Railroader: This is not '38, this is Old '97.
The issue with having mechanical autism (half of my family either worked on trains or machined for them, it's terminal) is that games that fulfill my autism are very bipolar. Train autists are good for telling you random factoids that don't matter like "factor of adhesion" but beyond yapping like the Nerd Kid from Polar Express, they're bad at making games people want to play. As such, games that cater to them come in two types. Diet transport simulators, for the most German of autistic men, which are functional games that I hold no disdain to. They're fine, and nothing kills a Sunday morning like a bit of Transport Fever, but at a certain point it gets dull. After one too many A to B routes and when millions in revenue hit billions, you start levelling mountains to feel something. The model train sims (Trainz/MTS) are fine, but they cater to model train [i] guys [/i] who don't want to spend 1k on a brass model. As such they're built to move trains around the track and give you the fun of a model train at home, without any of the financial or mechanical oddities. Good games, but inherently limited. To say nothing of the sheer brick of DLC and paid content made for them, which [i] is [/i] cheaper than the models, but at least you can paint those and have 'em in your house. The annoying expense of 'em means it's not something you can coax friends into easily, unless they're also fans of GB Railfreight Class 73/9 #73962 "♥♥♥♥ Mabbutt". Finding a game that both includes trains and includes [i] fun [/i] is a hard sell, but if you put enough autists in a room, they'll come up with something.
Railroader is the something. The train sim that makes accidentally derailing in a corner doing a withering 30 miles an hour fun, because now you need to coordinate the rescue operation. It turns out the way you make a train sim fun is by making some goals to work towards and allowing a gaggle of goobers to run around a slice of 1910's era Appalachia to make the magic happen. By daring to make a game and not just a Crown Sheet Explosion simulator, Giraffe Labs have made fun for the whole of the group chat to enjoy, versus the Austistic Male group that calls themselves "The Associates" and have the history of the Central and Union Pacific memorized back to front.
You are a random chunk of railway employees in Non-Descript Appalachia operating on a severed branch line, as floods have cut you off from the rest of the railroad. Armed with 5 grand and some spare rolling stock, you have to balance your finances with the needs of your customers and try to rebuild your chunk of train tracks. A bare-bones premise sure, but the game knows how to twist it against you with Autistic Train Knowledge. All of what you do hinges on the operation of trains, and correctly operating them as well. There's no model train rotary dial here, you manually couple, connect brake lines, build brake pressure and throttle each locomotive in your roster from Point A to "into the creek". Or divvy them up to AI engineers and get annoyed when they dare to ask you for wages. The micromanagement aspect is what holds Railroader together, and gives it a bit of pizazz over playing with Trainz's different industries. You do everything from driving the trains, organizing the routes, balancing the books, acquiring more supplies for the railroad, operating the massive US&S switchboard for signals and so on. Only thing missing from a true 1920's Appalachian experience is having to haul National Guardsmen to break up Blair Mountain.
There's a bipolarity to the gameplay that also balances the humours, as every moment of micromanagement and zany planning is balanced by simply driving the train from Whittier to Connolly or anywhere else on the line. A serene calm starts to hit you once you're just in transit, and the Unity asset environment gives it a funny charm. Cotton candy clouds dappled across the sky as you reverse down the line, carefully dragging a train of passenger cars to their destination with nothing to worry about. It's a calming environment to sit and ruminate on, with nothing but the dull mechanical chuffing of the locomotive to keep you occupied. The comparison to any Truck Simulator is accurate, with the added benefit of managing brake and throttle to keep you from completely zoning out. It lasts as long as it takes to drop off a massive trainload of logs, and hear someone requesting help after their express train turns into a local legend in a [i] bad [/i] way. It keeps the game flowing, versus hitting the same wall that any game in this caliber operates on. Everyone likes Factorio until it crosses too high of a river, but that river doesn't fully exist in Railroader. It merely expands with steel rails and iron ties and bigger wheel arrangements, remembering that the best way to keep you entertained is relaxation. There will be chaos, there will be mania from missed orders and collisions. And there will also be the hum drum routine that sets in once everything just works, which pays dividends. Plus you can mod the absolute behoozits out of the game, so anything you want to add can and will be added. What's stopping you from making the Goober & Pawtucket Railroad, Coal and Iron Company?
