Customer Reviews

Rails Across America

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really like this game. Instead of individual trains, you get to build and run a railroad network, like you would in the board game Rail Baron. The graphics even look like a board game and you can play a game in a couple of hours so it is easy to try out different strategies. Just like the real world, you start out cooperating with the other railroads to build up the network and share the traffic but you end up in a real dog fight for total domination. This is the first game I have played that makes this kind of transition well. In most games, the bigger your empire gets, the more tedious the management becomes but this game automates much of the management freeing you up to concentrate on the other players. One thing to remember, the winner is the person with the most prestige points, not the person with the most money. You get prestige points by building a transcontinental railroad or connecting the gulf of Mexico to Canada or dominating a region. As you play, you collect influence card which are things like politicians or newspapers. You use these cards to attack the other players by causing a scandal or sabotaging a section of their railroad. Of course, you use the same card to protect yourself from the same kind of attacks so you have to be careful how you use them.

This excellent game fills a niche that has long been missing in computer railroad games. The game positions the player as the President of the Railroad who must make policy, strategy, and management decisions for an expanding railroad system. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum from MS Train Simulator. The decisions that must be made for the owner's railroad are many and keep the player busy if they want a "good" railroad.

Other reviews have stated the graphics are crude, but the President of a railroad company isn't interested in fancy looking reports. The MAP of the system and other graphics for game control are more than sufficient. Traffic control is at a higher level and hence much more realistic than Railroad Tycoon (II) is. A company president would never worry about the routing of an individual train. Better graphics would add nothing to the game.

Other reviewers have indicated that the "board" is the same every time. This is not true. The cities are always in the same place, but the cargo and passenger connection requirements are different. For example in one game Washington DC. might need 500 passenger cars to NY. The next game there might not be any passengers from DC to NY at all.

My main criticism of the game is that the default "normal" game is too easy. This is why some reviewers have CLAIMED to master the game in a short time. In my opinion, to make a challenging "normal" game there should be at least five (5) other players, the players starting position should be set to "random", and the "attacks" should be set to "rare" instead of "never". One can never claim to have mastered this game until they get a gold, not just first place, in each of the scenario options. There are other minor problems with the game but do not distract from the total effect.

If you get this game be certain to get the on-line upgrade that fixes some bugs and most importantly adds a "Hall of Fame" so that one can rank themselves one game to the next.

In short an excellent game for simulating railroad management that still has room for improvement (Can't wait for version II). Highly recommended for railroad people. Straight gamers might need to learn something about railroads to fully appreciate it. This review is written with about 40 games played in one month of ownership.

If you are looking for a game with great 3D graphics, and something where you can micromanage your Rail Road down to the last detail then this isn't the game for you.

But if you want a game which allows you to build a massive Rail Road Empire and use every trick you can pull out of your hat to bury your competition without having to become bogged down in the daily workings of the trains unless you want to, then this is definately the game for you. It allows you to run a massive RR empire and compete to be the most prestigious and well known of them all. At the same time using all the dirty tricks from stealing stock to causing labor stikes to slow down your opponent. But be careful, they can do the same to you!

Well worth the 39.99

In my opinion, Railroad Tycoon is by far the best railroading game out there. However, this game deals with more system building. Building a large network and beating up on others to have the best railroad system. There is more "battles" in this game compared to Railroad Tycoon. In Tycoon, you can leverage your stock to buy out a competing railroad. In Rails, you have a slew of options to wear out an opponent. You can not buy them out like in Tycoon, but you sure can disrupt their plans to eventually bankrupt them.

Good partner to Railroad Tycoon. You might want to wait till the price comes down. (...)

The graphics are not nearly as nice as Tycoon.

I was very disappointed with this game... I'm a huge fan of Railroad Tycoon, but if you buy this game thinking you'll get anything like it, think again.

First, the graphics, although they are crisp, are very simplistic and merely adequate. I personally find them ugly and boring. The sounds and animations are very basic too.

A huge drawback is that there is only one map to play on. For me, it got boring very quickly to always see the same thing.

What I hadn't understood when buying this game is that it's a railroad simulation, not a train simulation. You never get into the detail of passengers and goods transportation in this game... you cannot choose which types of wagons the trains will pull -- all trains look the same and it's just assumed they pull the appropriate wagons depending on where they go to. Basically, I found there was very little to do in the game, and it's all very repetitive and boring.

If the game sold for $19.95, it might be worth it for railroad fans (although I wouldn't even buy it at this price.)

I was a little apprehensive at first with this game, with a varying range of comments all over the place. However, the right choice was made when I acquired this game. It's great to 'attack' your opponents with influence attacks, in addition to building my own little choo-choo...

If RAA has any drawbacks, they lie within the game's exciting, but overwhelming attention to detail. This, I don't mind. I love detail, especially on this scale. Additionally, the multiplayer element adds a new degree to the game. Well worth my time and attention.

I love trains and love strategy games. This fit the niche quite well. The only problem is that 3 games later (~4 hours per game), I've pretty much mastered it and there's not much more of interest. It is really a game of racing to lay tracks (either yourself or through acquisition). There are some cool political and other influential things you can do to make things interesting against your opponents along the way. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I certainly wasn't captivated very long. Graphics are okay, nothing to write home about.

The game is a load of good railroading strategy & fun, but it gets even better with other players. It is one of the few real strategy games I have seen that is NOT a wargame, but has some cool way to interact with the other players.

RAA works well over the local networkand across the internet. I enjoyed playing with my friends, and with random folks up on Gamespy. I could never dedicate myself to a six-hour game online like some people can, but RAA lets me a play a full game in about ninety minutes.

This seems to be a potentially great economics/management game. I played this game a few years ago and really liked it. I lost the CD and bought another so I can play it again. Really enjoy it.

I bought the game as a new game out of circulation. Loaded and installed the game. Now every time I load the game to play it a pop-up appears on the screen which says I have to download "an updated version (Rails1.0.0.75English) of rails Across America is available." then a yes/no area to download. Three time I chose yes and the whole thing crashes. I tried to download it from GameSpot but had no luck with that. So I tried to contact Strategy First but could get nowhere with that. I tried the web site from the manual but had no luck as I had to list the game I was inquiring about and it was not on their drop down and so I kept getting a reset asking for the game before it would proceed. I have ginen up trying to get any help from them.

So, although I am having fun with the game (it's difficult but not impossible to play) I am very dissatisfied with Strategy First. They should know that there are reasons people buy games at a late date and at least have a way for those people to contact them for assistance if needed.