Steam Revolution: The Age of Rail

At a first glance people think this is similar to Transport Tycoon or Simutrans, this game is actually more akin to the Zachtronics style of games. A very refreshing new take on the transportation genre that makes it more puzzle but still scratches my itch for the transportation genre. It does need a bit more love and detailing in the UI department but for a free game you really can't go wrong by giving it a try, just don't expect your hunderds of hours of playing other transportation games to translate perfectly into this game.

This game is amazing. Sure the UI is not very good and some concepts take a while to understand. But oh boy, what a brilliant game this is. It's actually dangerous because it really got me hooked up. It shares some similarities with OpenTTD, but both games are brilliant in their own way. For some aspects, this one is better (like route handling), but I don't like to compare them too much, just play both! I can see why some people with functional illiteracy may have issues understanding the written tutorials, not everyone can discern written text after all. The AI portaits are awful, but they are barely present in the game, I couldn't be asked to read the story.

Spent 12 hours optimising the first level to get in to the top 5 instead of moving onto the next one. Little bit of autism needed but satisfying game.

First off, the AI portraits are not a good starting point. These are what tips this to being a negative review rather than a more neutral one. Given the setting is ~1800s there are a number of copyright free alternatives other than AI for the portraits, and on top of that the portraits aren't really needed in the game to start with. For the other things that push it towards negative, I think that the routing could use a lot of work to make it more intuitive. As just a few examples: * Adjusting the symbols for full and partial unload to make it clearer which one is which when these are applied to a signal * Allowing stations to be set as destinations rather than signals * Allowing resources/industries to be set as "wait for resource to be availble" per-route rather than per-depot Track construction is also painful particularly the curve-straight-curve system when it comes to making junctions as it often means editing tracks to add extra sections of straight "curve" to allow tracks to join. Honestly, for a free game this would probably be a neutral review with a slight recommendation to at least try it if it wasn't for the AI generated content - that's what tips this over from a more neutral "it has it's flaws but maybe give it a go if you've got a free hour or two" to "don't bother". Straw and camels back and all that.

Not very intuitive but a huge amount of engaging content making it worth pushing through the initial learning curve.

Super responsive developer and a great community. The controls take some getting used to if you're coming from other games, but they ultimately feel well-suited and even superior for this style of gameplay. This easily feels like a >5€ game, yet it's available for free. If you enjoy this genre, it can be quite addictive.

I'm a software engineer, so optimization is fun for me. Laying track, figuring out what resources are bottle necking where, and trying to get into the top 10% are all fun. Some of the mechanics take a while to master - switches are by far the most confusing portion of the game. The graphics are what you would expect for free, but track layout, building construction, and running the simulation all make it fun!

terrible tutorial and awful tools