Sid Meier's Railroads!

Sid Meier’s Railroads! isn’t a game I’d recommend for strategy fans. Most of the things that made the Railroad Tycoon franchise fun and challenging were either removed or dumbed down here, and the result is a game that might appeal to casual gamers who like trains... or it might not.

In the end, it's hard not to fall a little bit in love with Railroads!, because it's just a lovable kind of game. Now if only they'd release some scaled-up maps to match the game's ambitions.

Hard-core economic simulation players looking for the next spreadsheet to conquer are likely to be disappointed by the game's easy style and shallow economy. Multiplayer fans or just those looking for the model train set they always dreamed of as a kid will definitely get a kick out of Sid Meier's Railroads!

Enjoyable, but perhaps another instance of the 'reviewer's trance'. That's the mildly hypnotic effect that seems to take over when games aren't dull enough to be boring but aren't exciting enough to cause any kind of, erm, arousal.

A game that comes frustratingly close to excellence without ever justifying such a tag. Though the gameplay has depth and simplicity, it often feels more like a multiplayer game with single-player tacked on, than a genuine single-player title in its own right.

As an introductory to the world of simulated games it does an exceptional job, and even for hardened veterans of the genre there's still fun to be had, yet without the depth of its predecessors or the hook to keep you playing for any length of time, it falls short in providing the long term enjoyment that sim games usually pride themselves with.

An enjoyable game. But frankly even if it wasn’t for the bugs, the simplicity, the lack of a campaign, and the other minor short-fallings, I’d still be disappointed because when someone like Sid Meier copies a classic genre, I at least expect him to add something new and innovative to the game-play.

In the end, Railroads is more like a really neat toy train game with lovely graphics than the deep strategy/business offering many were hoping for, and the comparisons to past games wouldn’t even be as much of an issue if the game’s box didn’t reference the fact that Meier started the entire Tycoon genre.

Working out how the game works and how to best profit from your stocks takes an hour’s play, and from then on, it’s no longer about thinking creatively, just economising ruthlessly. Satisfying perhaps, but hardly demanding. [Christmas 2006, p.88]

All of the changes make Railroads! less of a strategy game than a toy with extra challenges. [Jan. 2007, p.50]

A fun game that train buffs and even non train fans will find very fun to play. However, it just doesn’t have quite the same greatness of many of Sid’s other games, especially when it comes to stability.