Train Valley World is a tycoon game developed by Flazm and published by tinyBuild. Flazm is the indie studio behind Train Valley and Train Valley 2.
With more mechanics, a new level editor and multiplayer co-op, Train Valley World promises a better tycoon experience.
The game is set during the industrial revolution of the 19th century, when trains were steam-powered and people were looking for gold in the Wild West.
Train Valley World was released on Steam on 9 August 2024.
Train Valley Word: Build your company across the world
Train Valley World features two gameplay modes: campaign and multiplayer. Campaign mode takes you to different places around the world to solve different logistical problems, such as optimizing gold mining, preparing Paris for the Expo or helping to build a dinosaur park.
In these fictional challenges, we have to build railway stations and tracks to connect cities and manufacturing plants. We also have to set up a well-organized supply chain.
Each challenge has a primary objective and a secondary objective. Secondary goals are often time goals or related to our construction skills (like using less than a certain number of track segments in the whole level).
At the end of the challenge, we will receive a star rank, ranging from 1 star to 3 stars. Stars can be used to boost our company in the tech tree. This means we can buy specialists such as stewards, yard masters, engineers or new trains that are faster or wider.
A specialist is a character that has a unique skill and can be attached to a convoy to give it a boost, like more speed, more space, more income from goods or passengers. You must choose wisely which specialist you assign to your convoy, as you can only have one specialist of each type.
Let’s build our rail empire!
Compared to other transport tycoon games like Transport Fever or Railway Empire, the gameplay of Train Valley World is really simple. You have to connect cities to each other and to production facilities.
Each city has a demand for a specific type of commodity. So if a city needs steel, you have to connect the city to a steel mill and the mill to a carbon and iron mine.
Even the construction of railway stations and tracks is very simple. Stations can be placed on the four sides of towns or factories. Tracks can be placed directly on the ground, and if you need to cross a ravine, you can build a bridge.
The only thing to be careful about when building tracks is the placement of crossings. Intersections must be placed correctly to ensure that trains can cross them.
Every time a train arrives in a town and unloads its cargo, we receive money.
Quarter report
I admit that it is a bit mean to compare Train Valley World to Railway Empire or Transport Tycoon. But for me, this game isn’t really a tycoon game, it’s more of a casual game.
Train Valley World lacks some of the basic rules of tycoons, such as cost management, but it can be considered a start if you are interested in the genre or maybe you want something relaxing.
I say this because the management difficulty is only related to completing the main task before the deadline. If you miss the deadline, it’s not game over, you’ve just lost the star associated with the secondary goal.
The only costs you will face are related to building stations and tracks, and buying trains.
Even managing traffic is too easy, as trains don’t collide or block each other. When trains are on the same track, one of them becomes transparent and the other passes through it. In the game’s roadmap, the developers promise an expert mode with signals and disabled ghosting.
Apart from this flaw, the game is well done, with good graphics and a soundtrack that changes with each level. There is no free play mode, but at the end of September the developers will release a free update with a map editor, so we hope this will extend the longevity of the game.
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