Shortline Railroad

As most experienced video gamers could likely discern from the title, Shortline Railroad is a management game that challenges the user to run a successful railroad shipping industry. In all likelihood, the game title was inspired by Parker Brother’s ridiculously successful and classic board game, Monopoly. Monopoly features the Shortline Railroad as one of four rail properties that can be purchased by players. By definition, a short line railroad is one that is independently owned and offers track service in a very limited area, quite reflective of this game.

Shortline Railroad was a very little known game, but it was highly addictive, and was actually remade into a game called Shortline Express, which became much more popular. The goal of each of the two Shortline games is the same: the user must build a successful railroad, schedule shipments, and successfully guide his trains from starting point to destination in a timely manner. There are a great many things the gamer has to watch out for to assure success. The shipments, be they of goods or people on passenger trains, have to be timely and uninterrupted. It goes without saying that collisions are very bad for business and therefore success in this game. The rails will have to be well constructed and intelligently laid out to make them economical to use. For example, the fanciest track with the coolest depot in the world isn’t going to do the user a whole bunch of good if it is located in the middle of the desert where there are no people and no goods to ship. To be successful, the player will have to effectively juggle dispatching, scheduling, construction, finances, and overall management of a business.
Shortline Railroad does offer some fairly realistic game play, although it can mostly be considered a beer and pretzels sort of management game. It is not terribly complicated to learn, but it does feature a decent financial model that the gamer will have to familiarize himself with.
There is some elusive element that makes Shortline Railroad a very addictive play. Just building to reach a larger high score than your last attempt is not it. It seems like the game DARES you to build something amazing, and a bunch of trial and error is needed to make this happen, forcing users to come back again and again. This is a great pick for the manager fan, and will offer experiences similar to A-Train and Transport Tycoon.