Thoughts by Mr Creosote (21 Jun 2004) – Amiga (OCS)
Which game would fit the description ‘digital model railroad’ best? Most people would say Railroad Tycoon. It doesn’t quite fit, though, because of the economic aspects. For Märklin fans, it’s mostly about controlling switching points and setting routes. The almost perfect computer translation of that is Locomotion.
The game’s objective: to get your trains to their destinations safely. Stations are spread over the level, and locomotives are randomly appearing there from time to time. They automatically start moving, and they won’t stop for anything – always following the tracks.
To get them to their destination, and to avoid crashes (a certain amount of crashes is allowed per level, but it’s of course not advisable to use it for the loss of time it causes), the player has to plan the routes accordingly. And that’s what setting the switching points is used for usually…
Because it would be too easy otherwise, everything takes place in real time. The more trains are en route at the same time, the harder it gets. Once a train is at last getting close to its destination, it can still happen that a new one appears there the same moment – so you quickly reroute the first one to another track again. More valuable time lost.
The levels are ranging from simple straight tracks to very complex systems. Sometimes you’ll even get symmetric railroads which turn out to be especially tricky. Graphically, you’ll get very different flavours as well: not only the typical European landscapes, but also deserts and futuristic scenarios need an organized railroad system.
In contrast to certain other contestants in the same genre, Locomotion is played completely intuitively. Learning anything isn’t necessary, you can start immediately: a click with your mouse changes the direction of a switching point, and that’s it. Of course, the actual solution of the levels should be worked on in your offline brain…
