On land, at sea and in the air
Transport Fever is an economic strategy game by the Swiss studio Urban Games, published in Poland by CDP.pl. We are engaged in building an efficient transport network for the transportation of people and goods. It was released on the famous Steam platform on November 8, 2016. Ten days later, its Polish boxed version with collectible cards came out.
The game offers two campaigns (in Europe and in the US), each of which contains seven unrelated missions that take place in chronological order one after the other - in which we have to complete various tasks, taking care of the company's budget. You can also choose a free game mode, with no assigned tasks. We have been provided with three guides explaining all aspects of Transport Fever. We can use several modes of transport: trains, trucks, buses, trams, ships and planes. In total, more than 120 car models with 150 years of transport history. Over time, more machines become available. I really liked the opportunity to use historical vehicles - for example, when I traveled before 1850, I had horse-drawn carts and small steam locomotives at my disposal, and later the range of vehicles expanded, i.e. about diesel locomotives and electric locomotives, various diesel vehicles and aircraft. In addition, we can play missions created by the community, as well as use vehicles prepared by them (Steam Workshop integration).
We have the ability to transport passengers within our cities (buses and trams), as well as between agglomerations (trains, planes and ships). In addition, we transport various goods between industries, farms and cities. We can, for example, make the following transport line: a train picks up goods from a factory and delivers them to an enterprise where products are manufactured, which are then delivered by trucks to a specific city.
Both the economy as a whole and the definition of when and where passengers move are realistically modeled. We build, among other things: tracks, roads, cargo terminals, warehouses for various vehicles, stations, stops, ports and airports. Building is pretty easy because you are using a fairly intuitive yet powerful editor - you just need to spend some time getting to grips with it and getting good at creating routes. Creating a line looks like this: we create the appropriate stops (stations, cargo terminals, etc.), connect them (in the case of land transport), then determine the route by adding new stops to the plan, and finally assign the corresponding previously purchased cars on the route.
Our lines must also be efficient, because this is an economic strategy. Therefore, we must carefully decide which vehicles to buy and make sure that the cars move quickly along the designated routes. We can, for example, build sidings with traffic lights so that several trains can run on the same track or add more tracks. In the case of buses, we must remember to ensure the comfort of passengers, i.e. make sure that the vehicles run often enough. Designing efficient rail routes (and more) is a lot of fun. I really liked the campaign missions based on real projects like the construction of the Panama Canal.
As for the graphics, the game is very pleasing to the eye. However, people with weaker computers may experience problems with the smoothness of the game. The background music, on the other hand, is well chosen and fits the course of events.
“Transport fever” gave me a lot of pleasure, and the sight of zeros multiplying on my account is a huge satisfaction. It's also a lot of fun to watch the vehicles moving along their routes. Although I spent a lot of time creating a good, thoughtful transport network, it was worth it! It is a pity that the producer did not think about situations unforeseen for the player, i.e. accidents and communication disasters that often happen in real life. They would diversify the gameplay. I recommend the game to all fans of economic strategies, as well as beginners. This is a good work, which is worth devoting your free time to. In my opinion, of the transport games I've had the opportunity to test, this is by far the best game on the market and a great gift idea.
