Railway Empire comes to Nintendo Switch two years after its appearance on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. This train management game is still a good benchmark within the genre, but does this version of Nintendo’s laptop keep up with it? Get comfortable and enjoy the trip, which we tell you in the Railway Empire review.
It was in 1825 when George Stephenson built the world’s first public railway line to use steam locomotives. That milestone in England marked the future of modern society to this day. Currently, rail transport moves millions of people every day on urban and interurban routes. However, those iron roads that seem to have always been there had a beginning, some pioneers and a multitude of stories revolving around them. At Railway Empire we witness the period of its creation and expansion across the American continent during the 19th century. An epic that united the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
The expansion into the American West has been the subject of countless stories in literature, film and, of course, the video game. In the specific case of Railway Empire, it is not the first train management game that our environment sees. Others like Train Valley, Train Sim World or RailWorks have dared to make their approaches to the world of railroad from different angles and proposals. What sets Railway Empire apart from the rest, leaving a more pleasant taste in the mouth than its competitors, is knowing how to fit within a historical period as iconic as it is concrete. The player can allow himself the luxury of dreaming based on his proposal in isometric perspective thanks to a good handful of game modes and a successful cast of characters that accompany the title.
The circulatory system of a titan
What’s it like to build a railroad empire on Switch? We see it with this Railway Empire gameplay
Despite what it may seem, Railway Empire is not an experience based solely on the management of locomotives, platforms and rails. Our roads are the source of food for the different cities and towns that they reach. In the same way that our arteries carry blood to every tissue in our body, the tracks and routes in Railway Empire will be a judge and part of the destiny of the settlements that they reach. Therefore, we are not alone before decisions of layout or improvement of our locomotives. The strategic component, trade, and resource sourcing play a key role in the title.
The cinematics between chapters will liven up the transitions during the game.
It would be unwise to try to supply a city that lives off the textile industry without circulating our train network through plantations in which to supply itself. At Railway Empire, the goal is not just to get there, it’s to become the largest and most powerful railway company the Wild West has ever known. An apparent virtue of this Railway Empire is to offer the player up to four game modes that provide us with a good handful of hours of entertainment. First of all, we have the campaign. Throughout five missions that we undertake in a context of 100 years, the game proposes a series of requirements to be fulfilled in a limited time. These objectives are varied and will not only have to do with our trains; For example, we will have to achieve a certain quarterly profit, increase the population of a city, start a series of trains at the same time or transport a specific number of passengers.
In campaign mode, missions must be completed in order to unlock new ones.
In the scenario mode we find missions that will cover periods of 20 years. Part of the grace of this modality is that we will leave North America at times to expand our routes to the center and south of the continent thanks to the three expansions that this version of Nintendo Switch contains. The missions are not too far from what was seen in the campaign, sometimes more than one with objectives to be met. To differentiate itself, this game variant introduces a factor that is as fun as it is necessary: competitors .
These rivals managed by artificial intelligence also set out to conquer the territory, expanding their own routes and creating situations a little more complex than those seen in the main campaign. On the other hand, in each of these scenarios we will have several missions that we can face in the order we want and as many times as we want. While Scenario Mode and Campaign only allow the player to customize the type of game pause, Free ModeIt gives the opportunity to further edit each of the scenarios by marking the number of competitors, the level of AI or the initial capital with which we start among other characteristics. The truth is that, although it is not a way in which to start without having first acquired the basic mechanisms of the game, it is the proposal that I have enjoyed the most. This is mainly due to the elimination of the time factor that other forms have that can make the experience somewhat stressful at times.
To end its offer, Railway Empire offers the user a sort of sandbox mode. With everything unlocked from the beginning and unlimited financial capital, the title invites the player to experiment and try everything he can give in terms of resource creation. Without a doubt, this will be the option of choice for those who wish to expand for an unlimited time in everything that Railway Empire is capable of.
Steam and coal
The upgrade tree is well nurtured and trying to unlock them all is a vice.
