Railroad Tycoon 2 Gold

It isn't easy. Those pretty trains chugging across the bucolic landscape have to be maintained, repaired, and replaced regularly or you run the risk of experiencing an expensive breakdown or crash. As the years tick by you also must adapt to historical demands. New industries spring up while others become less important. The passenger and mail routes that generate so much cash at the beginning of the game don't even cover your expenses once the automobile steals the show. The availability of new trains (the game models over 60), the fact that demands wax and wane over time, and the inclusion of a fully functioning stock market simulation that allows for hostile takeovers add up to a game where players always have something to do.

This Gold version of the game includes both the original Railroad Tycoon 2 content and the expansion pack Railroad Tycoon 2: The Second Century along with 12 bonus scenarios and an electronic version of the strategy guide. It's enough to keep fans of business simulations and strategy games occupied for months. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Accurate yet fun business elements
• Always something to do
• Nice graphics and a terrific blues soundtrack

• Micromanaging cargoes may be too tedious for casual gamers

Railroad Tycoon 2 takes gamers on a ride from the early days of railroading through the future, allowing them to explore various countries and experience history along the way. Railroad Tycoon 2: The Second Century vaults railroad tycoons into the next locomotive era of 1939 to 2030. Gamers encounter world catastrophes such as World War II, the Cold War, and global warming, and have to solve modern problems associated with mass transit in major cities.

Now with Railroad Tycoon 2: Gold Edition, armchair capitalists will find themselves immersed in several new ventures, including the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad through the Appalachians. Gamers are also challenged to connect New York to Los Angeles, using futuristic, magnetically levitating transcontinental railroads, and to rekindle Scottish pride by laying the tracks for the Flying Scotsman from Edinburg to London.

Great immersive background sound add with awesome (totally customizable for system performance) animated graphics of trains, cities, trees, industry, mountains, and more to make a train enthusiast out of anybody.

My only problem with this game is that I do not enjoy the modern-day scenarios. I enjoyed shuttling around passengers, grain, cattle, and food in the 1800's but don't enjoy the convoluted bauxite->aluminum->goods->port->whatever routes in the late 1900's and 2000's.

In summary, don't think you need to know or even care about trains to massively enjoy this game. You don't even need to be a sim fan as the objective oriented campaign play prevents it from being a never ending train "sandbox." This game is sure to waste many hours of your life! :)


it's pretty cool   June 15, 2000
 2 out of 23 found this review helpful

this is a pretty cool game, but you have to like simulation games.