Customer Reviews

Railroad Tycoon II - PlayStation PS1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wish I could give less than one star. This game is fun, and you can build a massive railroad empire stretching from one coast to the other. I agree with the other review that the text is hard to read, but I could deal with that. The manual with the game is confusing and leaves out A LOT of information, but I could deal with that. The graphics are nowhere near as good as what I would expect, but I can deal with that. You can spend hours building a railroad, but you can't save your game. That's right, you can spend hours working to get that railroad connected from New York to Los Angeles, build up your company, and get just the manager you want. Then the need for sleep or food arrives, and you have to turn off the system and start over. The only saving available is when you have finished on of the scenarios, and you still can't go back and build on what you had won the scenario with, you have to start over again.

I bought this game quite a while ago, but I hadn't spent much time playing with it--I tried it once, but I wasn't able to easily figure out how the game worked and the manual is lacking in several areas. Now that I've spent a couple of days poking at it...

There are two really major problems with the game: you can't save incomplete games, and a really obnoxious lockup problem, at least on my PS2.

The inability to save in-progress games is understandable--it would be a challenge to get even a single map to fit on a memory card. 128K isn't much room for this sort of game.

The lockup problem happens randomly when I'm in one of the menus. It's happened three times in a row after I've spent an hour or two building a really complex rail network (in one of the Australian scenarios), and thanks to the lack of a save feature that means all the work I've done is lost. Admittedly it may be PS2-related, but it would be the first PS2-specific game problem I've run into (and I've tried at least 50 old PlayStation games on it).

The interface is poorly implemented, which added to my initial frustration with trying to learn the game. It takes a long time to become comfortable navigating the menus with the joypad... what it really needs is a mouse. The most noticeable issue is that the pad behavior is inconsistent. In some screens the pad moves the cursor around the screen, but in other screens it performs other functions like highlighting buttons even though the cursor is still on the screen. (I could go on for hours about other problems with the controls, but I won't bother...)

Other people have mentioned graphics and text issues, but I haven't found these to be major issues. I suspect the text would be hard to read on a small TV, and the font they used isn't that good. The graphics aren't super, but they aren't horrible either--they're adequate. No music? That's a feature!

Once I got over the initial "how does this work?" part Railroad Tycoon II turned out to be a really fun game; it ranks up there with SimCity or any of the other classic simulation games. But the Playstation version just wasn't a good idea, especially with the lack of a save feature; I'll be playing the Linux version instead.

There are some things that, no matter how lovingly and desparately people want to improve them - it just doesn't work. RailRoad Tycoon is one of them. This game for Playstation or the PC is very pretty and it works to some extent, but after a few weeks of trying, I went back to the original, ugly old EGA game, that works so well. You can pick up an old 286 and an original copy of RRT at the auction for less than the price of RRT II and you will have a lot more fun! A tip if you try and run the original RRT on newer hardware, you might have to pick MCGA or EGA on the opening screen - don't worry, it's the same graphics but some new hardware doesn't like the old VGA driver. Take it from someone who has been playing RRT since the days of the XT, the appeal of the game is in the AI, not in pretty graphics. The new version is just too slow in unfolding, too far off the economic mark and somehow loses the magic in the translation to 3-D.

railroad tycoon is a great game, if a bit slow (graphics wise). It can help bridge those time periods where you just have nothing to do. The game speed can be speeded up or slowed down which can help you achieve targets quicker. However, some scenarios can take over 2 hours to complete as you have to continually expand your network of railroads. This is perfectly fine if you are not working by a clock, but if you have a time limit of under 2 hours, then the scenario is impossible to cvomplete because it is impossible to save a scenario half way through. you can therefore not save all your hard work and the moment you switch off your machine you lose it. Take 2 games say that it is just one of those things which had to be left out of the title due to its format.? If you are looking for a time bridging game in which you can build an empire and make money railroad tycoon 2 is indeed a great game, just not for what it is intended to be. If, howevever, you wish to save and come back to a scenario to continue making millions then i would suggest Theme park world (for the playstation), Rollercoaster tycoon (for the PC), or Transport tycoon, by far the best,(on PC and Playstation if you can find it). Dissapointments may very well follow.

First off I wish I would have never shelled out my money for this game! It is the wost playstation game I have ever played. The text in the game is so hard to read and the game play is just plain frustrating. This game deserves -1 star because it was so bad. Please take my advice before purchasing this product. It will save you time and MONEY!

Not a bad game, really hard to use with its old interface, not bad for cheap though.I looked up the instructions online and that made it easier.

This game has proven to be great fun. As with any good simulation game, it relies on your ability to plan and reason things out, rather than reflexes and timing. But you control the pace as you attempt to build a giant in the railroad industry. The campaign mode gives you a specific goal to accomplish, however, there's usually more than meets the eye as the computer generated competitors are always anxious to sieze upon your mistakes and take away everything you've worked so hard for. There is one huge drawback to this game, and that's the save feature. In order to really "win" a campaign, you must think through your strategy carefully, then monitor your routes closely (the supply of cargoes is never infinitely available), and you need to have lots of routes, with lots of trains. And that's just the business of running a railroad. You also need to monitor financial markets and build your personal wealth, and your annual salary won't make you wealthy. This all adds up to a big investment of time, and not being able to save in mid-campaign is a real problem. But if you have the time, this game will keep your attention. I know I've only scratched the surface of this game, and I'm itching to dig deeper.

Well one day I was on the internet and I found this game. I read the reviews, it didn't do very good. But I wanted to buy it and my mom wouldn't let me because she thought it didn't sound like it did very good. Then, she gave in. So I ordered the game I waited like a week and a half. I finally got it. It SUCKED!!!!!!!!. And now I can't return it and get my money back so that sucked too. Plus it didn't have intructions or it's original packaging. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!!!!.

THANK YOU!! My son absolutely loves this game. I could hardly get him away from it this weekend!!

This is a good game i have had a lot of fun playing it, after i figured out how the controler configuration worked . The save game boton that the game review said it did`ent have, there is a way to get around it . The game has a screen saver after 5 minnits the screen saver comes on(and this can be ajusted ) . I have left the game on and set it aside and came back later and started were i left off.