Railway Empire from Kalypso?

[DennisS]

Bought this the day the beta became available. Played just about every railroad game out there, from the original Railroad Tycoon, OTD, Railroads!, you name it.

Still not a huge fan of the cartoony nature, and I am certainly not a fan of the small'ish maps. Railroad Tycoon II was the ultimate game for me.

This game does not appear to have random resources. They are fixed. This is kind of a bummer..as eventually, I will "solve" each map. Having said that, the tasks you are give for the scenarios in the free play mode appear to be randomized, and this will provide some measure of replayability.

I am enjoying this. Starts slow, and I do mean slow, and ramps up over time, until your build rate becomes very high. Very much reminds me of RR2 in that regard.

I am personally not having any issues at all with the signals, or stupid trains that get stuck. Seems pretty easy to me. Also...research is a nice touch, with quite a few upgrades.

I think that this is a definite buy. I waited for the full version to play after I got the beta, when I realized that most of the feature set was locked. Now that it is completely unlocked, I strongly suspect that this game will start rapidly climbing the leaderboards of time played on my steam games. With 257 games, it's gonna take awhile!

[Geezer]

Track layout 101 from Adekyn:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShcR4XmL0Yg

[Geezer]

Some pretty big news from the devs:

Railway Empire - North American map and more
Greetings tycoons!

It's been a whole week since the hugely successful launch of Railway Empire, and while the game has received very positive reviews from the media and consumers alike, we want to further improve on this foundation with all the great feedback we have received so far, along with some things that we were already working on.

With that in mind, we are happy to announce that we are currently working on the following:
Available in 'free mode', we will introduce one huge North American map covering West to East coast, including a tech-tree covering all the tech innovations from almost 100 years of the steam revolution.
A roadmap of further free updates, which will include new content, enhanced AI, bug fixes and other general improvements inspired directly by player feedback.

Players will see these new updates begin to roll out over the next couple of months, and in the meantime we will continue to collect your feedback and reports, working to implement them wherever possible.
Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

[Gusington]

That's what I was hoping for.

[OJsDad]

Sounds like very good news

[Greybriar]

Now if they would have a true campaign from 1830 to 1930 (or something similar) where the research could flow continuously.

[bbmike]

Sounds like it will ready for purchase during the Steam Christmas Sale!  :bd:

[DennisS]

Sounds like it will ready for purchase during the Steam Christmas Sale!  :bd:

I started my first true mission, in the west, starting in 1830. It's taken about 12 hours, and I am about half done. So..call it 25 hours for about 5% of the free play game. Then there is the campaign, and then the scenarios.

For this game, content is not an issue. I have 42 trains running, with zero issues from a lag or technical perspective. If you have ANY interest in train games, this is the one to get. I know..I have ALL the train games out there, including A-Train, Mashinky, all the RR Tycoon games, OTD, you name it.

[fran]

RPS review for Railway Empire

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/13/wot-i-think-railway-empire/

[DennisS]

RPS review for Railway Empire

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/13/wot-i-think-railway-empire/

My own experience matches that of RPS. It IS a good game, as long as you use the pause function, and build just as fast as humanly possible.

I have found that the only way to be remotely competitive with the AI is to get two huge loans, and spend every last dollar in the fastest expansion possible. Even then, after several years, you are playing from behind, and with massive debt.

A little frustrating. They need to have a better balanced game.

[fran]

Thanks Dennis,

Not bought myself but the fact they are going to do a full North American map in the future is a plus

[DennisS]

Thanks Dennis,

Not bought myself but the fact they are going to do a full North American map in the future is a plus

If you look at their roadmap, they also state that randomly created maps will be a thing. Not sure if these will be geographically correct with the resources randomly created, or a true random map.

This will dramatically increase the replayability. Currently, all the maps and resources are the same. It will be just a matter of time until I can "solve" each map. Currently, the game is extraordinarily difficult to win, with the AI expanding exponentially.

[Geezer]

New update:  http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=503940

[Geezer]

Major update including the ability to play on a map of the whole US:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/503940/discussions/0/1698294337784133383/

[DennisS]

Major update including the ability to play on a map of the whole US:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/503940/discussions/0/1698294337784133383/

I think what I like the most about this game is the ability to place warehouses...with six goods in each, four incoming, and four outgoing lines. You can service several cities with one warehouse, and this reduces the complexity of the stations in your cities. You can dedicate two tracks for mail and passengers, and the other two for goods. Works quite well.