Test Play and Review Transport Fever

Transport Fever

 By 2014, the independent developers of the brand new Urban Games studio were betting on giving back to a once prosperous niche: the management of a railway transport network. Accusing of a lack of finishing, Train Fever sheltered a great potential and thus rallied to its cause more than 150.000 players who braved its absence of tutorial or mode of campaign. Thanks to this success, the Swiss company has teamed up with the publisher Gambitious Digital Entertainment to offer us a new version that is much more complete and neat than its elder.

LONGER, LARGER AND NOT CUT

If the principle behind the two Urban Games titles is similar, Transport Fever is indeed more ambitious and refined than its predecessor. The game puts us in control of a transport company at first modest, which must make the best use of funds hardly collected from investors in order to gradually get a real empire. On maps of different sizes we have to respond to the demands of the inhabitants and the industrialists, and become irreplaceable without being overwhelmed by spending ... This base always present in the game that we test today, is complemented by new means of Locomotion but also two elements that cruelly missed Train Fever: a tutorial, and a campaign mode.

Transport Fever

The aficionados of Transport Tycoon and other Railroad Tycoon had indeed to give theirs to tame Train Fever, which offered only a mode "part libre" furnished with two small windows of information - in English - in way of initiation. We are entitled here to a real tutorial in a title that is this time entirely translated in the language of Molière. The explanations are quite clear and allow us to learn the basics of the trade in three stages: basic principles, passenger transport and freight transport. All three copious enough, they enable us, within an hour, to apprehend the rest of the title; If they concentrate on transport by bus and by train, the mechanisms of river and air transport are comparable, and this makes it possible not to disperse too much from the beginning.

THE CARRIER

Once we are well imbued with the tricks of the trade, we can access several campaigns that constitute a very welcome innovation. If the free mode is always of the part these scenarios allow us to follow precise objectives through a narration rather well damn. They send us, in fact, to Europe and America in missions with a pronounced historical aspect; One of the interests of this franchise being to make us travel from 1850 to today. The 19th century was the cradle of industrialization, the era of steel and electricity, the "Railway mania" and then the "canalmania"; A context conducive to the most epic stories and this time Urban Games did not miss the check mark. It is thus through fourteen missions in total (seven for each continent) that we will follow in the footsteps of the transport pioneers: it will be to lay the first rails in the American West while taking care of the red skins, d To help build an imposing railway tunnel across the Alps, or to attend the electricity race run by Westinghouse, Edison and Tesla.

The articulation between directional and free is done well, since we are given objectives and we are free of the means used to achieve them. These goals are narrated to us by an English voiceover with a strong cowboy accent, which reinforces the immersion in the era of the great conquests and the American dream; It will be regrettable that it is identical for the European context, and that the sets are so varied, so similar between the two continents. The objectives are to build an intelligent network that supports the development of cities in terms of passenger transport as well as goods. The challenge soon becomes clear, and the margin of error rather low! Indeed, if a company needs steel and planks of wood to create machines, we will have to transport coal and iron ore to the steel plant, from logs to the sawmill, then to All this will require the development of an optimized network, and we must not hesitate to build a bus or tram network to obtain more revenues and fall on a balanced budget to the end of the year.

Transport Fever 2

Unlike the free mode where we are masters of action at all times, campaigns require completing steps to continue; Including channeling a number of resources. And this unfortunately creates great lengths sometimes, since we have to wait and we do not always have the resources to create something else in the meantime. In this sense the developers had the excellent idea to add secondary challenges that come to renew and spice up the experience: these can be decisive choices, such as responding to the grumbling of underpaid workers by increasing their salary Or preferring a more muscular solution; Or missions such as finding a gold nugget, or reforesting a land to save a rare species of frog. If they can sometimes seem a little crazy these additional missions know how to give rhythm to the campaign, but fail to avoid long moments of waiting. Despite all this narrative mode is a great addition that was missing greatly at Train Fever; Each of the missions can solicit us for three or four hours, especially if we try to win all the medals, we will be busy for a long time. We can always, however, enjoy a free mode that includes its lot of novelties, while remaining familiar in both its qualities and its defects.

