Railroad Corporation

I now completed half the campaign and still cannot decide whether I hate this game, or love it. The biggest issue for me is no signaling AT ALL. You have to rely on AI to distribute your trains over the railway, and that is something which sometimes brings trouble.I was actually shocked at first to see that there is absolutely no way how to tell your trains how to move, when, which part of the track they should use, etc.. I almost uninstalled the game twice thanks to that. I cannot remember any other transport tycoon game in which there was no signalling. Recent Transport Fever 2 has signals, Railway Empire has signals, Maschinky has signals..
I am a long time player of Railway Empire, another train management game which I love, and that game is far superior thanks to signalling alone. I experimented a bit with track layout, tried double tracking, or just doubling small parts of the track, etc, and so far I was not able to find a solution how to make trains move without some of them standing and staring and doing nothing, despite having a lot of free track ahead of them which they should have been using .. Fortunately, as soon as you learn game mechanics, you start making so much money that you stop caring about half your trains not being effective at all.. but that is hardly any positive.
However, devs seem to be tweaking AI train management and it improved a lot since release. So it is becoming less of an issue with each patch.
I would definately recommend the game, as it has big potential.

This game lacks many of the things that Syd Meirs' Railroad Tycoon considered and got right over a decade ago. The maps are not dynamic, which really sucks because it's always the same cities with the same commodities, and the same terrain. Replay for the most part is uninviting. The bidding for land and buildings in entirely predictable. Hit the higher bid button three times and you'll win the bid.
The graphics are great although I experienced significant lag when I increased the detail levels of water and trees. My graphics card has handled far more complex rendering so I'm certain this is a poor memory management issue with the developers. The tutorials are relatively useless.. Fortunately, there are enough players who answered most of the questions I had.
Still, with those limitations I still found it chellenging and enjoyable to play. I didn't play with the time limit options. I found some of the time frames to be absurdly short or the game balancers thought that players should know the quest solutions. That took away a lot of the fun for me but without the time limits I was free to build my empire and then meet the challenges with less risk of having the game terminate because I was overdrawn at the bank.
The game's not worth full price but $15 to $20 would buy you a lot of fun.

NOTE: I did not recommend the game initially, but since the developer is working hard to address some of my issues, I have decided to reflect my good faith in them by changing to a YES recommendation.
I hope many will find this review useful. I hope to update it with time as this wonderful gem improves.
:-( Definately needs salt.
I don't like posting negative reviews, but I think this has potential, and can become a deeper game with time. For now, it is too shallow. I ALMOST did a return, but I am confident these issues will be addressed, so I am keeping the game and have my fingers crossed. First, let's talk about what they get right.
I love the look and feel of the game. It looks nice, and isn't "cartoonish." It's serious, not silly or campy. I appreciate that.
Laying track is easy, as well as upgrading things. I like the tech tree and the research options, I feel that is well done.
Here's my issues, which I hope will be addressed in time.
1. The map is a randomly generated mess. While it DOES make for a good challenge, I would rather play on a proper map of the USA. A lot of trouble has been made to provide realism, and then this random map spoils that. It seems like an odd choice. I believe with the coming addition of the editor, this will be addressed in the future.
2. There's only one track through the stations, which is silly since stations are the very places where tracks split into many. Instead, they all consolidate into one.
3. There's no way to manage traffic. I lay double tracks with switches, and instead of using the empty track, I have trains waiting for the track in use to clear. Why bother with double tracks? I would like to see the pathfinding improved.
4. I'd like an easier way to upgrade locomotives. For now, you simply duplicate the locomotive and a whole new train spawns from your home base. Then, you delete the old train, cargo and all. A better way to do this would be to let me buy a new locomotive and assign it to an existing train. The train gets the new locomotive when it pulls into station.
5. The breakdowns are brutal. The trains break down early and often, and stay broke down for a long time. This means a lot of micromanagement and a lot of waiting which takes several days of game time on the clock. It's unrealistic and means the larger your railroad becomes, the more time you spend maintaining old trains rather than focusing on expansion. In the real world, there'd be a whole department assigned to handle this for you, so as CEO you can manage the big picture stuff.
There's plenty I have not yet explored in the game, as I only have a couple hours in. But when compared to its competition, such as Railway Empire, it has a lot of room for growth.
I am looking forward to seeing this improved with better mechanics and better maps.
I will be happy to turn this from a "No" recommend to a YES!

They have mostly sorted out the mechanics and its fun and challenging. Not as good as RR tycoon 3, as there is little freedom as to how you will go about achieving objectives. Its basically you must do 1, 2 3 exactly how we say and stat.
The career progression is incomplete, as there is not enough missions......yet (I hope). You also dont get to use any of the more advanced trains unless you know from the start you need to focus research on them.
Also, really dont like the millennial language used for supposedly pre turn of the century characters. Stay period dudes!!

I enjoy playing this game.
I play this game because its relaxing and I dont have to think very hard. I can stand up and leave it and come back to it when my daughter needs attention.
This is a "dad" game.
I wish it had a workshop, but its pretty much exactly the same thing over and over again. Kinda like a zen garden, but... without the sunshine and health benefits.

This is currently the only game in this genre which supports multiplayer. If you want to play with friend then buy it. It may not be perfect but it is good enough to enjoy.
There is something unique with this game, which is the city growth mechanism. Basically, as city grows, the volume of cargo demanded increases, the type of cargo demanded changes, and the changes are too significant for you to ignore.
I will compare it with several games here.
In RT3, the city growth is typically represented by size as well as the industry you build, or automatically spawned, Industries basically determine the growth. Size growth only matters for passenger and mail. In RT3 you play not only the transporter but also the industrial tycoon, which basically determines the supply and demand of the cities, and the industrial goods represent majority of total demands in the city. When there is corresponding industries, you get dozens of carts of loads per year. Without industries, households consume at most 1 to 2 carts of loads per year of products. So basically, in RT3 the player has significant control over city demands. In RC, you can still build industries. However, the basic demands are much more significant than the ones you build, in terms of volume. You may build 2 industries per city. Large cities would automatically demand 3 to 5 types of final products. In RC your power as a tycoon is weakened. You are more of a transporter and less of a tycoon. The uncontrollable changes represents stronger macro economic factors imposing on you.
In Railroad Empire, cities require much more types of goods on each level. When city grows, there are more types of goods demanded. However old demands still persist. In RE, The volume of the goods desired do not change very much. the key difference is still that the demands change as city grows. In RE the stable demands ease your needs to go back to make changes to your old routes. More often you are adding new routes to your system. In RC, however you must frequently change your route settings.
In Transport fever, city demands never change. They only increase in volume as the population grows.
In conclusion, the city growth mechanism is a key characteristic of this game. You may find it good or bad, depending on your style.

Railroad Corporation is a true train "operation" simulator. You have to properly plan your start and progress to ensure success. Your train will get stuck if you do not plan your rail infrastructure properly. You also need to constantly monitor the demand and supply from your various stations. It took me some hours of play to understand the various game play, but once you understand the game with all its interactions it is super,
I like it very much