Jeebus help you, though, if a ship has to make any sort of turn.Once, the lands were ripe with warriors of renowned skill, all lusting for glory and fortune through their mastery of swordplay.

When theres a straight line between two docking ports in the game, everything works fine. The problem is, even though the basics are there, there are specific elements that make it much less fun than it could be. Theres always something to do, something to check, a new route to set up or another company to run into the ground.Īt its best, Locomotion brilliantly captures that just one more thing factor that keeps you up until 4am. You can tweak schedules, futz around with engine types and routing and even shred the Sherman Act by creating your own industries that your company can then service. Locomotion is an insanely deep management sim that lets you take control of every aspect of your budding monopoly. Still, gameplay trumps graphics, right Surely the patented Chris Sawyer addictive gameplay makes up for the ugly graphics Well, yes. The difference is that Rollercoaster Tycoon had a sense of fun and whimsy and provided structures to build that were much more visually interesting than anything in Locomotion.Įverything in Locomotions cities is the same boxy pseudo-modern architecture thats just plain boring to look at. Im not a graphics junkie, and Ive always believed that gameplay trumps graphics every time, but even if you could set aside the circa-1996 graphics technology, Locomotion is a remarkably unattractive game even from an art design perspective.Ĭonsider that Locomotion sports essentially the same graphics that so wowed us in Rollercoaster Tycoon. Or, it would be the games greatest fun, if the graphics werent so astonishingly ugly. The greatest fun the game offers is watching your vehicles zip back and forth on the transportation networks you set up and seeing small towns grow into mighty cities. Play begins on an open map filled with small communities that consist of box-like suburban housing, and scattered, unconnected industries that either produce goods or are waiting for goods to be delivered.Īs time passes and technology improves, towns will grow and shrink and industries will open and close, each of which will need to be serviced by your fleets of trucks, buses, trains, boats and eventually, airplanes.

Well, Transport Tycoon fans had better keep looking because Locomotion isnt the update youve been waiting for. While Rollercoaster Tycoon fans can look forward to a brand new update with modern 3D graphics and updated gameplay later this year, Transport Tycoon fans have Chris Sawyers Locomotion, the spiritual sequel to Transport Tycoon.

Chris sawyer s locomotion crack