"From the first sprouts of life underwater, to the steel beasts of the steam age, to the cobwebs of railroads, you've experienced a lot. Now, start your greatest exploration..."Sorry to go on stage, today I want to introduce "Railway Empire 2".
introduction
When it comes to the romance of men, it could be a mecha, it could be a motorcycle, it could even be a drill. They are composed of steel and metal, with a high-tech construction curve and a thick and solid metal texture, which always exudes a magical charm. So I think there must be people who like to watch trains, right?
Not this, misplaced diagram _(:з)∠)_ is the following one.
"Railway Empire 2" is a business simulation game, players will go back to the first days of steam trains in 1830, run a railway company, lay a railway network on the map of continental Europe and the United States, use steam locomotives to transport batches of goods, passengers, letters, earn wealth and reputation, promote the economic and demographic development of the regions along the route, and create a prosperous era with your locomotive! I haven't played the previous game, so this review is only for the performance of the second generation.
Game features
The railway stretches to the European and American continents, rich in details and vivid in the environment
Zoomed out, the map is really big, so big that I think it will take dozens of hours just to connect the railways to the major cities on the entire map, not counting the balance between railway optimization and regional development. If you are a fan of this kind of slow-paced management game, the volume of the game is satisfactory to you.
Zooming in, whether it is cities, towns, natural environments, or train tracks, there are rich details. In the game, you can also enter the locomotive perspective, get on a train in your spare time, slowly look at the scenery along the way, pass through towns and cities, and run towards another train...
Carefully planned railway routes, efficiency and economy go hand in hand
One of the core gameplay of the entire game is laying railroads and planning routes. And this work is simple and simple, and complex and complicated. Players need to consider but are not limited to: how much money is spent (in the basic direction), where it is connected, whether the (advanced) line will be jammed, how the route ramps, the transfer station of freight and passengers, the utilization rate of the (advanced) track, the rescue plan for train failure, the feasibility of adding rails in the later stage...
In this game, laying the railroad itself is not expensive, the real expensive is for bridges and tunnels that cross the mountains and seas. If you spend a lot of money to lay a key route, you have to squeeze (×) it hard. This requires the player to either slowly correct the track route, avoid rivers and mountains, and walk as far as possible to avoid digging tunnels and bridges, or directly use the banknote ability and use resources to the fullest.
Not only that, but players also need to consider the slope and maximum speed of the route, otherwise a fully loaded train may travel at a stump when walking this route, causing a bunch of cars behind to be blocked. It can be said that how to carry out the laying of the railway efficiently and economically is a challenging and interesting thing worth exploring and exploring.
Does the era make the railway, or does the railway make the era?
We usually say this about the emergence of steam trains: "The invention and use of steam trains is one of the important milestones in the history of human transportation. It has brought great convenience to human production and life, and greatly promoted the development and progress of human society.
Another main way to play the game is to develop cities through railroads. If you think that the game is only about making money by starting a railway company, then the pattern is small, and the railway actually played a huge role in that era.
Every city has its own needs, such as firewood, rice, oil and salt, and various durable goods. But it is almost impossible for a city to produce such a wide variety of supplies on its own, and they must resupply them from nearby or even further afield. When the demand for the variety of materials is basically satisfied, the urban population will grow, and more demand and greater passenger and freight traffic will be promoted.
And the player's railway is the bridge of urban development. When the player connects to a new city, they can choose to consciously transport supplies from far away to develop the city. If it's just basic needs, then the surrounding rail routes are certainly not complicated. However, a truly developed city must have prosperous transportation lines. The limited platform of the station, the intricate railway network, and the variety of needs that are difficult to meet challenge the player's planning ability step by step. If players don't plan the city's future prosperity from the beginning, there will inevitably be painful overhauls and overhauls in the later expansion. Even so, the sense of achievement of creating a prosperous big city can still allow players to go to the soup and do everything they can, which is probably the sense of mission~
Six characters, five journeys and fourteen scenes
In the game, players control six characters from different backgrounds, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to the free mode, the game offers five journeys (I only completed the first one, which took more than 5 hours) and 14 scenarios (which are challenging modes with different objectives to complete), and the playability is relatively high.
At the same time, the game has many icing on the cake, such as trading stocks and selling bonds, competing with opponents and even sabotage, buying factories and rural industries, and customizing train colors (yes, rainbow train).
summary
"Railway Empire 2" as a simulation management game, from the appearance of detailed graphics and huge maps, from the inside there is planning routes such as the need to study and a lot of energy to invest in the killing time gameplay, from the power point of view there is the motivation to promote the city construction such achievements, from the content of the journey and scene gameplay is full. I believe that whether you are a train fan or a fan of business simulation games, you will like and be fascinated by this game after actually getting your hands on it.
(Reported by: Fan is three years old; Proofreading, editing: game salty talk)