There’s something so appealing about playing with trains. They go exactly where you ask them to, but can still behave in unexpected ways to keep things interesting. Railgrade from developer Minakata Dynamics is a great railway management simulation game with some interesting questions. While it doesn’t delve into its mechanics like other games in the genre, it manages to stay entertained throughout its lengthy campaign.
Mastering the careful balancing act between cost and efficiency is at the heart of Railgarde, placing players in the role of Administrator of the dubious Nakatani Chemicals corporation. New to the corporate space colony, your role is to manage resources at locations and make sure everything runs smoothly around the planet. That means setting up increasingly complex rail systems to transport materials, energy and goods to where they need to go.
The game has a lighthearted storyline, which is not surprising considering the genre. There are minor interactions with other Nakatani Chemicals employees, but they’re mainly there to establish the late-stage capitalist world the game poses. What is enough to help Railgrade stand out from other railway management simulations, at least for a few hours. Deeply anti-capitalist humor, with mentions of how the corporation has absolute control over its workers and is effectively holding players hostage until they are allowed to return. The earth.
As you click through the scathing comments from other employees, you are free to tackle your latest assignment from your company leaders. Each level has a different goal and different resources are available to help you complete them. The initial levels focus on introducing mechanics like how to give power plants the materials they need to generate energy or how to keep the population of the city growing so you have a source of energy. provide healthy labor to assign. There is some formality required during these stages but it will soon unfold and give players the freedom to play however they want.
That freedom is where the game really shines. Many stages are simple enough that you can complete them with very basic setups, but experimentation can reveal some interesting circuits and settings that can increase efficiency. At its core, the game is about moving materials from Point A to Point B and potentially to Point C, but there are countless ways to do that. For example, you could build a line with a train, but a more efficient use of your time and energy might be to create a circuit or loop with trains going around. Once you’ve mastered them, it’s gratifying to watch your locomotives move across the map.
Completing objectives faster can earn the player more Tokens from Nakatani Chemicals, which are used to unlock new tracks, licenses for resource buildings, and train types. This is largely optional but could bring a bit more variety to the game, especially in its waning hours. Some of the train engines you can unlock will move faster or traverse inclines better, which comes in handy as the map gets more dangerous. Changeable music is especially welcome; while the original song isn’t bad, you’ll want variety if you invest more hours into the game.
The early hours are easily the best, with each stage feeling different and new goals. You will then begin to recognize patterns and be able to guess the best way to tackle each task before you even begin. That repetition is unfortunate because it causes the game to lose steam as soon as it needs to start. Still, the few hours of gameplay here are compelling enough to justify the game’s relatively low price tag. Fortunately, the mechanics are simple enough that you can get them back after a long break.
The visuals and music caught us off guard during gameplay. The animations looked sharp and the environments were more varied and textured than we expected. The music makes it feel like you’re at a nightclub that can only play royalty-free tracks, but it works to keep the game from feeling too generic throughout. There’s a surprising amount of polish here, perhaps not too necessary considering the simple concept, but it makes watching our trains move around environments surprisingly satisfying. course. Touchscreen fans may be disappointed that it doesn’t offer any functionality, but performance wise we didn’t run into any issues, with good load times and no issues. about the frame rate during our gameplay.
Railgrade’s biggest downside is that it extends its welcome time by several hours. At the end of the game the levels become repetitive and more of an exercise in time investment than real challenge. This is where slightly deeper mechanics or a more engaging story could have helped; either of them could have saved the game from getting calloused the way it did. For players who like to experiment with systems for maximum effect, these levels can be more interesting. For others, though, that’s not enough to keep you coming back for more.
If you’re a lover of train management sims, there’s plenty of content in Railgrade to justify the price. You’ll probably get a good ten hours in the game before it starts to feel repetitive. There are tons of quests to tackle, with several optional levels if you’re looking for more Coupons or just love a different challenge. However, despite the environmental polish, even the most avid fans of the genre will likely lose interest in the game before they’ve accomplished all of their goals.
Inference
Railgrade isn’t trying to recreate the railroad management simulation game, but it polishes and solidifies what’s there to become one of the better examples of this niche genre. The story, as lighthearted as it tends to be, pokes fun at late-stage capitalism that doesn’t become the sole focus of the game. It lacks greatness due to repetition and lack of depth in the hours that follow, but there’s still more than enough here that fans of resource management sims don’t feel like they’ve been taken out.
