Train Fever Review (PC)

good
key review info
  • Game: Train Fever
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: No
  • Reviewed on:
Train Fever

I have been looking at one train, an old late XIX century model, for about 5 minutes, with the speed of the game turned to very fast, watching it as it moved across the countryside, filled to the brim with passengers who were going to another city.

I have been wondering about their motivations for taking such a long ride (we are somewhere in 1878), but I don’t need to know why they are taking one of my trains as long as they do, because every passenger means I get money and that money can be used to expand my network and my coverage and to upgrade my hardware.

It takes work to retire older trains and vehicles and to optimize routes, but as history progresses, speeds increase, variety in the carriages explodes and I get a change to influence an entirely virtual world and develop it by shipping things and people around.

Urban Games has managed to create an interesting train simulation experience with Train Fever, one which will certainly satisfy fans of classic titles in the same genre, but there are moments when the game feels unnecessarily constrained.

Story

Train Fever does not have any sort of clearly delineated story about a robber baron who is aiming to create his transportation empire starting with the 1850’s and running deep into the XX century, but the game has a clear and simple premise: the player has a chunk of money, a range of cities and businesses laying around and the opportunity to link them all together and make plenty of money in the process.

In the beginning, gamers can choose the size of the world they plan to work with, the type of included terrain and the difficulty level, and when they hit certain years, they will also get the option to start their campaigns at later dates in history.

Action time
Action time

This is a welcome option as Train Fever starts off slow and there are moments when the first 30 years or so feel like a slog when the only thing to do is to implement a few crude networks and then simply watch people move around, tweak a small detail here and there and wait for technological progress to unlock new hardware to use.

Small and interesting story moments can develop inside the game, but no larger narrative emerges, even if things evolve, and one of the major issues is that the development team has not introduced competing transportation companies in order to offer a conflict which the gamer can focus on.

Gameplay

When Train Fever starts, the player gets a chunk of cash, no assets to speak of and a map that features a number of cities, some hills, a few rivers and a number of businesses, which create both goods and some core resources.

There are ways to create both train tracks and stations and public transportation, and the two need to develop in tandem in order to allow the gamer-controlled company to make money.

My initial impulse was to lay track in long lines, cutting across hills and fields, but Train Fever wants the player to carefully check the map, choose the cities that are easy to connect and then draw small sections, trying to keep both length and curvature at a minimum.

Once the track is there, it’s rather easy to place stations and a depot and get a train actually running, but a network of street-based transportation needs to be created in the actual cities in order to get people to the trains themselves.

One of the biggest issues with the game is that a big chunk of cash is spent on this initial development and a few years need to pass before enough money is gathered from fees in order to try to connect other destinations or to tweak the existing infrastructure.

As time progresses in Train Fever, the number of options for both rail and city transportation evolves in plenty of interesting ways and the player needs to start thinking about laying more tracks, connecting cities in better ways or about using signals in order to make sure that their trains get to destination quickly and filled with passengers.

The biggest problem with the game created by Urban Games is that it does not explain things to the player and expects him to take a look at the interface and instantly figure out how everything is supposed to work.

The development team could also have tried to offer a little more structure to the experience by including some goals or maybe even some rivals because at the moment the entire game seems to focus just on making money in order to then expand coverage.

Graphics and audio

Train Fever is a good looking game, especially for the genre to which it belongs, but unfortunately it does not always easily offer information that the player needs in order to make the best possible decisions.

The engine allows players to zoom in and actually watch the passengers as they move around the cities or the trains as they move along the tracks to deliver their important and precious cargo, but it’s also possible to zoom out and watch the entire game world and how it evolves over time.

Staying close to the ground reveals well modeled buildings and tracks, great looking train cars, especially as we advance towards the modern era, and even pedestrians who can be individually tracked as they go from their homes to work and then to leisure spots.

Track action
Track action

The color palette used by Train Fever is a little too bright, but the biggest problem is that gamers only have three overlays to use and they are not very informative, especially the one which allows them to see elevations and to plan how to lay tracks between cities.

The gameplay would have been improved if the development team would have made it easier to see how much it would cost to get through one hilly area and to quickly calculate how the various urban areas generate profits.

In terms of sound design the transportation simulation is ok, with a lot of ambient sounds that manage to create a sense of immersion and an upbeat soundtrack that emphasis the idea that progress is good and that the future is bring for the transportation industry as portrayed in Train Fever.


The Good

  • Cool simulation mechanics
  • Variety of trains and layouts

The Bad

  • Limited information
  • No competitive element

Conclusion

Train Fever is a good game for the passionate crowd and, If I did not have to deal with bigger releases, I could see myself spending more time with it in order to see exactly how higher ground can be negotiated and to make perfect sense of the way goods and city needs interact with one another.

The generated terrain and towns are interesting and present both simple routes and more complex situations to get through and it’s a pleasure to simply watch the trains as they travel through hills and plains in order to move their loads or their passengers.

Unfortunately some of the complexity of the game is hard to appreciate because the developers have not offered a clear tutorial or a series of explanations for newcomers, although the community has created some that appear on the official Steam page.

I would still take Railroad Tycoon II over Train Fever but the new title is a good way to see what the genre has to offer and can allow a player to get lost in the world of transportation for hours at a time.

story 6
gameplay 8
concept 8
graphics 8
audio 7
multiplayer 0
final rating 7.5
Editor's review
good
 
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