I just posted this on the home page:
Industry Giant and Transport Giant have a lot of the gameplay that I like, but the graphics are blah and track building and signals are pathetic. Station upgrades are cool too.
TrainFever has the graphics. The track building is much better but it still could be greatly improved (level crossings, roads placed other rails, less “collisions”, etc.).
But the most frustrating thing for me in TrainFever is the lack of animation and production of the industries. I want to see my Bigboy pull 100 cars through a working coal tipple which visually loads the cars. Hell, 20 year old games have working animated industries.
Too often I build a route (e.g., coal and iron ore to a steel mill and a separate goods train to a city) and NOTHING HAPPENS! Nothing is produced and the trains all run empty. I want to see some fruit from my labor. I want to see the industries grow and prosper and fill my trains with products. I want to see new industries appear and need service.
I know . . . . YOU NEED DEMAND! I hear that over and over. You know what? Demand just doesn’t happen in most cases and it doesn’t build enough to do much of anything. This is where TrainFever falls flat. It gets too repetitive and boring.
Incorporate the good parts of TTD, Locomotion, Transport Giant. Give me something to transport. Give me something new like a seaport to bring doublestack trains to and freighter ships to export my goods like in A-Train. Give me an inland distribution center to unload my doublestack trains onto trucks for delivery to nearby cities. It’s been said over and over . . . we need a modern version of Transport Tycoon . . . PLEASE!