Rating: 
Summary: Promising...
Review: "Railroad Tycoon II" is the 1998 sequel to the 1990 classic "Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon". Even though Sid's name has jumped ship, this is a solid sequel to a great game. The premise is simple enough: Build a railroad, buy some trains, ship stuff from where it is to where it's needed. Get rich.From humble concepts mighty games are grown, and enriching this basic idea are things like: train quality, which forces you to choose between [cost], fast, good on slopes, or reliable; keeping demand high by supplying only small amounts versus the cost of connecting other places where demand is high; short routes with small payloads and fast turnarounds versus long routes with big payloads; buying and selling stocks to take advantage of economic trends; buying the businesses whose materials you're transporting; defending against train robbers or hiring shady characters and exploiting legal loopholes; and so on. Basically, this premise works, and supplies hours of good, addictive fun. There's a lot of replay value as well, since you can take a different approach to each game. The graphics are (still, even in 2003) pleasant and communicative, and the sound is mostly good. The scenarios are pretty challenging without (for the most part) being crushingly hard, and the three levels of victories encourages replay as you try to "go for the gold". The are a number of hitches, unfortunately. The manual and tutorial are really inadequate--which tends to sting given that most of the fan-supplied data on the Web is gone. The supply-and-demand process is actually somewhat opaque. (I did figure it out, but it took me a while and some research on the 'net.) Your board of directors is very gullible, not able to look ahead even a month (this makes them easy to manipulate). The stock market stuff makes it easy to lose with a thriving railroad and doesn't add much to the game that I've experienced. Further, trains really only go from point A to point B. That is, say you have cattle yard (B) that needs grain and two grain farms (A1 and A2) that supply grain, you can't set up a train to pick up grain at A1, travel to A2 to pick up more grain, and then travel to B to drop it off. When the train stops, it's completely unloaded. This is never spelled out anywhere, and certain ways of setting up a train's route suggest otherwise. But in the above situation, your train will actually unload grain at a grain farm (for no money) rather than haul it another ten miles to the cattle yard, where it's actually needed. The scale of the game is such that each train moves about 1/50th-1/100th of its actual speed. In other words, a trip that should take a week takes a year. This is probably a necessary abstraction(train-model fans will want to keep in mind that this game has NOTHING to do with their hobby) but it has the effect of exaggerating every mistake or mishap. Jesse James didn't just rob a single train, he robbed your entire route for the year. All of this detracts a bit, but it's a testament to the strength of the concept and execution that this would still be a five-star game, even with these issues. The killer--the thing that made me subtract a star--is the track-laying interface. It's really easy to lay track you didn't mean to. There's no undo. It actually costs you to remove it. The way the UI figures out the smoothest route is dubious, and there's really no decent handling for the fact that finding the smoothest track is best done at the closest zoom while finding the shortest route is best done at the furthest zoom. Coupled with some bugs that make stations seem disconnected, you can end up in a situation where you lose a game because the track-laying interface was not up to the task. And that's the only =real= sour lemon in this package. Again, though, even with this, there's still a lot of fun. It'll definitely whet your apetite for "Railroad Tycoon 3".
Rating: 
Summary: I really, really wanted to like this game...
Review: ... but ultimately decided I never would. The original Railroad Tycoon game ranked as one of my all-time favourite computer games. I wasted countless hours laying track well into the night and cursing computer players when they started buying my stock. When I discovered RTII for the Mac, I purchased it immediately... And found a game that proves that bells and whistles aren't always good things. RTII has a very pretty, forced perspective map of the area in which tracks are being layed, but the nature of the map makes it neigh-impossible to predict exactly where the tracks are going to end up unless one practices extensively. In other words, one has to *work* just to figure out how to play the game. And, as far as computer games go, that's not my idea of fun. Despite not being able to play the game, I'm giving it Two Stars. It's pretty, the sound effects are nice, and the idea of laying tracks in Africa and Asia appeals greatly to me. In concept, the game *is* superior to the original RT and takes advantage of the advances we've seen in technology in recent years... but the designers (or developers, I'm not sure who to blame) just didn't know when to quit. I think I could have enjoyed this game immensely if it had had been presented with an old-fashioned top-down/2D view of the play surface rather than enduldge themselves in making the game prettier. Maybe that could have been an option that could have been provided--I don't know enough about computer programming to know if such a thing would have been possible. As things stand, 'Railroad Tycoon II' is just taking up space in my game CD rack.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT A FUN GAME!
Review: After spending a few hours trying to decipher the mysteries of Railroad Tycoon II, I finally experienced enlightenment and realized I was NOT having fun. The game has many tempting possibilities of entertainment, but I found the game frustrating to play. The manual does not explain much; building stations and laying track are difficult and unforgiving tasks. I have not played the first version of the game, and this may explain my befuddlement. In short, I would not recommend this game. In fact if you really want this game, my trash pick up is on Thursday and this game will be in the can.
Rating: 
Summary: History, economics, geography and fun too.
Review: Build your railroads across the USA and learn while you earn or go broke trying. If and when that ever becomes easy then try building through the mountains of Korea or China. A wonderful game I still enjoy and love to teach to my grandkids. If only gradeschool geography class could be as interesting!
