By Dan Blomberg on February 11th, 2004

Presentation
The game is a very advanced game, and it has its own menu system. The menu system works although when you have a lot of data expanded and still have to scroll it is kind of difficult to operate the business and watch all the action on screen. There is a lot of mouse work to do even the simplest things such as lay track; hot-keys may have been a good idea. Everything is broken down into categories, and once you know what each picture represents it’s very easy to get an overview of your empire. Once you know how to work the system it is pretty easy to build an empire. The moving around the map system is okay. Right clicking on the mouse to rotate is very smart, but scrolling around the screen by the edges is at times very tiring. It is very difficult to get to see exactly what you want the first time.

Graphics

The videos are also very well done. The introduction gives you a detailed and very good looking introduction to why your character is a Railroad Tycoon. Each scenario has an introduction video that describes why you are doing what you are doing. The videos help set the tone for the game and they look very good for a computer game.

Sound
Train sounds are everywhere in this game, from the stations for the locomotives themselves. Steam engines are very loud and the super modern (not yet existent) bullet trains wiz by and all you hear is the wind. The game has around an hour and a half of music in mp3 format but it is all of the same genre so you don’t really notice it. The music isn’t bad, but is nothing spectacular, just what you would expect from a game like this. The scenario’s have a narrator that tells you what is going on. This voice bit is very important so that you know what is going on, whether it is World War II, expansion toward the west, or building modern railroads in Europe. Overall the music does not help nor hinder the game, but the sound effects add a much needed environment.

Gameplay

There is a nice two part tutorial to help you play the game properly. The first part teaches you how to place track. The track placement is pretty easily. You can place track in many places. The system allows you to choose how often bridges and tunnels occur. Tunnels allow you to travel through mountains without losing speed but they add a lot to the cost of placing track. The bridge option is not nearly as simple as one would think. There are iron, wood, and stone bridges (iron is not available in the very early years though). The wood bridge makes the train slow down and cannot have multiple tracks on it (we’ll get to that later). Stone and iron bridges allow for multiple tracks on the same bridge and for higher speeds. The downside is that they cost more and bridges occur frequently to cross anything from chasms to rivers. There are even suspension bridges in the modern times. The track can be single or double track. The double track allows busy segments of track to not have trains backup on them. This makes busy segments of track run smoother and thus cargo gets to places faster. Not to worry though, if trains are on the same track the one with less expensive cargo will slow down and fade out so the one with more expensive cargo can pass. This is not realistic but makes the game a whole lot more fun. Track placement is also very important to the usefulness of your railroad. The track changes color to represent how steep the grade is. If the grade is very steep the train will progress very slowly.

Placing track isn’t all you need. Next stations have to be placed and trains have to be bought. In the process of placing stations you need to place service stations (for water and sand) as well as maintenance stations. Without both of these your engines will break down. Stations come in three sizes, small, medium, and large. As the size of the city increases you are going to need bigger stations to move more cargo. Of course, everything costs more as it gets bigger.

The last segment involves buying trains. In the early years only slow, unreliable engines are available. As time progresses you move from steam to diesel power, and then to electric. As time progresses the engines are able to go faster, be more reliable, and even look prettier. If the train does not look good passengers will not pay to ride on it, but it doesn’t matter if the train looks good for cargo. Each engine has different abilities, some can haul cargo uphill better than others while some (such as the future electric trains) are very fast and move passengers quite well. As you buy the train you can add cars such as a Dining Car and Caboose, both of which will add perks to your train but they also will add weight to the train.

The second portion of the tutorial involves the really unique part of Railroad Tycoon 3, the money. Not only do you have cold hard cash, but you have investors. The investors help you start your railroad. There is also a stock market you can play where you can buy your own or some of your competitions stock. If you get into the red zone then you can take out a bond, but you will definitely want to pay it back. One of the most unique aspects of the game is how the pricing works. Cargo will only take the rail if its cheap and goes where its needed. For example if timber costs $50 in Buffalo but will sell for $70 in New York they will use the train if your train goes between the places. If your train stops in Hartford the timber company will not use your railroad. This means as you build lines you need to think logically to make money. Also, unlike the older versions of Railroad Tycoon cargo can move to stations or its locations slowly via rivers and even land. This means if your railroad isn’t cost efficient companies won’t use it.

To further your financial wealth you are able to buy factories and even build businesses such as hotels. The logical thing to do is to buy a factory or mine before you run the rail lines that way you can make money when you get the rail there for transporting and then make more money at the destination when the company that needed the supplies buys them. All of these abilities bring a whole new aspect to the game. They allow you to not only build a railroad but build an empire across different parts of the world.

No game is without its flaws though. At some points the track placement is very weird, lots of ups and downs right before a bridge and things like that. Also you can bulldoze buildings to create room for your track. This also means you can destroy buildings around your competitions’ railroad and thus put them out of business. This is quite unrealistic. The AI is also flawed. They can’t seem to successfully build a railroad. They have problems getting into the profit range. The nice part is that you can use the rail that your competitor builds although it will not allow you to make as high of profits.

Overall, the gameplay is very well thought out. This tycoon game allows for so many different options and possibilities. You must make smart business decisions about which cities to connect, what industries to use, and even weather to tunnel through mountains or stay in the valleys. All the while that you are thinking there can be a scenario giving you goals such as connecting two major cities or transporting a certain amount of loads of some cargo. The gameplay will keep getting better with online play as well as downloadable maps. There is even a map editor included with the game so that you can make your own maps and scenarios. Overall this game has so many options that you can never really run out of things to do. This game cannot really get boring and it is amazingly fun to build a railroad and even more fun to run an empire.

Conclusion
For all you tycoon lover’s out there this is a must have for your collection. For those of you that have never played a Tycoon type game before, I would definitely recommend this one, there is so much to do and it is a lot of fun, more fun that you would ever expect. It is an addicting game that all ages will enjoy due to its business aspect yet simple train mentality. If you don’t want to play the stock market, you don’t really have to, you can just build railroads. If you want to try and rule the world, you can do that as well. This is definitely one of the little gems from 2003.