User Reviews (11 - 21 of 22)

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Incorrect Literature Included with Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 49
Date: December 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Even though I have never been able to play this game, I HAVE ordered it, and read the literature and tried to install it on my computer. If you look at the installation guide included with the box, or on the side of the box, it says that you have to have at least 130 MB (Megabytes) on your computer in order to install it. THIS ISN'T TRUE! When you open up the installer, or the setup program, it turns out that you actually need 222 MB of free space to install it! So as a warning to all of you people thinking of buying this, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST 222 MB OF SPACE ON YOUR COMPUTER FIRST! If you don't, you'll have to send it back. The game really looks neat to play if you read other reviews, and the instuction booklet, but be sure to have enough space on your hard disk to install this program before ordering it!

A great challenge and lots of fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Railroad Tycoon II is a great strategy game that requires critical thinking and lots of patience. If you possess both of these then RT2 is the game for you. In RT2 you are put in the seat of the chairman of a large railroad corporation, and you must expand your railroad across America, all the while maintaining a constant stream of revenue and profits. This entails starting profitable routes such as taking passengers & mail to various towns that demand them, and taking resources to industries that require them. For example, you would take coal and iron to a steel mill for it to produce steel, and then steel and grain to produce goods at a cannery. Establishing and maintaining these routes, and keeping them profitable at the same time, is a great challenge and requires constant micromanagement of train consists and the demands of your individual trains, such as their needing oil, sand or water.

It may sound technical, but RT2 is loads of fun. It's a great feeling to see your railroad start small, and gradually expand across America. You've got to run the game at a slow speed because there's so much to manage all at once, and so this expansion obviously happens quite gradually. But it's tremendously rewarding. Added to which, you must manage your own personal finances on the stockmarket. This feature detracts a little from the railroad side of things, but the two are interlinked in that if you run your railroad well, the price of your stock skyrockets. Concomitant with the stockmarket is the state of the economy: it follows a cycle that influences your company's profits, aggregate demand in the economy, and hence your price of stocks. You've got to factor all of this in when managing your personal wealth, and so you must buy low, sell high, issue stock at the right time, issue bonds, and raise or lower dividends depending on boom or recession. It's quite a complex procedure but, if you do it right, you can see your personal wealth skyrocket. Added to which, certain missions are won by you actually attaining a threshold of wealth, and not by expanding your railroad from one town to another.

So ultimately, Railroad Tycoon 2 is a tremendously diverse and richly rewarding game. The presence of the stockmarket feature adds extra depth to what is already quite a complex game, and so it's suitable for critical thinkers and problem solvers. The hard difficulty provides a huge challenge (which I am currently undertaking), and the easy difficulty is challenging enough for novices. As a result, RT2 is suitable for anyone really, as long as you've got the patience to sit down and learn how to play it in the first place. One thing's for sure: it's well worth it.

If trains really run at that speed, I'd rather walk.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: May 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Sure, Railroad Tycoon is original. But its main flaw (apart from the fact that you can't build tunnels) is how time, speed, and distance interact. In this game, you have a lot of different maps, all making use of different scales. Yet the trains always run at the same speed, which means that on a 500 x 500 map, no matter if Philadelphia is at one end of the map and Washington, D.C. is at the other, or if it's New York and Chicago in the same positions, the time it takes will always be the same. And in many cases we're talking game-years. A run between New York and Chicago using a 4-4-0 American-C running at 12 miles an hour will take six or seven game-years, and this will also be the case if you were to use the same engine, at the same speed, for a run between Philadelphia and Washington in the aforementioned example. For a run between Halifax and Vancouver, in Canada, the time taken will be approximately nine years. Ditto for a run between Paris and Constantinople on the Orient Express. Sure, train transportation was slow in those days, but at that speed, I'd rather walk. I'd arrive earlier.

Only in the day-by-day time speed (used in some scenarios, such as Theodore Roosevelt's election campaign tour or wartime scenarios in the Second Century) does the time taken look realistic, but again the time changes with map scales.

I give the game four stars for originality.

The awesomest game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: April 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The strength of this game is displayed by how it is not available anywhere in the market as it is completely sold out!

If you like simcity, you will like this better. If you are a railroad freak, then this is a must!!!

Can play this game 100 million times and it still feels you are playing for the first time...Higly recommended!

Awsome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Railroad Tycoon II Gold is one of the best ALL TIME VIDEO GAME experiences for the more adult consumer. Super graphics/sound and the sophisticated gameplay will really test your management skills. Build, maintain, and manage your own railroad empire. Cutthroat competition and a great stock market interface adds to the challenge and fun. This game could easily be used as a primary university teaching aid for general economics, capitalism, business management, investment theory, industrial engineering, and even history. Fantastic!

The most addictive game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you like trains, there is no way you shouldn't buy this game.
BEWARE: This game is known to cause sleepless nights...

RailRoad Tycoon

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A great game with with good graphics. Pick any city in the world to start with! Also some made-up maps. You can make your own maps by using the map editor.

It's ok

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 62
Date: December 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

It's awesome even though i never played it, it sounds cool. Is it like Rollercoaster Tycon?

Jamie

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: August 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I can't say it any better then ... did, but I will say if you haven't bought it yet go out right now. IT'S THE BEST GAME EVER!

entertaining and challenging

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The scenarios are a huge plus to this game, you can set a "sand-box" mode where you play in a vacuum or go all out and throw in shares and customer rating.

The middle levels are the most intriguing, but after you have completed 6 or so missions some of the sound files become a bit annoying.

Prepare to mix up some sand...great for kids as well as adults.

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