Monday, March 17, 2014

Transport Tycoon - Android Version

I am one of those old, almost fanatical, fans of the Transport Tycoon series. I loved Transport Tycoon Deluxe, even the open source Transport Tycoon Deluxe games were always better than the previous. But 31X screwed up the Transport Tycoon for Android platforms.

To put it simply, it's as if they took a huge dump on the original then sold it for profit, to milk the original title's fame. My first problem, it's too much like the typical Android sim games, too many crappy bubbles and balloons floating everywhere, getting in the way of the scenery and elements that actually give the game a chance.

The transparency settings also don't do much better, and are too difficult to access on the fly, making track and road laying more of a hassle than challenging. The rest of the track and road laying system is good, perfect for the touch screen. But when you go underground everything is in the way, making underground useless.

This leads to the most horrible aspect of the game, the path-finding algorithms. The original algorithms were not great, but the vehicles did obey the way-points, but in this version they ignore the way-points and often wander around aimlessly. The open source, completely free, versions have such powerful path finding that they even implemented lights that allow for realistic tracks. But 31X charges for a path finding algorithm that doesn't even work.

There are gamers who will support just open source, others who only support mainstream markets, I support both. But you should get what you pay for, and this app is not worth anything. The only benefit is that it's designed for touch screen, and none of the others are. That's it. They couldn't even be bothered to port anything. So in this instance, the open source is a million times better than the made for profit one.

If you like the original Transport Tycoon series, steer clear of this game.

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