Does life ever get so dull that you feel the only thing that will satisfy your burning urges is to run a multimillion-pound transport company? Me too! Well, thankfully Urban Games have come through with Transport Fever 3. From the 1900s horse-drawn carriage to trains flying along the tracks at 200 km/h, it is all there. This is going to be a walk in the park, surely?
Transport Fever 3 – High Speed, or Limping Along?
Having played Railroad Tycoon when it first came out, all the way to Transport Fever 2, I would say that I was in a good position to see what the fuss is about. Gonna blow my controller’s whistle and set the review express in motion.
Gameplay
Where to start with Transport Fever 3? There is so much to look at. Tutorial, Map designer, Scenarios and all the associated settings, oh, and the game as well.
The campaign scenarios are the best way to learn. For those new to Transport Fever, go here, learn how to lay roads and tracks, create lines and buy vehicles. I mean, if that was all there was to it, it would be easy. However, residents need to be kept happy for populated areas to grow. Also, industries need to be supplied with materials to keep working to supply the goods the residents need. It’s one long chain from one end to the other. I have made it sound rather easy; however, it is not. The fish go off by the time they get to the residents, the fuel depot is too far away to keep the supplies frequent enough, and the residents don’t like waiting at overcrowded stops.
Buy warehouses, stations, depots, maintenance stops and boatyards, to name just a few. Specialise vehicles to make your lines profitable, and it’s a win-win, until the residents demand more.
Control
The editables. Change map size and shape, change the town and industry density, make the world you play in a little easier or harder. The possibilities and combinations are limitless. Play, play some more and play again. The easier game modes are very enjoyable, with resources in plenty and supply routes easily available. The harder game modes require a lot of thinking and pre-planning to make every penny count.
As the years roll on, the transport infrastructure will need to be updated and upgraded. Original locations may not be suitable, so as the game grows, so does your knowledge. The further you get, the more future-proofing you put into the next game. As they say, ‘Life is a Highway’; well, in this case it’s also train tracks.
Hop on board and follow your vehicle’s route through the streets or through the countryside when the top-down view gets a little tedious. You have earned a break to sit next to some passengers or cargo for a while. Suspend belief for a while as you try and figure out how it takes a truck travelling at 30 km/h about a month to traverse a map that is only 16km squared. Work out how it is that a horse and carriage cost over £80k in 1900. Surely no one had that money? Get a bigger loan and just roll that money in.
What’s good?
The layout is easy to understand; you can get a lot on the screen at once to have complete control of your lines and vehicles. The tutorials and scenarios in the campaign are good. They are not designed to be too serious, and a little fun is had as well. Mistakes are not overly punished at the easier settings. There is a learning curve, but it’s spoon-fed and very gentle. Ideal for me. The varied speeds are a necessity that allow passages that would be boring to be skipped, and more importantly, a good pause for when panic stations are reached.
What’s not good?
Sometimes the gameplay is not as intuitive as it could be. I have had lines that don’t want to start at the first stop when set up. This is very frustrating. Some stops don’t appear unless you are zoomed in to a close level. This can mean that collecting goods from a warehouse doesn’t happen. Ensure that slow vehicles are not on the same route as faster ones, as overtaking isn’t a thing. A lot of the gameplay is not covered in the tutorial; this can lead to trial and error, and that is not a good thing.
Are the improvements really enough to convince a casual player to upgrade from TF2? I personally don’t think so, but I think it would be a better first purchase to get into the TF series.
Graphics & Audio
For those of you who are thinking about upgrading from TF2 to TF3, the graphics are improved, though whether enough to enhance the gameplay that much is questionable. The characters in the campaign are bright and colourful in what might otherwise be a very beige game. The detailing on the vehicles and locations is very good, but definitely a smidge shy of total realism.
The audio in Transport Fever 3 is questionable; the background music is slightly grating and a little too noticeable. It isn’t a worst-case scenario, but it didn’t blend in as well as it could have for me. There are settings, though, either on or off, no gradual fade, so it sits a little lower in the mix. There is some voice acting as well; it is hard to judge for me though. Whilst the voice acting isn’t great, it kind of fits with the game really well, so I will not be too harsh on it. Maybe work on the humour a little though.
Longevity
Time moves in a different way when playing Transport Fever 3; a simple jump on and play a couple of game years can easily turn into a 1:00 a.m. finish and a panic because you have work the following day. This was far too often the case for me: ‘I’ll just get that one last line connected so I don’t forget’. This is inevitably followed by wondering if the last bus picked people up, whether the train to Clarkesville picked up the Monkeys, or if the oil field has been drained. This then leads to another cycle of actions that need to be performed. Then the sun is coming up, and you have to get the kids up ready for school. There is a good chance that the hardest part of Transport Fever 3 is actually Life Manager 3. Getting started is easy, so having various games on the go in different locations, densities and sizes is a real option to keep you fully committed.
Final Thoughts
Urban Games have hit the ball out of the park again. Having said that, when the previous pitch was knocked out of the park, it does make it easier. There is no question that Transport Fever 3 is a fantastic game; there are a few issues, but once you are aware of them, they are no longer issues. I sit here finishing this review with eyes half open and caffeine very close. I think that speaks volumes about what I think of my experience of playing. Transport Fever 3 did unfortunately leave me wanting more though. The good news for Urban Games is that it was for more hours in the day.
I give Transport Fever 3 the Thumb Culture Gold Award!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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