Transport Fever 2

The (linux) version available here is a very old release from December 19th 2019 after the first stability patch. there are at least 5 newer releases (available at a competitor of gog.com), latest from yesterday, January 23rd. My advise: If you use linux, don't by that game here.

I loved Train Fever and Transport Fever 1, and I love Transport Fever 2. The graphics are beautiful, the premise of the game is interesting, but I am giving up playing it! At least until there is a way to increase the time scale to something more comfortable. Two seconds per game-day is not enough when a train going at 40km/h takes almost a year to do a round trip (11 minutes or 330 game-days!) and that between the two closest cities on the map with a flat terrain! I lose money every months and I can't get over it whatever I do, since it means spending more! At 8s/game-day, the same train would take 3 months for the round trip. Even only 4s/game-day would allow making profit on a single line after about 5-6 years and not trow you into bankruptcy later on.

Didn't play the previous games but I really liked good old open TTD. TF2 looked promising. Graphics is nice, somehow manages to run under Linux also. I also like the gameplay mechanics, but the problem is all the small quirks and unpolished details that will just leave you in suspicion that you are playing not well tested game but paid full price. Example 1: Wanted to connect station and depot which are not quite on the same terrain level. The line mechanism just freaked out and tries always to build a tunnel under. Had to delete stuff few times till it snapped correctly. Example 2: You define a cargo line with specific cargo to be picked. An empty vehicle comes and decides to pick some other random cargo. Goes around empty and you loose money. Another annoying things are the small 'riddles' like you have to 'search' for lost sheep on the map by clicking on random terrain points marked by exclamation mark. This is just stupid and belongs to completely other kind of game. Sorry, this could be a good game but they did not make it.

It is the third game in the series, yet it isn't a finished product and it shouldn't be. There are other transportation focused games with limited scope and good graphics, and their developers have a task they can finish easily, yet plenty of people want more. And there are at least 2 open source games (one of them has 2 variants) with ever evolving gameplay and a complex simulation. They have a bigger team of developers, but they have outdated graphics and that can limit immersion and gameplay. Fans of the genre would want something that would combined the best of both worlds. And Transport Fever 2 tries to be that game. In addition to graphics we have better physics, more complex simulation so the game is demanding, and it should keep updated to use the new hardware, and to try to catch up with plenty of the older games. We will have performance bootlenecks and issues because we try to push so hard to have everything possible and impossible. When the developers can finance refining a game, we have a patch. When they can't, we have a sequel. And Transport Fever 2 is one of these sequels. It is visible unfinished, incomplete, but it is still the best option for the people who "aim to have everything". In a time where most sequels are usually a "worse version of a game trying to profit from the brand" it is nice to see a sequel that is actually an improved version of the game. It is arguably the best on the market, and it is a good game you can play for a lot of time. Yet we will see how it should improve in the next few years or decades. And when we have to get used to the new UI it won't be as comfortable as the old one. The performance won't improve too much for valid technical reasons. It is good now, but it will be even better to switch to the next improved verion when there will be one.