Dbbum's Full Review: Chris Sawyer's Locomotion for Windows
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion is a business simulation game created by Chris Sawyer and published by Atari in 2004. Chris Sawyer is better known as the creator of the Rollercoaster Tycoon series. In fact, Locomotion uses the exact same game engine as Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. But this is not the first time that Sawyer has tinkered around with animated trains. Locomotion is very similar to his decade old creation, Transport Tycoon. In a nutshell, Locomotion feels just like the old days of Transport Tycoon, but with better graphics using the game engine of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Technically, this isn't Transport Tycoon 2, but it sure feels like a sequel.
The main objective of Locomotion is to build a network of transportation for various towns while generating revenue for future endeavors. As the owner and president of a transportation company, you must create networks across the world map by building roads, trains, trams, boats, and aircrafts. These various modes of transportation carry things like people, mail, coal, oil and goods, which provide streams of income for your business. This money can then be used to create new stations, buy new trains, lay more track, fund new industries, or replace older vehicles.
Along the way you are either working with, or battling against, other computer controlled competitors. So, there is some level of difficulty in maintaining a positive cash flow business. Sometimes they will intrude on your services, stealing resources from a local industry and lowering your income from that service. Other times, competitors can be a good thing, as they pick up the slack that perhaps you can't afford. For example, you deliver chemicals from a plant to a factory while a competitor delivers the goods from that factory to a nearby town. Those goods will then make the town more prosperous, thus providing a larger market for your mail truck service. This is just one example of how complex systems can work together to create an ever changing game.
The overall gameplay is quite simple, and thanks to the Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 game engine, managing your networks is even easier. In Transport Tycoon, the menus were spread out and sometimes confusing. In Locomotion, the menus are all tied together, easier to navigate, and easier to access detailed information. There are menus for building train tracks, roads, docks, and airports. Then another set of menus for adding new trucks, trams, boats and planes. Once a vehicle gets going you can access a smaller menu to determine a route and view other helpful information. The best improvement is a combined list of all vehicles and stations in one set of menus. Here you can see the names of each vehicle, where it's going, how much money it generates. For stations, you can also see the name, what is waiting, and what it provides and accepts. And with a single click, you can access that smaller menu, center it on your screen, and make changes much faster than before. Basically with the new game engine, it feels like Transport Tycoon all over again, just more organized and easier to play.
Not everything about Locomotion is similar to the original. In this sequel, you will find scenarios ranging from beginner to expert. On the easy scenarios, your goal is merely to transport something like 500 passengers within 5 game years. On the difficult scenarios, your goal is tougher, like achieving a company value of $1 million, as the top performing company amongst a dozen others, and the world map is all small islands. This kind of setup is also similar to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, in that the easy scenarios are too easy and the expert scenarios are nearly impossible. There is no free mode without objectives, although technically you can start any scenario, disregard the objectives and just play to your hearts content. Also included is a scenario editor which allows you to create your own scenarios. Here you can generate your own world map, pick the vehicles you want available, and choose the objectives. This scenario editor is again very similar to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. And as always, you can share these scenarios online or download other user generated scenarios.
Locomotion uses the third game engine (from my count) in a series of game engines that span from Transport Tycoon, to Rollercoaster Tycoon, and finally Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Graphically speaking, going from Transport Tycoon to Locomotion is like going from SimCity 2000 to SimCity 3000. The gameplay is basically the same, but we're treated to better graphics and a better game engine that ultimately provides a better gaming experience. And since Locomotion is a new game, it actually works on the Windows operating system, with very few bugs and glitches and no patches or upgrades are required after installation. Though, graphically speaking, this is still very much a pixilated 2d Sawyer type game. Nothing really seems realistic and it's quite obvious you're playing an animated computer game.
When it comes to creating fun little 2d environments for simulation games, Chris Sawyer has it down to a science. But when it comes to sound and music, Sawyer is clueless. Just like Transport Tycoon, there are few sounds and generic midi music throughout the game. However, sound effects are definitely improved. Rather than a quick bit of sound when a truck starts its engine, there is now a constant sound effect played while the truck is driving down the road. As long as a vehicle is running on screen, you can hear every sound it makes. Trains go choo choo, trucks guzzle their gas, and steam flows from the steam engines. Also added are environmental ambience effects, like birds chirping in forest areas. While there are still few sound effects, there is more to hear than Transport Tycoon. You won't blow out your speakers from excess noise or anything but at least your senses will be stimulated this time.
Overall, Locomotion is a great business simulation game from Chris Sawyer. If you played Transport Tycoon back in the day and always wanted a better sequel, this is surely your calling. The graphics are better, the game engine is more stable, it's playable under the Windows operating system, more sound effects are present, and overall the game is more enjoyable to play. The only drawback to Locomotion is its similarity to Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. If you played that game and didn't like it for whatever reason, you probably won't like Chris Sawyer's Locomotion either because they are nearly identical in design. But if you love casual tycoon games that require micromanagement skills, then Chris Sawyer's Locomotion is an upgraded classic worth checking out.
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