Recent reviews by Havan_IronOak

Crusader Kings III is a worthy follow up to Crusader Kings II. The changes that I've seen from the earlier game all seem positive and I've yet to encounter one that had me thinking why did they remove that from CKII?

Still, this game is a bit like a great cup of coffee. Some will like it, Others will claim that without the Cream and/or sugar of a few more DLCs it will be unpalatable. We all have different tastes, but so far this one seems an improvement.

This game is perhaps the best submarine simulator out there. It HAS it's problems and I sometimes think that the Ubisoft people should be shot for the bugs they left in the game. But the bugs are avoidable/fixable for the most part and there's an active support community at SUBSIM.COM that make it lovable. After a hiatus of two years I'm back at it playing the Fall of the Rising Sun mod and loving it.

This is NOT the arcade game that allows you to plink at ships from your submarine. If your emphasis is on realism, you can make it very challenging and still be fun.

However part of realism is the long periods of boredom during war followed by moments of sheer panic. The game unfortunately models that TOO WELL.

I sometimes wish that there were a mod available to allow me as the captain to give standing orders. When navigating areas with heavy enemy aircraft presence it requires way too much attention to detail when just heading there or heading home. Getting to an assignment that is 10 days sailing away can take hours of game time what with the aircraft avoidance and the constant need to dive at dawn and then resurface for fresh air at mid day and then run at night while recharging batteries. This is made worse in that if one alt-tabs into other windows the CO2 mechanic gets locked and can actually kill your crew unless you save and quit and restart the save game. There is a mechanic that allows you to listen to the radio while surfaced - That really helps with immersion if you load the Captain Midnight CBS Radio mod as it will interrupt the musical interludes with war news on appropriate dates. However, the frequent need to submerge when compressing time realistically cuts out the radio. Making that as much of an annoyance as a boon.

One can get around MOST of the boredom through the game's "time compression" conceit and it DOES automatically drop you out of that when it feels you need to act. This could be tuned a bit to make the game even more playable but for a game that's over a decade old it's not half bad.

I know that there are sub simulation purists who prefer Silent Hunter 3 and I've tried it but it never appealed as much as this one. In addition to enjoying the time, history buffs can learn a bit about this period in or history, particularly with the mega-mods from subsim.com.

In my Current campaign, I'm playing the Fall of the Rising Sun Mod. I just got to rescue some submariners from Corregidor before it was over-run by the Japanese. The game IS a war game so it's probably not what you'd call culturally enlightened, but then in 1940s most Americans weren't. And the game does allow you play a U-Boat variant if you'd rather choose those Damn Yankees as your opponents.

I'm a Transport Fever 2 convert. The game has gotten much better and continues to improve. I used to be addicted to Railroad Tycoon 3 and I was sorely disappointed with Train Fever. This game is fascinating and is certainly enjoyable to play but still has a way to go.

Railroad Tycoon 3 was getting a bit "long in the tooth" and I was hoping for an upgrade.

Transport Fever 2 is pretty; prettier even than Transport Fever 1. In the main screen both are far superior to Railroad Tycoon 3 in terms of prettiness but there are some functional aspects that Railroad Tycoon 3 still does better.

Transport Fever 2 uses signals which were not a feature in Railroad Tycoon 3 and they are an improvement. Unfortunately water towers and fueling (maintenance) sheds are absent from Transport Fever and would make for a more interesting game. Growing up in a railroad town spoiled me but I'd also expect a turntable.

Transport Fever & Transport Fever 2 requires returning empty freight cars for re-use (although they seem outrageously priced). I criticized Train Fever when coal hoppers and iron hoppers weren't interchangeable and for the most part that sort of issue is fixed in Transport Fever and Transport Fever 2

Railroad Tycoon 3 had a robust economic simulation game with 30+ commodities in 1, 2, and 3 deep production chains. Transport Fever & Transport Fever 2 has maybe a dozen commodities. and they've limited TF 2 to requiring only two commodities in each city. It would have seemed more realistic (and NOT all that tough to program) for all basic commodities to be required by all cities and for growing towns to require more advanced commodities. They also missed the chance to just allow for a falling rate of return on transporting "glutted commodities."

Railroad Tycoon 3 had the ability to buy stock in your company and learn about the benefits (and dangers) of margin buying - an opportunity completely missed in Train Fever & Train Fevers 1&2.

