Railroad Tycoon II Page 2 So what does Railroad Tycoon II offer? First of all, you can play one of the 18 scenario campaigns. The first few scenarios might start off simple, depending on the difficulty mode that you have chosen (normal, easy or hard), but they certainly escalate in difficulty. On every scenario you have 3 bonuses which you can choose from. For example: +50.000 capital, 10% lower production cost on laying track or a faster availability on a train engine. It's your choice and you decide what's best for your company. Secondly you can start a stand-alone scenario. Choose between 12 different scenarios that covers the whole world (North and South America, Europe, Australia, China, ...) except for Russia (don't ask me why, I haven't got a clue). After you have selected your scenario or map you can access the options button. There are 2 dialog boxes that contains the following settings: playing in Sandbox mode or in Financial model. The first (sandbox) lets you simply build and run trains where money and competition are non-factors. This means that all the financial and industrial settings are toggled off. Railroad beginners should absolutely apply this mode. The Financial model is a lot harder because here you can really put your company into the stock market or you can buy stock on margin. This is more recommended for gamers that already played 1 of the several campaigns. Railroad Tycoon II features about 34 different cargoes and about 60 available engines, from the very first one till the latest modern engine. The time zone where this action or actually simulation happens between the year 1804 to 2020. So you can experience the early growth in steam engine railways to the electric engines. This kick ass! :). Oh yes, of course you need a chairmen and this game features about 40 different chairmen from Otto von Bismarck to William Wheelwright. Do note that these people really existed many years or centuries ago. PopTop Software didn't made all those characters up. The game also features FMV (Full Motion Video) at various stages and I must admit that these are all of very high quality! Hurray!    Any 3D-accelerated graphics? Well not exactly. Railroad Tycoon II does offer a 3D map environment but it doesn't require an 3D-accelerator. However, I must say that all the trains, buildings and other objects such as rivers are all excellent animated. There is really no lack of detail here because the developers have really animated everything where they could get their talented hands on. When you zoom in or zoom out it just stays beautiful rendered in 3D. This game has certainly better graphics than its predecessor and thats pretty logical too. When you run it in its maximum resolution 1024x768 the graphics looks outstanding! Even in lower resolutions it all looks awesome. This has to be the most detailed simulation game this year. Please be aware that if you run it in its maximum resolution that you will need more horsepower then just a Pentium 166Mhz with 16 Mb Ram. Recommended is a P200 with at least 32 MB Ram. The bigger the maps are the more Ram you will need to run it smoothly. When you completely zoom in on the trains, cargos or buildings you will be able to recognize what cargo it ships or what building it is. The only bitch I found is when you lay track. It might be sometimes very frustrating because the game doesn't always follow your mouse movements and that's a bit tricky. Sometimes it's very annoying when you want to continue in laying track because the game doesn't find the appropriate direction. The A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) of your computer opponents are all based on historical industry barons like Vanderbilt, Drew, Stephenson, Gould and many more. Another impressing feature is that all the maps are REAL! What I mean is that they are all based on Satellite photography taken from the U.S. Geological Survey and other sources. Talk about a realistic game! The interface of PopTop's newest game makes it very easy to navigate. It is 100% driven by the use of your mouse and all the buttons that are available on your map are all self-explanatory. There could be more online-help with some items as right clicking on them would give me a little screen that says: 'No help available'. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9 "rip your own stuff"