Rails Across America review - gold star

[The Rusty Gamer]

The first review I've seen for Rails Across America has come out - and its a good one! Go to http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/...t01/rails.html

[General Ludd]

Looks like a very cheap rip-off of railroad tycoon.

[The Rusty Gamer]

Originally posted by Osweld
Looks like a very cheap rip-off of railroad tycoon.

It may look like Railroad Tycoon but the gameplay and strategy are completely different. In other words, a different game.

I'm seriously considering buying it myself, anyway. But who knows when it will arrive here (in New Zealand).

[jackshot]

I picked it up, and basically it is a copy of Railroad Tycoon. There are differences, you no longer micromanage consists and there is no stock market. You buy and build your tracks and buy up other "short line" independent companies, meanwhile you play "influence" cards against your competition kind of like Entrepreneur.

I hate RTS games, but I can deal with games where you can pause, look around, and give orders (like, for example, RRT). You can't in RAA, the game even goes while you are looking at the information screens and you can't even scroll the map when paused, making the game a real clickfest.

Ends up not so much a train/business game, but a battle of me vs. my mouse. Still. if you don't mind this sort of thing, it's an interesting game, just maybe a little on the light side.

[The Rusty Gamer]

What the game demo highlighted to me was the difference in cargo realism as regards to this vs others of similar ilk like RRT or Transport Tycoon where, if you pick up some cargo esp. passenger, they didn't seem to mind being dropped off anywhere. I mean, how dumb is that? Who do you know that takes a train to anywhere? Rails Across America is the first game I know that has passengers and cargo for specific destinations which is as it should be. In fact, I think I'll make that a suggestion on RRT3 forum.

[The Rusty Gamer]

The latest patch (which includes a map editor) can be found here.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by The Rusty Gamer
What the game demo highlighted to me was the difference in cargo realism as regards to this vs others of similar ilk like RRT or Transport Tycoon where, if you pick up some cargo esp. passenger, they didn't seem to mind being dropped off anywhere. I mean, how dumb is that?

Not necessarily. If I have a train run between Baltimore and New York City, passengers waiting for the train obviously want to get to one of these cities, or a town somewhere along the line.

Originally posted by The Rusty Gamer
Rails Across America is the first game I know that has passengers and cargo for specific destinations which is as it should be.

Maybe the first computer game, but definitely not the first game.