Steam: Rails to Riches

The game seems fun, sadly I encountered 4 game breaking bugs during my most recent session. When I first tried it months ago it seemed to work fine so I'm assuming an update has messed it up. At present I can't recommend as it's effectively broken :(

I'll try again in time and see if it's been fixed

The following comes from a person who watches a walkthrough of almost every game because they didn't understand the tutorial: The tutorial in this game is sufficient.
Some details you'll only find out with the AI moves, but there's not much to learn (even better if you know the board game, but not a must).

Honestly, I picked up the game out of sheer boredom and apparently I'm late with it, BUT:
It's surprisingly fun, it's not outdated, and you can actually see a good learning curve.

IN A WAY even more fun than Train Valley.

What would have been really nice were Steam Achievements, because then it wouldn't be redundant. But I think we can wait a long time for that :(

It's a very good game and, if you like games that make you think, then will be enjoyable. My one criticism, and it is a major one for me, would be that the AI CANNOT be added to an online multiplayer game ??? Why not ? It has a good AI built in so why not allow it to be used for online multiplayer ?? If, like me, you prefer to simply play with friends that you know, rather than strangers, then you are limited to the maps that only cater for the number that you can put together, and if it's the case that there are only two of you that want to play the game then tough - you are restricted to the two duel maps and that's it !! So, on balance I would recommend the game but, this is something that REALLY should be addressed by the developers in a future update - it is a critical omission for longevity, and is already available in other games from this publisher.

I, unfortunately couldn't get thru the tutorial, every time I tried to move goods, it wouldn't let me and tutorial didn't even tell me why. Oh well, not for me. I would recommend regardless that I couldn't get it, just because I didn't get it doesn't mean you wont. Concept is still interesting.

This seems like it would be a fun game. However, it is difficult to get into because of interface and zero in game help. I build track, click on goods to move to another city of same color as goods with enough engine power and NOTHING happens. No explanation of why I can't make a move. The whole beauty of computer version is the rules are enforced and learning should be enhanced. There is none of that. There are no hover over buttons to get further understanding of the game board. It is to the point of zero fun and wasting time in my life. Doesn't look like any upgrades are on the way. I would return it if I could

I didn't like it. Its not at all like rails west, 1830 or Railroad Tycoon at all. You have to buy some of the maps and boards and you have limits to what maps you have. It also lacks a stock market. Its all repetitive. Its as replayable as a game of ring around the rosey. Get 1830 or Rails West instead.

Some of the physical map expansions don't seem available (yet? ever?) but it's a good implementation of the boardgame. Fully cross-compatible between Steam and iOS -- I've had two games going at a time for a while, and I can play my turns on either platform. Game servers have had a tendency to randomly go down on occasion during my several weeks playing so far, but only delays playing for some hours or overnight. Touch play on iOS phones can be a little finicky in dragging and dropping hexes; the undo button can certainly be your friend! Animations could use an option to speed up. (UPDATE CORRECTION: such an option already exists under the options menu, and the fastest version is handy for me.) I've turned off the repetitous and somewhat shrill sfx.

This along with the Railways of the World system, reimplements and streamlines the Age of Steam boardgame system (though the two games do this in subtly different ways, one difference being that SRtR has smaller maps). So depending on your exact preferences, either game could be considered the reigning mid-level railroad boardgame. It would be nice to get RotW adapted, too, for comparison but maybe someday.

Otherwise, yeah, it's SRtR: you build track paths between large cities, through small cities (sometimes if that makes sense for your strategic plans), moving little colored cubes to deliver between cities. As usual for games not called Empire Builder, the train(s) get abstracted and not on the board. In this system, the paths can cross over or beside each other (not within one hex of any city), but can only meet at cities. The "basic" and "standard" rules are both available; "basic" rules being better for asynch multiplayer due to not needing a bidding phase for the start of each main turn. The game's rules are literally the boardgame rules as a pdf.

Looks good and plays well and allows me to play when I can't round up enough people to play the physical game. I played both the basic and standard rules and they worked well. If you make a mistake you have redo your entire turn rather than just the last action but at least there is an undo option. It really is nice having the game calculate the cost of track building in each instance.

