Railway Empire (PS4)

The hours I spent on railroad tycoon 3 when I was younger. I’ve always loved building/management games, from Sim City/Railroad Tycoon, through Transport Tycoon/Theme Hospital/Rollercoaster Tycoon and now up to Cities Skylines/Tropico 5 and this. If you like any of those games or the countless other similar games, this is a game you’ll enjoy.While it’s not the most complex game you’ll ever play, it engrosses you and you’ll lose countless hours maximising the efficiency of your lines.There is a story mode to play through, preset scenarios, free mode (where you play the scenarios but can adjust various difficulties) and a sandbox mode where money is no object.Whatever mode you select, the game will give you a set of tasks to complete within a set time period, in story and scenario these are all preset tasks but in free mode these will be different each time you load a map up. From then on it’s about building track to connect cities and businesses, buying trains and managing them, delivering goods to cities to meet their demands to help them grow in population and in turn open up new business opportunities and buying the businesses to help make you even richer.Graphics aren’t the best but the world still looks good, especially when you’re riding on board a train along a route you’ve just carved in the picturesque landscape.

This is so close to being really good, but working out what to do, at times, is difficult.There are loads of little bugbears. You want to set up efficient freight transportation routes to maximise income, but working out what each town wants to buy and sell requires you to navigate through too many confusing menus. Trains get stuck too easily because of signalling problems and the only solution is to delete the train. Trains always leave a station on the platform they arrived on so if you want to change direction at a terminus a train that arrived Westbound can't slide over to the Eastbound departures platform, ie there is no simulation of local turntables or station routing options. And so on. It all gets just a bit fiddly to remain fun.

I was slightly hesitant in buying this for the PS4, wondering how the controls would translate to the PS4 controller, but I've found that it works well. It's not amazing, but you get used to it after a few days of playing.The story mode is quickly completed, but the Scenarios are a challenging mode and offers a lot of repeat play to ensure you complete them achieving all the tasks.There's a definite lack in tutorialge, but if you spend 30 minutes online reading about the best way to play the game you'll get so much more out of it. Many an early hour has been lost to playing this devilishly addictive sim. Worth it for £20, would be more put off if it was £25+

Addictive, fun. Lots of dlc available. Lots to see and do, with lots of in depth play. One bad point, some poor tutorial explanations.

Love city strategy games and this is a variation on that theme and it's based on railways rather than roads. Simple layout with easy to navigate menus and the tips and tricks and onscreen help videos are a great idea. Once you've learnt the basics like buildings,track construction,placing signals and traffic flow thge game is as hard or easy as you want it to be. Graphics are very good and controls on the xbox controller are very responsive,overall a very good game if this is your thing. Love to see a UK based version of this game really.

Appalling game. Wish I'd never bought it! Crowded screen, infuriating controls, minimal tutorial and extremely limited 'missions'/maps. Not a patch on Railroad Tycoon.

Link cities, farms, resources etc...lots to it do so check out gameplay on YouTube first. If you like Sid Meier's railroads or the tycoon games you will enjoy this. Despite another review the controller set up is fine...difficult maybe if you're a toddler, cack handed or a bit dumb. Personally this is a game I can always go back to and enjoy...like surviving mars!

If you're thinking that because it's from the same studio that did Tropico that it'll be like Tropico but with trains, you'll be disappointed like me.The intro tutorial is a little bit overwhelming, far too much packed into a short time, and the controls were not explained too well...to the point where I was sat with the controller in my hand with the task waiting, wondering what the hell I'm meant to press next.I thought I'd try out the Sandbox to get a feel for it in my own time, but on loading I was informed that there would be no AI players and no research could be done. So you're stuck on whatever period you chose.