Other reviews have stated the graphics are crude, but the President of a railroad company isn't interested in fancy looking reports. The MAP of the system and other graphics for game control are more than sufficient. Traffic control is at a higher level and hence much more realistic than Railroad Tycoon (II) is. A company president would never worry about the routing of an individual train. Better graphics would add nothing to the game.
Other reviewers have indicated that the "board" is the same every time. This is not true. The cities are always in the same place, but the cargo and passenger connection requirements are different. For example in one game Washington DC. might need 500 passenger cars to NY. The next game there might not be any passengers from DC to NY at all.
My main criticism of the game is that the default "normal" game is too easy. This is why some reviewers have CLAIMED to master the game in a short time. In my opinion, to make a challenging "normal" game there should be at least five (5) other players, the players starting position should be set to "random", and the "attacks" should be set to "rare" instead of "never". One can never claim to have mastered this game until they get a gold, not just first place, in each of the scenario options. There are other minor problems with the game but do not distract from the total effect.
If you get this game be certain to get the on-line upgrade that fixes some bugs and most importantly adds a "Hall of Fame" so that one can rank themselves one game to the next.
In short an excellent game for simulating railroad management that still has room for improvement (Can't wait for version II). Highly recommended for railroad people. Straight gamers might need to learn something about railroads to fully appreciate it. This review is written with about 40 games played in one month of ownership.