"HASSAN CEHEF, IT IS POSSIBLE"

Once we finish the campaign or if we are the type not wanting to receive orders, the "Free Game" mode is for us. We can choose a starting field (Europe or America, alas, again, quite similar), a map size and a difficulty before the game composes the map in a procedural way. The rendering can be extremely vast and coherent, rather detailed with a level of zoom still remarkable. Two years after Train Fever however, the graphic evolution is not really at the rendezvous but the pleasure of play compensates these graphics just correct. What is more annoying though is that the title is always resource intensive and even on the best machines, slowdowns and long loading times will be of the game. Fortunately, the menu of graphic options is rather complete and should improve the situation after a few adjustments.

Once arrived on these vast expanses full of promises, free to us to create our empire! The players of Train Fever will not be disoriented since the mechanics are very similar: one can first analyze the cities and estimate the needs of the inhabitants and the industrialists thanks to a clear interface, although it is necessary to close several windows regularly to Not be submerged. Once we have chosen where to start we can link a starting point and a point of arrival by a road or rails; We will place at each end stations or depots of merchandise according to what is transported, as well as a depot of train or bus. After purchasing machines, it will be necessary to assign them to a route of our choice, which can make several stops at key points. If all goes well we will generate revenues that will allow us to maintain the equipment, and move on to our next project. Little by little the networks become complex, and what a sensation when after we have broken our heads, our nascent empire generates its first recipes!

 

Transport Fever has plenty to keep us busy; Not chiche in content, this time the title is adorned this time of the fluvial and aerial networks that respond to logics comparable to their ground brethren while having of course their specificities in terms of objectives, speed ... Eventually all means of transport Complement in harmony, in a game that approaches more and more of a Transport Tycoon. Hundreds of vehicles and buildings have been modeled carefully and appear regularly in our inventory as the years pass. Moreover, if the content is missing, the possibility of adding mods via the Steam Workshop should fill us ... In terms of mechanisms, possibilities, Transport Fever enjoys great complexity while being logical; It goes as far as the maintenance of machines, the demand for loans, the environmental footprint with reforestation or the installation of anti-noise walls ... Yet surprisingly, the game also knows lack of depth by evacuating with the back of the hand Problem: for example, if you create a train ride on a straight line, the machine will go back and forth by magic while you imagine that you would have to create an entire system to get back into the right meaning. Another example already noted in Train Fever: we lack freedom in terms of business management; The choice of the price of train tickets, or the tariffs charged to manufacturers to transport their goods?

Globally Transport Fever remains a complete opus and take, which will be of interest to aspiring managers. Realized with much more care than its eldest, offering a greater content, it embarks us in a raised challenge where we have all the latitude and whose outcome, when positive, is really satisfactory. To accompany our time-consuming game sessions, the developers provided a soundtrack that was not expected at the turn but convincing. Often blues, sometimes tinted with electronics, the 32 tracks compose a copious sounding skirt and always in tone. Once we get tired of it, it's because an afternoon of game has just ended: a good sign, in short ...

Pros

- Simple mechanisms with complex possibilities, a challenge raised
-The addition of a tutorial
-The countryside mode, copious and well brought
-The historical aspect of the great conquests gives a true identity to the game
-An increasingly expanded content, and complemented by mods
-A Pharaonic lifetime
-A solid soundtrack to accompany all this

Cons

-The decorations are not varied enough, and technically just correct
-We always see performance concerns
-Lack sometimes of depth and logic
- Inevitable lengths in campaign mode, even by accelerating time

After a promising first but lacking a lot of finishing, Urban Games corrects its copy by proposing to us a game of management relying on mechanics certainly familiar, however extended and refined. The two main problems of his elder, which were the lack of accompaniment of the player and the only presence of a free mode, are corrected here by the addition of a rather clear tutorial and a campaign. Moreover, this time we pass from the simple floor of the cows to the addition of the river and air network, which further complements the possibilities offered by a vast and intelligent title. Alas Transport Fever can also disappoint us sometimes in terms of complexity and possibilities, and is always accompanied by a skirt little folichon that damages the best configurations. In short, this title can still be improved by completing and redefining itself, but in any case it is a real improvement and a good choice for amateurs and amateurs of the genre.

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