Sid Meier creates a masterpiece with broad-based appeal: a strategy game that won't give you headaches.
Railroads has everything you would want or need in a RTS: you can plan a route, lay track, build depots (and upgrade them), buy engines and add cars, purchase businesses along your route at auctions, perform stock transactions, double-track a route to allow more than one train on a line - you get the picture. Railroads encompasses the minutest detail dealing with railroading, industry, and commerce.
The graphics in Railroads are extremely well-rendered. The developers cracked open the technical manuals and wrote GPU-specific code for nVidia cards. In turn this means the game has earned the coveted TWIMTBP (The Way It's Meant To Be Played) rating from nVidia. The locomotives are historically and accurately depicted, cities are representative of the time period the game sets you in (to include their size and skyline). The animation is superb and it does not suffer from framerate loss or slowdowns. Mouse sensitivity is amongst the best I have ever noticed in a PC game: it's actually better than some RPGs and FPSs I have played. Movement in the game environment is both effortless and instantaneous, with zero lag. Sound is completely authentic, down to the last hiss of a steam engine or a train whistle in the distance. The camera moves in any direction and is easy to manipulate.
In the single-player mode, you are in competition with actual rail barons of the day, like Vanderbilt. The AI makes its choices as the barons did in their heyday. Want more? Railroads offers a multiplayer option.
Sid Meier has set the RTS bar high with his development of Railroads: I could honestly state the bar is almost out of reach of comparable games. Even if railroading may not exactly be your cup of tea, so to speak, Sid Meier's programming acumen has accomplished a winner of a RTS - one that can appeal to almost anyone that appreciates a game that looks as good as it runs.