Yey!
Chris Sawyer is something of an anomaly in the video-gaming world. In the modern era of multi-million dollar production budgets, orchestral scores, and CGI cutscenes that require more computing power than originally needed to put a man to the moon, Sawyer has created huge-selling games essentially by himself -- using only the help of a freelance graphics artist and a musician. The game he's best known for, Rollercoaster Tycoon, was an insanely addictively time-suck that, with its attendant sequels and expansion packs, has collectively sold something like seven-million units.
Prior to introducing gamers to the joys of sideshow management and concession line planning, though, Sawyer gave gamers a different theme to obsess upon with Transport Tycoon. Now, with a vastly expanded Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 currently in production, Sawyer himself has gone back to the drawing board for Chris Sawyer's Locomotion -- the "spiritual sequel" to Transport Tycoon. When GameSpy got a chance to go hands-on with Locomotion, we naturally jumped at the chance to see whether Sawyer's latest has managed to capture any of that addictive magic his previous games embodied.
The basic gameplay of Locomotion revolves around transportation networks. The game is viewed from the same isometric viewpoint and retains the same doll-house/model-train aesthetic that players enjoyed in Rollercoaster Tycoon. At the beginning of the game, several tiny towns filled with box-like suburban housing and primitive industries stand unconnected on the map. It's the player's job to use the simple building controls to create transportation connections between these towns. As the player builds, road networks and train tracks begin to crisscross the land, carrying a variety of passengers and freight between them. Players can build trains and buses, tramways, trucks, ships, and eventually airplanes to service their growing communities.