When meeting the challenges proposed by Railway Empire, we will do so in the shoes of one of the six characters that the title gives us to choose from. This diverse group is made up of figures as different as an engineer, a gangster or a general, for example. To opt for one or the other, the game grants a series of special attributes for each of them with their consequent benefits on our game. Good balancing work by the studio is appreciated at this point , so it is not felt that one gives more significant advantages than another by encouraging the player to try the game with everyone.
It has adapted well to Nintendo Switch, but the portable mode is not entirely comfortable to playIn addition, the title incorporates some emergent situations that add freshness to the gameplay, having to face sabotage or industrial espionage. To spice up the games we have some newspapers that add to the background of the story and witness our progress. When we get down to work, it is essential to calmly study the course of our tracks, choosing wisely where and at what cost to place our rails. For this, the game has a good implementation of the control in its version of Switch, directly inherited and adjusted from the versions of PS4 and Xbox One. The interface is friendly and the wheel-shaped drop-down menus are a practical solution for a title with multitude of options. However, in portable mode There have been times when I have not felt entirely comfortable, seeing the set too small so I would not recommend this option unless it was strictly necessary.
Something similar has happened to me with the tutorials . Extensive and detailed in some points, there are others that are less explained and can be confusing during the first hours of play. Nothing that does not end up solving after a while but that can take less experienced players away from the experience. It is especially objectionable that, despite the fact that the program has been on the market for two years now, it has not taken the opportunity to polish up some of these flaws, which can be corrected with relative little effort.
The Switch version is below its sisters in the technical section.
In the management section, the role of cities stands out . In these settlements we will have to build stations of a size adequate to the traffic and population volume, promote a type of industry favorable to our main route that is supplied from the peripheral branches and even create attractions that increase the flow of passengers to a city. As for the trains, the most enjoyable thing is to improve them through the use of innovation points that serve to enable new improvementsThey are presented in a “skill tree” format. Each of these improvement segments will adapt to the different times in which we find ourselves during the mission. Depending on the context and the year, new locomotive models will be added with a total of about forty in the whole experience. All of them respond to a totally real model, managing to be a good recreation of them.
However, someone like Sheldon Cooper would have demanded a little more depth in this facet, with some more detailed or historical explanation or description of the machine in question. As we progress we observe how money and finances are gaining importance, because let’s not forget it, as representatives of the Union Pacific our objective is progress: of the country and of our pocket. This is an especially rough section of the game. Quarterly reports are overwhelming and hard to know what is what, showing a large number of numbers that will be difficult to interpret properly.
The graphics of Railway Empire on Switch is one of its weakest points. It is true that the title was not a technical marvel at its launch on PC and Microsoft and Sony consoles, but this version in Nintendo’s hybrid comes out especially badly. Some textures of the environments are missed and modeling and shadows are appreciated well below the versions launched on the market two years ago. In portable mode, its performance is even more impaired when accompanied by a text font with a very small size that, being the type of game that it is, clearly denotes the little care that has been put into its conversion. His best face is shown in the drawn-looking introductory videos and his characters, with their own style attractive gaining visual charm on the off world that is, in many moments Railway Empire.
All the locomotives respond to a totally real model, managing to be a good recreation of themThe stages feel empty and the cities show little personality. Of course, the program does not pursue these objectives, but I think that a little more care in this area would have done it wonderfully. In terms of sound, Railway Empire is compliant in effects and melodies that accurately accompany what happens on screen and that evoke the Westerns most loved by all. This is nothing if we compare it with the excellent work of localization into Spanish that has been done, especially in voices with a good handful of actors recognizable by the general public to give life to each of the characters in the game. As a final note, I am surprised that the expansion of European countries has not been added, as it would have made this the definitive version of Railway Empire.
“Interesting”
Railway Empire
Railway Empire does not lose its essence two years after its launch on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, but its version on Nintendo Switch does not shine as we expected. Despite adding some additional content, it misses the opportunity to launch a definitive edition that counteracts the technical deficiencies of the port.
- Excellent dubbing into Spanish
- Its management system is deep and fun, with many game modes
- If you like trains, you will enjoy watching the locomotives and building tracks
- Its graphic section has suffered important cuts
- Portable mode is not the best way to enjoy the game
- Tutorials that better explain how it works are missing
