What the hell? You don't see Jordan Mechner's Karateka, or Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, or John Romero's Daikatana, or Warren Spector's Deus Ex.
On the topic of trains:
I have played Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3. That's the extent of my computer railroad experience. I enjoyed both those games to a tremendous extent. RT3 had a different economic balance than RT2, and took some adjusting, but it worked for the game.
SMR (Sid Meyer's Railroads) is more "arcade-like" than the Tycoon series. That doesn't make it juvenile in comparison, but the interface and play balance attempt to make the game more fun than serious.
For example, the stock market is extremely minimal. Your company cannot issue more stock -- the amount of stock is fixed at the beginning of the company. You can't resign and start another company, and you are required to micromanage your trains and route. All rail must be connected, and the city buildings "move" to make room for whatever you do -- with an associated "moving" cost depending on what has to be moved.
The "learning curve" is very gradual for a beginner. The game is easy to pickup and start playing. There is no set grid -- like in the Tycoon series -- to put objects and rail, so laying track is simple. You have to lay the track within a green "circle of influence", but that is the only requirement for towns and resources.
I like the auctions (you can buy factories). I like the route planning, which is very similar to RT2/3. I like the graphics.
I like being required to connection-plan my track. You have to make manual connections between double or triple rails, and the connections are direction oriented. If a train could not physically make a turn, then it
won't make that turn and you will see towns and resources that are unreachable until you make the right curves and connections with your tracks. For example, when you merge perpendicular rails, you'd better make a left and right turn onto the perpendicular track, or you won't be able to send a train in both directions (or from both directions).
However, I have a list of things that I do not like about it.
There is no "double track" option. You
must lay single track, and then you can lay a line on either side of that one using the addon tool. This makes for some serious planning issues. I'd like a double-track option so that I don't have to go through and lay another line next to the original one -- sometimes there are issues with the second track, with bridging or tunneling or overpass, and it turns into an unecessary nightmare.
I don't like the fixed view distance. I want to be able to zoom out.
There's more, which I'll add later.