Transport Fever 2 (as of the last update) is finally getting the cost of laying, bulldozing and re-laying track right.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had 66 Historical Locomotives rather than the 45 offered in Train Fever. But with Modders able to create and share these things in the workshop that's not really an issue anymore.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had debt (by issuing 500,000 in bonds) that changed as to rates making refinancing something that needed to be contemplated. Transport Fever and Transport Fever 2 are more simplistic with NO bond market and the ability to borrow from the bank (at a fixed 1%) They DID fix Transport Fever 2 to charge interest monthly rather than only once a year; a bug/exploit which allowed for folks to borrow funds and then repay them to avoid a year's interest.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had AI Competitors that sometimes required that you buy them out in certain scenarios. There are NO AI competitors in Transport Fever. Making this a multi-player game would certainly solve that.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had AI Competitors based on real world people who played roles in the development of the Railroads. You got a bit of history with your gaming. That's missing here.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had economic cycles that affect supply and demand. Nothing like it exists in Train Fever 2.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had 20+ MANDATORY scenarios that really encouraged you to explore the intricacies of the game . Transport Fever & Transport Fever 2 have OPTIONAL Campaigns that sort of serve this function or you can elect to play in sandbox mode.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had overview maps that made spotting industries and resources (and the demand for them) much clearer than anything offered in the "Fever" games. In fact it's pretty much impossible to zoom "all the way out" on any large (or bigger maps) There's also no mini-map to aid in navigation.

Railroad Tycoon 3 had well laid out Train lists that show at-a-glance status information that you cannot see as easily in the "TF" games. The Transport Fever Vehicles list HAS gotten much better than it was in the original Train fever game and keeps getting better so I'm hopeful.

Transport Fever & Transport Fever 2 is a great game. I just wish that the developers paid more attention to what had gone before and incorporated some of the "things that worked" into their game design. Every time I play I'm reminded that it could have been so much MORE than it is.


When I reviewed the Original Train fever I posted a list of things that they could have done that would have gotten them a better review. Here's an update on that list:

1) Track laying - Same day undo - allow any track laid to be demolished (on the same day) at no cost. This would somewhat make up for the lack of a real in-game track planning mode. Done!

2) Enable ESC as a means of bringing up the main loading menu. The current method wastes time and screen real estate.
Done!

3) Make it easier to reload a saved game. I'm not sure whether this has been fixed in Transport fever but it required actually quitting and restarting the the game in Train Fever. Done!

4) Options should also be available via the escape menu. If one wishes to turn off the game sounds or something similar one has to quit Train Fever. Why was music the only one that can be silenced in-game?
Done!

5) If you're going to do windows DO WINDOWS. Windows should be resizeable. Scrollable left and right as well as up and down. Cut and paste renaming should be enabled as well. Allowing for longer names would be good too. Default names suggested based on terminals would be great.
Partly done - Most windows are now resizeable & scrollable (Though not left & right) Things ARE renameable but no cut & paste

6) Put a confirm on save game deletes. It was far too easy in Train Fever to delete the latest save game if one generally deletes a few saved games at start up time.
Done

7) As with any simulator with economic aspects, graphs would be nice. Or even improved statistics on trains. 5 and 10 year running averages of revenue expenses profits, passengers. The graphs are now there but no multi-year running averages and there is PLENTY of room for improvement in what is graphed.

8) Signals are important in this game. They should be easier to see whether zoomed in or out.
That's still problematic and holds true for pretty much ALL icons. None are scaleable though they can be turned on or off.

9) The Manage lines window should be sortable on Time, et. al.
Done!

10) Station list should be sortable on cargo
Done, sorta.

11) A button for next on line or next should be available in the vehicle details window
Still not done

12) The Mouse zoom feature should be more granular (more interim steps)
Done!

14) A Trainopedia feature would be great.
Done!

15) Towns list should show Goods needs supply and a few more details that are now only viewable in the city windows
Still not done

16) Commodities should be easier to see on a fully zoomed out map.
Still an issue

17) If this game were look more like Railroad Tycoon III as to GUI features, it would be great. The GUI is getting better.

1) Change the word Supply in Town Screens to Demand
2) Change the word Transport to Delivered in the Industry details window
3) Start New Freeplay games on Pause. - One needs to study a map before doing any building. Every time I start a new game I remember this only after noticing.
4) Change the Display of Income to NOT include Investments - Use the term Net Cash Flow for the total with Investments subtracted.
5) Allow some customization in "Ride along" view and/or add Date Cargo Profits for this vehicle
6) Coal, Iron, Fuel, Bread icons all look too similar to other icons. They should be rethought and/or allow user to choose size of icons
7) Remove the cost of maintaining waypoint markers they are often used to correct AI pathing "errors."
Many more but no more room

A GREAT Paradox title. Yes, it's pricey compared to many other games that I've played longer but it's compelling with such a rich feature set that anyone with less than 100 hours in feels like an utter novice. Given what I've spent on the game and the DLCs I'm very satisfied that the game delivers value for the money. The 140+ hours I've spent so far are just the tip of the iceberg as to what challenges the game offers.

On a simple value for money basis, contrasting 140+ hours of fully engaged gameplay with the alternative of 20 hours or so movies that the same amount of money could have bought makes me think I made the right decision. I've enjoyed myself more (and learned more) than the movie alternative would have. It would have been an even better value if I'd just started playing in the last year or so and knew which DLCs one should buy from the outset and which could safely be postponed. There are some great you-tube videos that can help a newcomer with that.

