Transport Fever hands-on – getting closer and closer to Transport Tycoon

Transport Tycoon belongs to the closed and elite circle of games that are truly iconic – games that have brought up an entire generation of boys and girls that love placing railway tracks and stuffing passengers into buses. Unfortunately, we are now long past the golden age of economic strategy. Thankfully, the bad times also seem to be coming to an end – self-styled amusement park developers soon will receive Planet Coaster, among other propositions. For now, the fans of Transport Tycoon were in a bit of a privileged position, as the free OpenTTD (Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe) provided basically everything the wanted – and free of charge. For some, however, that was not good enough. One such dissatisfied individual is Basil Weber, who had spent his youth on managing successive virtual transport empires. As he said himself during the game's gamescom 2016 presentation, at some point he decided that it was time to challenge the legend and create a new Transport Tycoon – an iteration worthy of the 21st century. That's how the Swiss studio Urban Games came to be; two years ago they released Train Fever, and this year the company will publish Transport Fever, an expanded sequel of their moderately successful debut.

Railway fever and a great disappointment

Transport Tycoon is a strategy game from 1994. The title was designed by Chris Sawyer, the creator of the equally iconic RollerCoaster Tycoon. The latter of the two games has been recently revived thanks to a decent mobile port, employing graphic design from yet another game from this legendary dev – Chris Sawyer's Locomotion.

Let's begin with what exactly Transport Fever is – it's an economic game where we take control of a company dealing in transport of people and goods. During the game, we operate on vast maps that encompass both villages and towns, as well as all sorts of factories or mines. Our goal is to build a profitable communication networks, be it on land, sea or in the air. Our actions help both the residents (enabling them to get to work or go shopping) and city development, supplying urban areas with the necessary resources. The game takes place between the years 1850 and 2020, and with the passage of time we are given access to more and more technologically advanced means of transport – starting with stagecoaches and going all the way to modern electric buses.

The game's predecessor – Train Fever – was very promising, and the news of its release electrified the fans of economic tycoons. Unfortunately, the title failed to deliver on the numerous promises – while it was very impressive in terms of visuals, the game left a lot to be desired in other aspects. The interface gave everyone a hard time, hardly helping with an already not-the-most-amusing job, which was to design and expand a complex railway network. The game also lacked AI-controlled opponents or game modes other than a typical sandbox. As a result, Train Fever disappointed. The creators, however, gathered all the opinions, listened to the players, doubled the size of their own team (from 4 to 9 people) and prepared for the second round. Everything seems to suggest that this time it will be much better.

Slowly, yet steady

One thing needs to said – the issues pointed out with regard to the previous installment of the series have been partially resolved. The biggest change is the addition of planes and ships, introducing some fast but expensive means of passenger transport over long distances. For this mechanic to make sense, every resident now also has, beside a workplace and home, a traveling preference. Some of them, like students, will choose cheaper means of transport. Others, such as businessmen, definitely opt for speed and do not care for the costs. Transport Fever also increases the number of goods that we can transport – now equal to as many as 20 various wares. Another addition is the ability to analyze urban development – drawing inspiration from Cities: Skylines, designated residential, commercial, and industrial zones are now marked with appropriate colors. One thing I find intriguing is also the issue of aging ships – the more years they have served, the more they are eaten by rust, increasing their maintenance costs.

The most important thing, however, is the fact that the interface finally seems to be more intuitive – but it's still not the prettiest one around. Railway construction has been improved by introducing options of creating track crossings or enabling us to place railway signals on the bridges as well. It may not sound revolutionary, but it's good to know that the authors have diagnosed the problems that plagued the previous iteration and moved in to intercept them.

From Ford to Nissan

Transport Fever will feature two gameplay modes. Free play, in which we can have fun without specific objectives, and two campaigns (one in America and one in Europe), indicating certain goals to be achieved. The game takes place across more than 150 years – starting in 1850, and from there lasting for however long we want. Note, however, that after 2020 no new vehicles or airplanes will be introduced. Transport Fever wouldn't be complete without mod support: the game will appear on Valve's platform and will support Steam Workshop.

A model maker’s wet dream

Transport Fever looks eye-popping – though this observation applies only to the 3D models. Ships, planes, trains, cars – all of them look great. The sophisticated 3D models and high-quality textures are definitely easy on the eye. During the presentation, the developers showed us an airplane taking off – I find it impressive that a strategy game made an effort to include details such as operation of the landing gear. As a result, from close-up Transport Fever looks like a simulator, not "just" a tycoon – and the credit goes to the proprietary game engine created by the Swiss team. It is a pity that the environment still leaves something to be desired in terms of its looks – although the quality of the grass or trees was improved, the overall impression is rather monotonous, contrasting strongly with the lavishly detailed vehicle models. That's something the creators have yet to work on.

When asked, Basil Weber, the co-founder of Urban Games, admitted that the studio slowly begins to plan the next installment in the Fever series. He suggested that the next game will introduce AI-competition for our company – as that was the option that was lacking the most in Train Fever, and is nowhere to be found in Transport Fever as well. Who knows, maybe Urban Games will repeat Colossal Order's road to success – the latter first released two mediocre iterations of Cities in Motion, but thanks to the experience they gathered along the way the company was eventually able to hit it big with the release of the excellent Cities: Skylines. I hope that in a few years we will be able to say the same of a certain small Swiss studio, founded by an ambitious fan of Transport Tycoon.