I'm a Railways of the World fan as well as a Martin Wallace fan, so this was near the top of my list for digital board games to try. I had played Age of Steam but never Steam and was always curious about it. I like the game. This implementation is well done. I'd have no problem recommending it. Plus the AI has beaten me a few times so it's not a push over. If you like strategy train games that play in about an hour, I can't imagine you'd find a better one that this.

I really like this, not sure if I actually actually "recommend" it, though. It's not easy to learn to play, and it often feels quite dry and abstract. You can spend quite a lot of time just analysing the board state and trying to set up a good move for your next turn or the turn after. So it doesn't have the kind of free-flowing "feel" that a game like, eg, Istanbul has (at least for me). But... it's a great fundamental design, and there's a lot of satisfaction in managing to "hit your marks" and make your network start paying early, which is the key to victory. I expect most people wouldn't enjoy this much, but for those who do, this is a solid purchase.

I've never played the board game, but the tutorial was nowhere near the standard it needs to be in order to introduce newcomers to the game mechanics. I get the feeling that the developers couldn't be bothered on this score.

There are no tooltips, and the interface is very dated. It all seems very amateurish, especially considering the price point.

Thank Gaben for Steam refunds...

As a huge fan of Avalon Hills computer version of 1830 I thought Steam would be great.

Unfortunately Steam is a disappointment for me. The interface is very poor. Worse, unless you have played the board game, it is very hard to understand the rules of the game. I played the tutorial many times (it is very short) and didn't understand a lot of even the basic gameplay. So I downloaded the pdf manual, which only served to confuse me more.

There may be a good game in there but I've given up trying to discover it. A real shame because there aren't enough board game conversions for me.

although i have played 500+ games on my board game copy and to me this is one of the best board games ever, i do not recomend this on Steam or any other devices (purchased it on google Play stoore also) for one reason only:
- there is no community to play it online and the AI is very very limited.

PROS:
- nice game play
- it is Steam (very good reason)

CONS:
- no online games (only asynchronous)
- lack of ppl online even to start an asynchronous game
- ppl drop theirr games in the middle

This is an awesome implementation of a highly regarded board game. And done brilliantly, may I add.
Two game modes, basic and standard, the former lacking the strategic insight of the latter, both providing solid challenge. Online multiplayer. Very accurate representation of the original's board with clean, simplistic, yet elegant design.
On top of that, there is a brilliant tutorial that will guide players through rules and ready them for the upcoming challenges.
The only thing that needs some getting used to is the UI which may, in some cases, seem clunky.
Strongly recommended.

As much as I like to see board games being brought to the computer screen this game does not do it well.
The whole product looks unfinished. The whole Interface makes this game feel like you are playing an early alpha of something. Sometimes it is very confusing why the game behaves in a certain way and you have to repeat steps that are not allowed just to be able to read the tooltips.
We played it in Multiplayer and the fact that you cannot even change the volume of ingame sounds made it even harder to play. You cannot add AI to the multiplayer and if you are just 2 players there not many maps you can play on.

From what I see in the game news it does not seem there are new patches coming that make this game enjoyable. Very sad. Got my money refunded...

Would I recommend this game? Perhaps, but if it has to be a binary answer, I tend to say "no". Once you figured out how to play this game, it is some fun if you like strategic board games. But the in-game tutorial wasn't any helpful to me. In the end, I watched a video on YouTube explaining the physical edition of this game, and figured out the rest by observing the AI and trying out stuff, taking a couple hours untill I finally knew what I'm doing.

There are also some glitches. Rotating track pieces, or changing the piece after you accidentaly picked the wrong one, feels quite clumsy. Undoing an action requires redoing the whole phase. You cannot always zoom out, which is in particular a problem when moving goods. If you accidentally attempt to do an illegal move a warning pops up and you have to wait until it disappears by itself, which is quite annoying. Some elements (like the action cards) are unnecesserily small, so unless you know where you have to click, you don't have an idea what you are doing (in particular when playing from the couch).

