Railroads Online Review | Sandbax Train Construction Game
Shaun M Jooste 
Railroads Online Review | New CEP Reviews in 2023
Join us with our Railroads Online review where we see what this sandbox building game has to offer with trains, tracks, and more!
Operating System: Windows 11, Steam
Application Category: Game
3.8
Our Railroads Online review looks at a sandbox-building game developed by Stefan Kelnberger and published by astragon Entertainment. It was released on Steam as Early Access on 1 October 2021. While it’s been in development for a few years now, we decided to take a look at what features are currently available.
Anyone that loves trains and railway lines will enjoy Railroads Online. You play in first-person view until you drive the train, with an external camera so you can watch yourself in the locomotive in full glory. Let’s take a look at what else it offers.
Railroads Online Review: Running a Rail Transport Business
Let me begin my Railroads Online review with the modes and any exploration elements. I’ll discuss some essential aspects you should know, which may change during the early access.
Starting with nothing
When you start playing, you’ll have a few short tracks, your locomotive, one transport trailer, and a water station. There are locations around the map you’ll have to discover before you lay more tracks. There isn’t much in your possession, but at least some of the items don’t cost anything in the beginning.
Exploring the wilderness
Before you lay your first tracks, you’ll want to check the map and run around and see where the buildings are. You’ll see logging facilities, sawing mills, and others. It’s important to understand what they need and supply so that you can decide what to load on and offload from your train.
Planning routes
Now that you know where the buildings are in Railroads Online, you’ll want to plan your routes. Remember, you’ll have more than one train later, so keep in mind switches and other gadgets. You’ll use a saw to take down any trees along the way.
Joining others: Multiplayer with up to 16 players
One aspect I didn’t evaluate for my Railroads Online review is the multiplayer mode. While you can play solo, it’s easy to invite up to 15 players to join your server. In this way, construction will speed up, and you’ll quickly deliver cargo and build your company.
Railroads Online Review: Gameplay Mechanics
Since this is more of a sandbox-building game, there isn’t much of a story to Railroads Online. What you’ll want to know is how the gameplay mechanics work, which is where it becomes a bit tricky.
A quick tutorial
In most games, you have a tutorial that shows you how to play and place items while you’re playing. During my gameplay for my Railroads Online review, all I saw was a quick window that tells you how to do initial tasks. Despite this, I was still slightly confused about how track-laying and other features worked. I needed to rely on some YouTube videos, which were outdated and also did help much. It’s all about trial and error at the start.
Placing the tracks
The first task you’ll encounter in Railroads Online is to lay down some tracks. When you enter the construction menu, you’ll see some track options at the top. It’s best to play around with some options and angles to see how they work before you start properly. It takes getting used to, and there are some frustrating moments where the track doesn’t want to work with you, but just keep trying.
Driving Railroads Online trains
Now that you have some tracks set, you’ll want to practise riding the locomotive. It involves adding some wood to the furnace, opening up the brake and reverser, and carefully proceeding forwards. You can try this experience in first or third-person modes, where the latter is easier to control. Keep in mind you’ll need to keep your train stocked with water, sand, and firewood.
Creating stations for collecting and selling goods
There are already some stations on the map, but you can create more and other buildings anywhere you wish. It’s best to spend time reading what each one does and needs before constructing them. Also, you’ll need tracks alongside them for them to function.
No Railroads Online Tech Tree Yet
Sadly, there isn’t any Railroads Online tech tree as yet. You won’t need to research anything to unlock new items or perform tasks to get new tracks or locomotives. While this would have added some exciting progression to the game, you have enough to focus on just building and driving your train.
Derailing a Train On Railroads Online
When you drive too fast, you may encounter a situation where your train derails and falls on the ground. As you can see in the gameplay video for my Railroads Online review, it happened early in the game. Thankfully, the construction menu has a crane option for placing the item back on the tracks.
Railroads Online game is better with friends
If you’re like me, playing solo is the preferred mode of play. However, Railroads Online encourages gamers to join forces, speeding up the process of laying tracks and delivering cargo. Should you wish to do so, simply increase the number of players on your server and send them the server name and password.
Top Features of Railroads Online
Besides all of the elements mentioned above, here are the main features of Railroads Online:
- Open-world exploration
- Online multiplayer gameplay for up to 16 players
- Single-player mode available
- Construct tracks, facilities, and switches
- Learn to control your locomotive with valves, regulators, appliances and brakes
- Transport cargo to earn money and grow your business
- Purchase and customise equipment
- Build infrastructure for train servicing
- Twelve detailed locomotives with stunning equipment
Railroads Online Review: Graphics and Sound
As you can see on my Railroads Online review gameplay video, the graphics are absolutely stunning, so I’ll spend some time discussing that element. Here are some other details.
Environment beauty
The location is absolutely beautiful. There are spring flowers, mountains, and gorgeous vistas to behold, plus plenty of trees. I also enjoyed the various facilities.
Animations and effects
The locomotives, switches, and other items had some fascinating animations, and probably the best one is when the train derails. When you fell trees, they simply drop to the ground and vanish, unless you have something to catch them. There are some mods to replant trees, but it’s not in the original game.
Locomotive sounds in Railroads Online
Do yourself a favour and ring the bell or blow the whistle when your locomotive gets going. It’s a fun experience and awakens something inside you. Also, you’ll have music to accompany you in Railroads Online while walking around and building. Just a pity you can’t place a car to travel around in.
Final Verdict: Is Railroads Online Worth It?
Railroads Online is for casual gamers that love trains. There’s no getting around it. You’ll easily spend hours just planning and placing tracks in the relevant facilities. Since the game is in Early Access, the developers are taking any recommendations from players at this point on how to improve the game mechanics. There’s a new update for the sky and weather, and I’m expecting more to come along the way. When you’re done, you’ll have a vast network to show off online.
Where to buy Railroads Online?
At the moment, you can buy the Railroads Online Early Access game on Steam.
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