As a huge fan of Sid Meier’s Railroads, I was very excited to finally play Railroad Corporation. Railroad Corporation as I write this has just entered early access and there is still clearly a lot of work to do. However, Railroad Corporation is showing a lot of promise and I can see many people getting very addicted to this.
How to Download Railroad Corporation
You can download the game from Steam. If you are interested in train games, check out also reviews of Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019, Train Simulator 2019, and Train Sim World.
The Game Review
Railroad Corporation is set during the boom period of the railroads, the 19th century. This time really opened up the USA and the railroad industry was huge and a staple for most businesses of the time. That really is what Railroad Corporation is trying to capture.
Yes, you will be building railroads, stations, crossings and so on. Yes, you will have to plan these out, maintain them and of course pay for them. However, there is a lot more depth here than just working on the railroads. I feel that Railroad Corporation is best described as a cross between Sim City and Railroads.
I had a lot of fun planning out where the railroads would go, getting the resources and so on. However, you also have to do other things such as grease the palms of certain politicians to get the rights to be able to build your railroad and develop new technologies. You can even build up a real estate empire, hire people, get loans and do other such things that you can in games such as Sim City.
The American frontier setting is something that I really do enjoy about this game and I think that the overall feel captures this era very well. Blasting a big chunk of rock out of the way or laying down a crucial piece of the track are things that I had a smile on my face the whole time I was doing them.
Railroad Corporation is in very early access and to be fair the game does look rather polished considering. There are though as you would expect a few bugs here and there. I have had trains just flat out ignore crossings and drive right through each other. Also, there are no settings for how you play the game!
There is a time system in play here and on some missions/sections, it can feel pointless as it is way too generous. On others, it is far too tight and feels like you are playing on ultra-hard difficulty. Hopefully, as the game progresses some kind of difficulty setting will be added. Also, at this point in early access there is no sandbox mode, but to be fair I have no doubt that will be added at some point.
Railroad Corporation is showing some very promising signs. I love sim style games like this and I think that it is fantastic that despite being called, Railroad Corporation. This game is offering you far more than just laying down a track and building train stations as you may think. While it is in very early access right now, I think there is still fun to be had in this early state.
