Picture the scene: it’s family game night, and you’re playing Monopoly. Your younger sibling, with tears in their eyes, hands you their final property. Your parents look on disapprovingly, but they are powerless against the absolute law of the rulebook as you proudly look over a game board entirely controlled by you. And it is good. Sadly, for many of us, our families no longer gather for intense Monopoly games anymore. Maybe it’s difficult to gather everyone in one place, or maybe your family are just cowards to your superior Capitalist intellect. Whatever the case, you can once again feel that thrill in a competitive game of money and material: Railway Empire 2!
Much like those old-school board games, you can select from one of six in-game characters. However, unlike Monopoly where these pieces offer no real in-game features apart from style points (and thus the best game-piece is the top hat – fight me) in Railway Empire 2, the six individual characters each provide in-game advantages and disadvantages. Whilst The Engineer might be the master of building and maintaining tracks, he doesn’t have quite the… persuasive abilities of The Gangster when acquiring factories at auction. The Professor can bargain for cheaper locomotives, whilst the wily Entrepreneur can take the best advantage of the staff running her empire.
Once you’ve decided on your character of choice, it’s time to get into the game! Starting out with a fledgling city, you begin connecting and expanding with the game’s intuitive-yet-complex track creation system. You will have to decide whether it is worth building an expensive bridge over troubled water, or take the long way round, slowing the route but saving precious money with which to build further tracks or resource-building factories.
Factories and warehouses, much like hotels in Monopoly or a Fianchetto in Chess, are a longer-term investment for your empire. These allow you economic advantages over your opponents by producing refined goods and allowing them to be efficiently distributed between cities.
But you will be richly rewarded when you supply a town with these complex luxuries, as the town will begin growing, supplying you with new customers who will rely on your company to transport them, and sate their ever-increasing appetite for the good life.
So, whilst Railway Empire 2 may not allow you to traumatize your younger sibling, it will still capture that healthy competitive urge. You can buy out your competitors slowly, before finally absorbing their empire into yours. Alternatively, and unlike real-life family members, you can slowly purchase their corporation – meaning that even while apparently competing with you – their profits are still coming into your coffers. This is, after all, the golden age of the locomotive, the birth of the railroad system, and a perfect opportunity for a clever entrepreneur like yourself.
Grab Railway Empire 2 on Xbox Series X|S or play via Xbox Game Pass today.
Railway Empire 2
Kalypso Media
Railway Empire 2 features bigger, more detailed and lively maps than ever before. The whole of the US and continental Europe are covered in two huge, sprawling maps, whilst more detailed maps put the focus on specific regions of each continent. Improved track construction helps you focus on the important decisions as you drive the economy and help the growth of the cities. Signals are placed automatically, bridges can hold more than 4 tracks and the expandable train stations can now have up to 8 tracks.
Choose from 6 different characters to lead your railway company, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Play the 5-chapter campaign or choose from any of the 14 different scenarios. Set your own difficulty in the fully customisable Free Play mode or build the perfect rail network in construction mode. Tackle the competition of your railway empire together with friends in Co-op Multiplayer. You can also board one of your trains and gaze upon the scenery passing by as the iron horse speeds along the tracks while you sit back and enjoy the view.
Features:
• History in the making: In 1830 at the dawn of the age of railways, build a grand railway empire from scratch and choose from 60 detailed, historic locomotives that you can customize with your preferred colors and company initials.
• A sprawling landscape: Huge and detailed game world covering the whole of the USA and Europe in one single map each, as well as more detailed regional maps spread all over the US and Europe.
• Endless Possibilities: Choose how you want to play from the 5-chapter campaign set across iconic regions of Europe and the US, 14 scenarios, the customizable free play mode, the relaxing construction mode, and co-op multiplayer for up to 4 players controlling the same railway company.
• Improved track construction: Laying tracks is easier than ever with automatically placed signals, bridges that can hold more than 4 tracks, train stations with up to 8 tracks and new train station attachments to customize your stations. The land also adapts to your track layout as your tracks cross mountains, valleys and plains.
• Enjoy the view: Ride along your train and see the landscape rush by from the inside of the wagons or from the front seat in the driver’s compartment of the steam engine.
