The last decent game in this genre was Transport Tycoon Deluxe nearly ten years ago. This is now doing the rounds in the bargain bin, or revitalised through an online shareware project. Transport Giant has pretty graphics, it is historic in scope and very easy to get to grips with. Basically you build a transport company up from scratch in the mid 19th Century with horses and sail boats to the 21st Century with Monorails and supersonic aircraft. Of course you can choose a later start date. Or you can opt to play a number of scenarios based in North America or Europe. You can compete against several computer players to make things a bit interesting. If you do well you can buy them out and take over their companies. As with any game of this genre you tend to focus on building railways. In this sense Railroad Tycoon III is similar and in some ways better. But this would exclude the fun of horses/trucks, planes and ships which makes this game a better option. THE GOOD STUFF Look and Feel - Very atmospheric and detailed. Business Model – Very varied and well thought out business model that is not too complex but not too simple. Scope - The historical scope of this game is a strength, starting just before the age of steam and moving on to the mid 21st Century. Lifespan – You can lose a sense of time playing this game and it does get you hooked. The scenarios are fun and replayable, the endless mode is also good and apparently can be played for hundreds of years. However, I imagine it gets pretty boring once the new technologies have finished appearing. The scope for add-ons and fan developed additions will increase the playability of this game over time. THE BAD STUFF AND REQUIRED IMPROVEMENTS Management Interface – Once you have lots of vehicles and routes it becomes a nightmare trying to manage them all. This game could really do with a management system similar to the mass city changes you could do in some of the Civilization games. Building track and roads – Everything ends up being built at right-angles. It would be good to have a tool by which you could tell the game you want to build between two points and it goes ahead and does it. Also, why can’t you build new rail track without it having to connect with the existing network?. More vehicles – Trucks and Ships are well represented. Needs more trains, especially later on in the 20th Century. OK so past 2004 they need to be made up, but it can’t be that hard. There are not enough Planes. CONCLUSION A good game that will appeal to Railroad Tycoon and Transport Tycoon aficionados. I would recommend purchasing this game purely because it is the best out there and it is well presented. Hopefully fan developers and JoWood will get busy with creating new vehicles and scenarios, which will add to the life of the game.
this game is one of the best games i have ever played ,considering the date of the game with it's graphics and it's details the game is great. i was looking for a transportation game like transport tycoon but with more d... Read Full Review
I have to admit that on first sight I found Transport Giant to be quite annoying, it does take some time (and due to a limited manual some online research) to get things right and know how to connect stations to roads an... Read Full Review
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