Railroad Tycoon III

The campaign and scenarios are very varied and fun, following the develpoment of railways from the 1830s in the UK and New England right up to three 'future' scenarios set in a world ravaged by global warming. But be warned, veterans of RRT2, many scenarios are very similar to ones in the last game.

One of the best things about this game is its ability to work on low-end engines. Unlike Sim City 4, which runs slow on all but the fastest engines, RRT3's beautiful graphics can be enjoyed by all.

Overall, a very good game. Make sure to download the FREE expansion pack from www.poptop.com , which contains new scenarios and trains.


Prettied Up and Dumbed Down   December 26, 2003
43 out of 58 found this review helpful

I have played RRT and RRT2 for years and was looking forward to this product, but I have been very disappointed. Control of what is going on has been eroded to a pointless level. Rather than play the game you now let the game play itself and watch the pretty pictures. All the work that has been put into new graphics, industries, track laying and locomotion is really a wasted superficiality. I found the whole thing a boring waste of time, though it may still appeal to people who aren't very bright. All in all, it's a step backward from RRT2.


A BIG disappointment   December 18, 2003
40 out of 46 found this review helpful

I ordered this with great expectations.

Having been a fan of Transport Tycoon, an old title which is not supported by my current PC and which I found endlessly challenging I thought that this sounded like an ideal replacement. Not so. There are some interesting improvements on the old Transport Tycoon which make the game very much (too much) simpler from a management point of view.

I quickly mastered all the play levels in scenarios and challenges. Most are OK, though one or two were decidedly boring. None lasted very long and many can be won simply by good industry management and the minimum of track laying.

I have to say that the graphics are good, but not excellent, there is far too much whiting out of trains and buildings. Buildings are an amorphous white most of the time which makes spotting and selection of industries to buy very tedious. Once track is laid and trains running smoothly there is little to do but watch the clock and keep an eye open for industries you own which may be becoming unprofitable.

My real quibble though is - Just what do you do with this once the set tasks have been completed? There is a map editor, but, once you have developed your own scenarios, which is very time consuming, playing them is pretty unchallenging. You already know what to expect! Whatever happened to the random map generator which gives a good and different game every time.

Then there are the crashes!!!!!! Oh boy, this game just can't cope with more than about 100 trains and industries. I say about, because you are never warned about too many items in the game, it just crashes out on you. Smaller, older slower trains seem to run OK but, as you upgrade the chance of a crash increases. One crash even deleted all my track, trains and industry so that when I loaded the auto save there was nothing there. Once a crash has occurred I find that returning via the auto save is usually a waste of time, it just crashes again.


Let Me Tell You The Ways I Love You...   November 18, 2003
38 out of 47 found this review helpful

I have never played RRTII. I still have my copy of RRTI which was a great game for its time but was slow to play because of the detail in which it the rail network had to be managed. The stock market simulation wasn't up to much either. And the graphics were 2D DOS.

I forgot all about it for years and then saw RRTIII was upcoming. Great! I thought. But then, it's been a while since I was really turned on by a new game so would this one disappoint too? I was keen to see so broke my own rule of never buying a brand new release.

And was I disappointed?

No!

Great graphics and a brilliantly designed map interface. Choose how closely you want to manage your trains - leave it on auto or make every cargo decision if you want. The best stock market sim anywhere outside of Capitalism II. And a totally brilliant map overview of resources that not only shows where they are produced and used but how each cargo in the world is moving. And cargoes do move. They moved before trains and they do here, mostly up and down rivers and coasts but also slowly across country - when it's flat enough. Watch as your factories and railways change the patterns of supply and demand.

There are 4 major Campaigns and stacks of Scenarios. And the map/scenario/campaign builder is the best I've seen anywhere. It begins with choosing your map from the real topography of the whole world and goes on from there. So when you've finished the (estimated) 60 hours of game play provided you can DIY to your heart's content.

Overall then? Well it's early days yet but this one looks like a real keeper - right up there with Civilization and SimCity.