/10

The object of the game is quite simple to understand. You are the CEO/Chairman of a Railroad company and you have to successfully run your business by laying tracks, connecting distant cities, hauling cargo and keeping the finances on the positive side.

You can play 3 types of games: campaign, custom maps or the always favorite sandbox mode. The campaign mode is quite good, 16 missions thematically classed (USA, Europe, World, Misc.). For every mission you can succeed in 3 ways: bronze, silver and gold. The bronze challenge is always the easiest, like having to connect two distant cities within a given time. The silver challenge adds a thing or two, like hauling specific cargos. For the gold, challenge it is always the toughest challenge; the time allowed is shorter, the net worth of your company is often a factor here.

What is great about this game is that you can leave some micromanagement to be handled by the computer, like auto-manage the cargos between cities. You build the tracks, you buy the trains and set-up routes, but if you wish, the computer will automatically take care of what cargo will be shipped and where, so it leaves you more time to manage other aspects of the game. As you become more experienced with the game you can set this thing to manual and handle it yourself. You can also buy industries, place them in cities and manage more thing in this way. Everything is possible in this game, adding up to the replay value.

The gameplay is really user-friendly in this one, easy to pick up and gentle learning curve, but it is hard to master.

Graphics: 9/10

The biggest improvement upon 1998 RRT2 is the graphics. They are now in full 3D, adding a realistic and interesting feel to the game. You can zoom from far in the space and up close to the details like the numbers on a locomotive!! The weather effects are a nice addition and the whole feeling is like a ''living'' map, where all the cities are appearing in the distance, easily viewable just by panning and scanning with the camera, very simple to learn and do. In about 30 minutes, you'll master the zooming and camera angles, helped by a great tutorial. The game engine is quite impressive, being able to handle extremely large areas without chugging or slowing down. For a tycoon/managing game, these graphics are the best I've ever seen.

Music/sounds: 10/10

PopTop are famous for their great scores (remember Tropico suave music...) and RRT3 is no exception. You get a great blend of american folk, country and harmonica tunes to add to your experience. The songs are quite good, surely a contender for best music of 2003 in video games. What is surprising is that folk and country is not my favorite stuff, but strangely it just fits in this game, bringing memories of movies like ''The good the bad and the ugly'' or ''Once upon a time in the west''. Just good tunes here!! Also, the sounds are amazing, the trains, cities when you zoom close and industries (logging camps make a buzzing saw noise!!) all sound very alive! Kudos to PopTop for including so much details here.

Tilt/Replay value: 10/10

The game has tremendous replay value, at least 60-80 hours with the main campaign (I'm 25-30% done and played at least 20-25 hours). When the main campaign is completed, you can try to acheive gold on all the scenarios, or try custom maps (which will soon be plenty of, thanks to the great editor packed with the game). You can also try out your skills on the internet via the ingame multiplayer game lobby, a feature I haven't tried yet but it sure looks interesting!

Also, the sandbox mode is virtually a miniature trains fanatic dream come true. Build and run trains on any map you like and in any era (1830 to 2015, from steam, diesel and electric trains) without the financial aspect of it. When you are done, you can follow your trains using the ''locked'' camera view. It looks really good up close when the countryside flies by!

1998 RRT2 was a great success by management enthusiasts and train aficionados worldwide. This game picks up and brings the whole experience to another level with the great 3D graphics, the friendly interfaces and the sleek looking trains and cities. If you liked RRT2, you shold give this one a spin, one of the best games I played this year, great un-hyped game that will knock you off your chair!!

Seb

PS Forgive my english, I'm french!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/03