The game is "family" based in the medieval sense and that makes it different from the other Paradox titles I've played. The story telling aspects won't be for everyone but I can affirm that as you play the game, the ways in which the lives of the characters that you play unfold will surprise you.

I can understand Paradox wanting to move on to Crusader Kings III. As a retired software developer I can fully empathize with the desire to start with a clean software slate and yet have a fully fleshed out specification set. I wouldn't worry about the inevitable

Bought this DLC in the latest deep discount Steam Sale and am impressed. There's plenty here to reinvigorate the game and though I've logged only about 25 hours so far, I've more than gotten my money's worth out of the $20 USD I spent for the DLC. I look forward to playing it more.

Just bought this game in the latest (Nov 2019) Steam sale and I enjoying learning the different aspects of the game in the 40 some hours I played it. So at a deep discount (less than $4 USD) it wasn't a waste but I cannot recommend it to anyone and might suggest Port Royale 3 or The Guild II or Patrician IV or even Grand Ages Medieval instead.

There are some simple bugs that seem to have never been identified /fixed.

1) There are a number of User Interface issues:
a. ) The game seems reluctant to recognize the middle mouse button. I depress it, hold it down and try to slide the perspective on the map and it never works on the first try. Subsequent trys can generally, but not always get it to perform the way it should. Using the M key to go into strategic mode can therefore be problematic as its not alwasy possible to get out of top-down perspective.
b.) I recenlty encountered a problem where I couldn't get a bank loan. Left clicking to increase the amount borrowed wasn't working. Left clicking on the button and dragging the slider wasn't recognized either. Oddly left clicking along the repayment term track WOULD work but since I couldn't get the loan to go above zero, that wasn't much help.
c.) Clicking on the mini map doesn't seem to be effective unless I first make sure to "move" the big map by scrolling past the edges.

2) Shortly after setting up my 5th automatic route the game started to become unstable. It hung up during saves and some saves seemed to be corrupt and couldn't load. This meant either going back to an earlier save and redoing the in-game activity or starting over. After the third such dead end I decided to give up on this game.

3) The game hasn't been updated in over a year and it seems to be abandoned/unsupported at this point.

The basic game-play is similar enough to the games I mentioned earlier to have made this attractive to me though the graphics in some of the others are better. And the game play is different enough from those listed to make this worth exploring if it weren't for the shortcoming I listed above.

Couldn't get past the convoluted sign-in procedure after several tries. I wanted to play.... but not THAT badly. Asked for a refund.

I first watched a You-tube Let's Play of this game about a year ago and immediately added it to my Steam Wishlist.

This is a simulator based in the age of sail and will not appeal to everyone. It's based around captaining and sailing ships of the period in and around the Caribbean and it takes time to sail from point A to point B.

Many folks won't have the patience for this kind of immersion. It reminds me of the Silent Hunter submarine simulation series in that way. Though this game is beautifully rendered and nowhere near as buggy as those games.

I'm a fan of the Hornblower books and have been for decades, so I'm steeped in the terminology, lore and mythos of this era. I've played Port Royal 3, Sid Meier's Pirates and this one features most of the likeable aspects of those games (minus the music (and the dancing!))

Plus this is an MMO which you can choose to play on a PvE server (if you prefer playing aginst an AI) or a PvP server (if you enjoy the more challenging intelligence of other players) or you can play on both!

On the down side the learning curve is steep and there's no in-game tutorial yet, but there is a wiki and many many you-tube tutorials, plus the game features well designed, easy to use in-game chat facilities and the user community is very helpful.

As soon as Steam announced their 60% off sale I jumped at it and for me its the best gaming investment I've made in a long long time.

On the other hand if you're one of those folks who needs a LOT of hand-holding and a more dumbed down gaming experience this may not be for you.

I'd advise that you check out any of the many You-tube Let's Plays and decide for yourself. Steam's "buy it and try it and refund it if not satisfied" will not be a good strategy here as the limited play time before being unable to refund the game will not be sufficient for you to make any kind of progress in the game.

Downsides:
Currently no in-game soundtrack
After mastering the basic challenges PvE lacks challenges. Steam Achievements MAY change that when the game goes "live"

I watched a let's play of this game and it seemed GREAT. It's not my normal style of game but I thought it would be good for a change of pace.

However less than an hour in I simply gave up on it. Without any way to pause the game action I found it to simply be unplayable.

I understand that the next release will include a pause feature and I'll certainly give it another go at that point but in the mean-time I simply can't recommend this game.

If like me you enjoyed playing the dungeon crawlers Diablo and Diablo II and can't get them to run in the more up to date incarnations of Windows, you may well enjoy Titan Quest.

It has the same feel with a Greek Myth storyline and maps that actually make the journey part of the adventure. The variety of fighting styles you can adopt and the types of loot remind me a lot of the older Diablo titles with a few of their shortcomings cleared up. The anniversary edition even features some improvements over the base game.

This game CAN get repetitive in spots but it makes a great change of pace from some of the more cerebral games that I play.

It was well worth the $10 I spent during Steam's Winter sale