Reviewed: February 21, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Strategy First

Developer
Auran

Released: November 26, 2002
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

8
8
7
10
9.1

System Requirements

Then came that fateful day when our class took a fieldtrip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and I saw what was perhaps the largest scale model railroad system in the world. After 60 years that exhibit has finally been replaced with a 3,500 square foot new exhibit which depicts the railroad’s winding journey between Chicago and Seattle, passing through the Midwest, the Plains States, the Rockies, the Cascades, and into the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, trains are involved in industries as diverse as grain commodities, raw materials for manufacturing, consumer goods for import and export, lumber, apples, and tourism.

As fun as model railroads are to setup and play with, you can only have so much fun watching the trains go round in circles; that is until now. Australian developer Auran and Canadian publisher Strategy First have come together to bring us Trainz: Ultimate Collection, perhaps the most comprehensive model railroad game ever seen for the PC.

This particular release is much like a “gold release” that we have seen with other games that pack in the original title and an expansion pack or some other kind of extras. In this case we get the original Trainz Railroad Simulator, the Paint Shed, and some special Bonus Content on a second disc.

The sheer amount of content is this package is astounding and will keep engineers and railroad model hobbyists busy for endless hours. Trainz UC will most likely have a limited appeal, and I’m guessing it’s going to be adults, but probably not the same adults who enjoy building the dioramas and setting up real model railroads for real. The people who have the skills to do this in real-life probably don’t have the technical savvy to do it on the computer, and the techno-geeks who can create a 3D boxcar or stationhouse model in 3D Studio probably couldn’t glue a fake shrub to a piece of green felt.

Trainz UC is basically divided into two main sections. The game section is where you can partake of the generous offering of scenarios or simply drive one or more trains around a circular track, switching rails, and generally just goofing around. Imagine if you could shrink yourself down and get inside that toy train in your basement and actually control it. Of course some of the trains and environments are so realistic you can imagine yourself as a real engineer in a real train.

The other part of the game is the construction set where you can build complete landscapes using the terrain editors and place you tracks, buildings, trees, roads, etc. It’s like building the model railroad of your dream without all that messy physical labor. Of course, for true model railroad hobbyists, that messy labor is what it’s all about, and that is why this game could never substitute for the real thing.

There really isn’t a lot to making these trains go. You have a throttle and a brake and there are red, yellow, and green lights along with speed limit signs along the track, so it’s a lot like driving a car. Starting off with the commuter scenario you have to make several stops at scheduled times to pick-up passengers. You start off with some points and are awarded more points if you arrive on time but you lost points if you are late. You will also steadily lose points if you exceed the speed limit for an extended period of time, so it’s really hard to make up lost time if you start running late.

In DCC mode you can choose from a chase view and pan the camera around to virtually any angle or elevation you want or you can get a cinematic drive-by view or play from inside the engine with a full 3D rotational view looking out all the windows or at any of the controls (which don’t work in this mode). As you move along the track you can pass the cursor over the various signal lights and find out what they mean. If you run a red light the mission ends very abruptly, so it’s a good idea to pay attention.

The track switches are handled automatically at first, but as the difficulty increases you will need to manually flip the switches to divert your train to new sections of track. Timing is crucial here as I found when I switched just a bit too late and my train derailed sending cars tumbling across the landscape. When you get to some of the more modern trains you will find they are computer controlled and if you exceed the speed limit the emergency break will bring your train to a grinding halt.

Building the railroad of your dreams takes a bit of patience learning the tools and how it all comes together. You start with the Surveyor which is an in-depth world editor that lets you move mountains, create cities, forests, lay down track and pavement and basically create the world for your railroad to exist. The bonus content CD comes packed with thousands of items you can use and even more new items are available for download.

While Trainz comes with a good selection of train sets with various cars you may want to create your own and the UTC Paint Shed is the perfect place to do it. You can design and create your own paint scheme and repaint any of the trains found within the game in five easy steps.

And when you are too tired to build a world or drive a train you can expand your knowledge of trains by heading to the Engine Shed Showcase where you can view more than 130 different locomotives and train cars. This is basically an encyclopedia for train lovers and you will certainly find something that you probably never knew.

I tried several rendering modes and all of the available resolutions and there were always some glitches somewhere in the game. In the very first scenario you start with a view of your train from the bridge. A car/van drives past and you can see the guardrail right through the car. When you switch to a view from down by the train looking up at that same bridge the cars are all floating about 2-feet off the pavement as they drive by.

Depending on the power of your computer, you can adjust the graphical settings to give you the best blend of quality and draw distance. Driving from the engine view always looks great and if you keep the chase camera close to the train things are pretty good as well, but if you zoom out to get the big picture there will be plenty of pop-up and flickering textures and even a few clipping problems. Most of these problems can be reduced or eliminated by tweaking the options and sacrificing visual detail or simply not looking too far ahead. Admittedly, these worlds are often huge and quite complex and you can’t expect even a killer system to crank it all out in pristine detail.

Once you have found that perfect harmony of detail, quality, and framerate you will be in for plenty of “wow” moments. Some of the scenery is breathtaking and you will get vistas worthy of a framed picture or at least a postcard.

Sound effects are as realistic as they are limited. You get the aforementioned clickety-clack sound as you cruise across the scenery. You also get hissing steam, squealing brakes, banging cars during heavy braking, the whistle of the conductor telling you to prep for departure, and of course the air horn and ding ding ding of the crossing bell, although in this game the engine actually makes that bell noise.

I was amazed at how many people are into this game. When your register your game you get an online account and access to the Trainz exchange; an Internet magazine and forum where you can engage in chats with other people playing this game, share tips, and get continuously updated information. You can head to the Trainz Download Station and download new content to be used in your model railroads, including thousands of objects with more being added every day.

There are plenty of tools that you can use to create or import your own objects including a powerful 3D modeling package and utilities to import objects from other 3D software packages. There is even a content manager to organize all of your creations and if you are really ambitious you can package your creations into add-on modules and distribute them freely to others. The 40-page manual is quite informative and will get you up and running with the game and all of the related tools.

If you are one of those rare people who love model railroads and have a fair amount of computer skills then you’ve just found the game to end all games. Get this game, install it, and say goodbye to whatever life you had left. I’ll admit I was expecting something like Railroad Tycoon, but this is the closest thing to an electronic hobby that I have ever seen. It is perfectly executed with style and sophistication that I didn’t expect and with the huge community support, this is one game that will remain active on your computer for years to come.