Rating:
Summary: Still chugging along
Review: Do you still have any 2 year old games on your hard-drive? Probably not. Most gamers delete games that are even a few months old to make way for new ones, or the game's simply sit there on our desktops - pretty little unused icons. This game though - Railroad Tycoon II, is a definite exception to this deleted/unused game rule. The reasons are numerous - graphics, gameplay, replayability and of course it's strategy element. The game is a lovely mix of complexity (the business model) and simplicity (setting up stations and laying track). It is real time strategy and economic simulator; as a virtual train set it's playful and yet with all stock market options turned on, it's as cuthroat as the world of the historic robber-barons must have been. The red in the game is not from bloody combat but simply your company bleeding to death as these tycoons (your computer adversaries) take you to the economic woodshed, short-selling your stock if they see an opportunity in ruining you in doing so. From all this it's obvious that economic factors are important, but how does this work in gameplay? Game play takes place in scenarios which are meant to allow us to delve into all aspects of the game. Some objectives may involve accumulating the largest personal worth or hauling the most cargoes or creating the wealthiest company. Still others may be as simple as connecting two cities or doing something else the fastest. Income is earned hauling cargo. There are dozens of cargo types, either as inputs or output from the dozens of industries that are featured. Setting up is simple. Choose from one of 3 station sizes, lay your track and choose your engine. There are dozens of trains available (not all at once - it depends on the historical period) The secret to making substantial income is to lay routes that create a production cycle. For example: two cargoes available are iron and coal; haul these to a steel mill; take the steel output plus orchard crops to a cannery and then haul the resulting food back to your city completing the cycle and earning all along the way. The route laying and running of trains takes place in a 3D window which can be rotated as required and zoomed in to give you a good view of your railroad at work. The ambient sounds provide background or serve as clues to what's going on. The sceech of your crashing train is suitably disturbing to make you pay attention. Have fun tycoon, or are you more of the Robber-baron type?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I bought this game not knowing anything about it, or having seen it. I read what you see before, and that's it. THIS GAME IS INCREDIBLE....I AM ADDICTED....If you don't want to play any of the scenarios provided, and there seems to be an endless amount of them starting from 1830 on to today and beyond, you can BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD, oceans, rivers, streams, etc., mountains, hills deserts, marshes, cities, towns industries, complete with sound for every enviornment, jungles, deserts, snow peaked mountains with wind, superb...put all the industries where you want and run your trains wild. This is a railroad fanatics dream.....this game presents a real world enviornment with other great Railroadmen of the world, that you can compete with, and they can be shrewd if you set the setting to expert, they will short sell your stock, and cut in on your business, or merge with other companies to defeat you, or you can be fired for not performing your duties properly, LOL ...WOW! I highly recommend this game, run electric trains, whatever...this game is teriffic...authentic sounds, authentic business, authentic trains, cars, EVERYTHING..... THIS GAME IS GREAT.....not like the BORING SHOOT AND KILL GAMES. Thanks Poptop software, it's a hit.....Keep up the great work! The game is in depth and full of details, but not unnecessarily complicated, in fact I call it VERY INTUITIVELY SET UP....thanks again Poptop! I am looking forward to more great stuff from you guys.
Rating:
Summary: Saying the truth!!
Review: I have never heard about this game, but one day, I saw it on a shelf, in a computer store. Iv'e read about it and it sounded really fun. It sounded really fun to build a train company, and to build train stations but when i really tried it, it was so hard, and it wasn't fun. It's hard to understand the investments thing and you are loosing all of your money in 5 minutes. I dont understand why is everybody saying that this game is good, cause this game is bad. VERY BAD! VERY, VERY BAD! Who can prove that i'm wrong? a couple of days after i bought i started to use cheats in the game because it is too hard. This game should get 0 starts, it should get nothing. So... Dont buy it because you'll just be waisting your money!!
Rating:
Summary: A Railfan Must
Review: I have the original, and when this came out I wasted no time in purchasing it. The enhancements lifted many of the restrictions of the original. The only disappointment is that Tycoon II does not allow one to build tunnels. The graphics are fantastic, the animations are super, the backgrounds sounds are nice, and the challenge all absorbing. The ability to change settings based on your machines power is an excellent feature. When I bought a new machine stepped up the graphic definition and animation. The animations are cool! There are so many options, scenarios, and maps, surely someone who enjoys railroading will find several of these to keep them busy for hours on end. But its not just a "railroad" game. It challenges your business sense. Its about personal investing and wise business expansion. You have to make business decisions every step of the way. You can go bankrupt or be the tycoon and anything in between. Summary, fun, challenging, stimulating, and entertaining. Now I am goin' for the 'GOLD' That is RR TYCOON II Gold edition!
Rating:
Summary: Like It So Far
Review: I just got the game a few days ago included in a value pack. I am currently playing the campaigns and so far I am enjoying the game. Even my husband is playing it.
Pros: Sim type game
Different type of trains and several campaigns which I love
Is challenging for an average game player don't know about hardcore players
Con's: The game tutorial was okay, but wish I could find a way to start back at the beginning of it. When my husband wanted to play I had to tell him how to do it instead of him doing the tutorial because it wouldn't start back at the beginning
Other than that I don't know of any other cons since I have just started playing and haven't started the scenerios.
You do get tired of laying down tracks all the time, and have to zoom in and out.
So far I am really enjoying it
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment that lasts for hours and hours.
Review: I like games were I can build my cities my way, control everything, monopolize everything. If you are looking for hours of non stop fun you have to get this game. This game doesnt only challenges your ability to run a company smoothly but it makes you feel like youre the head of a major RR corporation. I srongly recommend this game.
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