I may be a bit bias, but I have loved trains since I was a kid as well as other transport vehicles (Planes, Trucks, Automobiles, etc.) so I remember finding this game a few years back and though it wasn't love at first sight, I am happy to see that over the years it has grown into what I consider a gem within the City Builder Tycoon genre.

It can get a bit cluttered and unless you plan ahead thoroughly you're gonna have a bad time, again, like most builder types, but a good way that this game cleans up a lot of its clutter is by following the "the less is more" approach.

Following on that, it's a minimalist game that can be run on just about any computer and can actually look very pretty if you have a high end PC. My hardware falls around the middle line and I have no frame issues or too much lag when I run the game at max speed. My favorite detail is how it switches over to a low graphics mode when it comes to building new Tracks stations and roads.

I am not much of a railroad buff. I only recognize what kinds of trains are suited for what job, HP, max haul, and other little details that make super rail-fans squeal, largely fly over my head. But I can see that a lot of care and thought were put into the engines and cars, though I can tell that it is mostly based on non-american locomotives which I love to be honest.

How is the game-play? Calm, nice and adjusted to your pace. A little discussion I had with my step-brother as he was watching me play led to this review. He had told me that he couldn't play this game because it looked like I was torturing myself and that he'd fall asleep within five minutes of starting. I did have some issues with a lot of trains getting caught at signals, but that's not important. What is, is that it made me think about how niche of a game that this is. It was built for a specific kind of player and person.

I absolutely love building tracks and making a system that runs efficiently. Though hills and terrain are a pain in the ass, especially where forests are concerned. I love to make my forests density relatively high and I edit terrain a lot. Probably my fault that the way the terrain edit mode highlights higher and lower elevations can be hard to distinguish unless it's a lake or a mountain. That is made even harder by the transparent trees in a forest.

Despite the terrain editing appearance the terrain editing tools are much more simpler and easier to use here as opposed to other builders I've played (Cities Skylines, Surviving Mars, Sim city). Combined with the square by square grid, it makes for a easy to calculate system when it comes to connecting far-flung parts of the map, and speaking of.

126x126 Small
1034x1034 Huge
I don't know the exact map size threshold but I wanted this to be an intro to the maps

I suck at math, but I vaguely remember Area Equations, and I know that the upper limit of map is HUGE. I regularly play on it and I love to have large sandboxes to work in. Only issue I have is resource distribution and it may bother you too. See, Procedural Generation is a blessing and a curse. I've had No Man's Sky from launch and played Starfield so Iv'e seen every side of the spectrum and I'd rate Mashinky on a scale of 1-10 at a 6. The map terrain that the game produces are actually very pretty. Sit on a train and ride around on, just appreciating the digital scenery. But resource distribution is honestly a pain, even on the highest density settings and given that they are randomly spawned it can become a literal cluster-♥♥♥♥ when you need to combine several resources to make a product like steel, oil, electricity, the tool-works, and iron processing. And I'm going to nitpick here. If the Train tracks can be placed diagonally on a tile, why cant the roads? It just bothers me. It may not you, but it has kept me from using road vehicles a lot.

I haven't tried the online play yet. I'm an anxious ball of stress with abandonment issues so I usually play alone, but I may add an addendum to this review if I ever get the stones to interact with strangers online.

Best Transport Tycoon-type game ever.