Also I like digital adaptions of board games, because they are used to streamline the gameplay by removing unnecessary manual steps, but that isn't much true for this game. When you drop a track piece, it is initially placed in a random (legal) orientation, so that you almost always have to rotate it, while it would be quite easy to predict how the player intends to place it, in patricular when connecting open-ended tracks and/or cities with each other. Also you get asked whether to take victory points or income even if there is only one option, and this dialog also shows up during the AI's turn which is unnecessary as well.

With a price of 10€, the base game isn't too expensive, though I still have seen better board game adaptions for about the same price. But the DLCs are kinda a rip-off, with a price of 5€ each, and been released almost the same day. The Carcassone DLC is purely cosmetic (just a map without new rules), and therefore charging half the price of the base game is quite lofty. The Canada and England DLCs come with the same set of new rules, which don't seem to make a too huge difference, but perhaps it is worth to spend some extra money when you got bored of the base game, however, if you want to play these rules on both maps, buying both DLCs for a total as high a the price of the base game seems unresonable. Finally, there is Belgium&Luxmbourg DLC which seems somewhat legit as it is an adaption for two players.

A good adaptation of the board game with pretty good AI. Multiplayer features are very much lacking though and the game needs achievements especially for multiplayer to get more people playing.
Just haven't been able to get a multiplayer game started as of writing this, but the strong AI makes single player worth it.

Edit: I still leave it as thumbs up because it's a fun game to play, BUT, the AI is not very strong once you learn the game's nuances.

First time playing the railroad building, economic board game and loving it. Tutorial was short and easy to grasp. A couple playthroughs should help you with the mechanics and get a grasp of the game. Only have played A.I, which are challenging enough for me as noob, but probably a lot easier for veteran players. At the moment, the online player base is slim so wanting to play against real people, "good luck."

Have had a bug issue a couple times of wanting to change my mind and dragged the railroad track back to the supply which froze the game. To avoid this, I recommend hitting the "undo" button instead. Hopefully devs fix this issue soon. Also to note when rotating track pieces, use arrow keys instead of using your mouse; the mouse makes rotation more fiddly.

As for players complaining that the base game only comes with two maps and the dlc maps are too expensive, there seems to be a lot of meat to this game already for a decent asking price. Real board games are not cheap and are a niche market so I see this game as a bargain.

Just need the bugs fixed and hopefully more train enthusiasts. Choo Choo.

Game is good overall but the game seems a bit easy after a few games. i wish there was a way to extend the game or have custom rules.

Pros: Game was addictive. there is 2 modes. basic and standard and standard changes the rules a bit which helped with difficulty. last as another reviewer said it "scratches the itch" unfortunatly it did not last very long imo but the game was fun.

Cons: no tooltips (yet) DLC is 4 maps and the game only came with 2 maps. The pricing for the DLC feels expensive as well imo. The game was 8.99 (9.99 original price) and each DLC map is 4.49 (4.99 original price) all four for 17.96. I would have liked them to add cutom rules for custom games. this last one is just my opinion but i dont like that the games feel so short. i tried the games with both few and many AI and both felt easy imo. wanted to find a way to make it a bit harder.

Overall i think the game was great and the price was pretty good. i would love it if custom rules got added. I am happy with purchase. I do not write reviews a whole lot but i felt since i didnt find a review saying what i wanted to know (at the time of my purchase) i figured i would write one and possibly help someone.

Overall good, scratches the itch for strategic decisions without being tedious or heady. If you like Ticket to Ride, or perhaps Civ (but don't feel like diving in to a new map), this will be a refreshing change of pace.

Pros: Hex tiles (always sexy); deep decisions with simple premise (i.e. good mechanics design); stable; clean and simple interface; AI so far seems pretty ruthless and has clearly schooled me on easy

Neurtrals: Short games (10 turn caps, about 20-45 min each); you'll need to pay attention to the tutorial; minimal random or hidden elements (think chess-like instead of card-game-like). It also appears to be difficult to play defensively, for better or worse. Add a map editor please!

Cons: Mouseover tips are sorely needed; number some available track tiles seems arbitrary on the computer; some rules hidden deep in the rulebook (which itself appears to be a direct copy of the printed board game rulebook). New maps (with rulesets) are expensive, relatively speaking.

If you like board games or turn-based strategy, this is worth asking price.

[Edit: Moved new maps to cons, because of price]