Full ReleasePC

Transport Fever 2

Urban Games · Simulation, Strategy, Management

Overview

The classic transport simulation genre has a new gold standard with Transport Fever 2. Discover a whole new world by navigating transport routes through land, water and air. May progress and prosperity find their way!

Provide the world with the transport infrastructure it needs and make a fortune with custom-made transport services. Watch your trains run on rails, your buses and trucks thunder along roads, your ships power through the water, and your planes soar through the skies. Carry people on their way to work or play, and be the reason cities grow and thrive. Deliver raw materials and goods to drive the economy. Experience the greatest logistical challenges from 1850 to the present day, and build a transport empire unrivaled anywhere else on the globe!

Free play offers a huge range of creative possibilities, while campaign mode re-writes transport history across three continents. Transport Fever 2 offers a choice of over 200 vehicles from Europe, America and Asia, modelled in extreme detail; and with the in-game map editor, you can re-create landscapes from three different climate zones. Finally, the realistic transport and economy simulator, along with comprehensive modding support, round off the gameplay experience.

Open Up the World

A huge game world is waiting for your railroads, road vehicles, aircraft and ships. Intuitive interactive rail construction tools and a modular construction system for stations make it easy to build and expand your transport empire; and thanks to a wide range of configuration options, every free play game provides a new challenge, where completely different strategies can lead to success.

Write Transport History

Three historic campaigns set in different time periods and located on three separate continents will challenge you with different objectives …only transport magnates will manage to complete all the missions! Voiceovers and cutscenes enrich the story and contribute to a thrilling gameplay experience, and even the free play mode will challenge you with different achievements to unlock.

Optimize the Infrastructure

It is vital to adapt your company to the needs of the economy and cities: bridges, tunnels, switches, rail signals, one-way streets, light signals, and bus lanes are just some of the possibilities you can use to optimize the transport infrastructure. Even train stations and airports can be expanded with modules in order to meet different requirements; and various data layers help you visualize traffic volumes and emissions, and provide information for further improvements.

Free your Creativity

Thanks to the detailed game world, you can develop your very own virtual railroad landscape: the map editor provides the possibility to create countless different worlds; the terrain in the game can be adjusted and painted; and thanks to the extensive modding support, new creations are being developed constantly, which are available for free via the Steam Workshop and which can be easily integrated into the game.

Game Features

Free play with countless configuration possibilities
Three campaigns across three continents with over 20 hours of playing time
Editors for creating maps and editing saved games
Three landscape types: moderate, dry, and tropical
Realistically modelled vehicles from Europe, America and Asia
A total of over 200 vehicles: trains, buses, streetcars, trucks, aircraft and ships
Modular train stations, bus and truck stations, airports and harbors
Realistic transport simulation including one-way streets and light signals
Editable and paintable terrain with realistic effects
Intuitive construction tools for building railroads and more
Display important data such as traffic and emissions, on separate layers
Dynamic economy and city simulation
More than ten economic chains with associated factories and goods
Cities with countless residential, commercial and industrial buildings
Detailed game world with physics-based lighting
Individually simulated land animals, birds and fish
Over 50 challenging achievements in free play mode
Extensive modding support via the Steam Workshop

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,915 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Players describe Transport Fever 2 as a digital model railway. You lay track, design modular stations, and watch trains, trucks, ships and planes carry passengers and cargo, starting with horse carts and early steam in 1850 and ending with modern high-speed rail. The Steam Workshop is the topic reviews raise most often among those counted, and some players say mods are what lift the base game from good to great. Reviewers also like the visuals, the camera that rides along with a vehicle, and the calm pace. Opinion splits over the campaign and over how the game compares with Transport Tycoon, OpenTTD and the first Transport Fever.

Newcomers say the tutorial tells them what to build without explaining how. Players running long sessions report stutter and lag once maps fill up with vehicles, and genre veterans find the economy too easy and miss AI rivals. Smaller groups describe fiddly track and bridge tools, crashes or broken saves after updates, and cargo that won't load with no hint about why.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Mods and the Steam WorkshopHigh

Mods come up in 29.6% of the longer reviews. Players credit modders with extra vehicles, maps, station assets and quality-of-life tools, and some name the "build with collision" and track-modifier mods as essential. A recurring caveat is that the vanilla game feels thinner without them: "Vanilla game is just eh. But mods make this game so enjoyable". Another review put the curve more generously: "The base game is great, add about 5 mods makes it exceptional, add 100 and its outstanding." A few players warn that big mod lists cost memory or cause crashes, and some note that updates have broken mods they relied on.

Visuals, vehicle models and the ride-along cameraHigh

About a quarter of longer reviews talk about how the game looks: the detailed locomotives, the scenery, and towns that grow around your stations. Players enjoy zooming in and following a vehicle: "The scenery is also beautiful when you ride along with one of the trains". Some reviews pair the good looks with a complaint about depth, calling it a pretty game with a thin economy.

A digital train set that spans 170 yearsMedium

The model railway comparison comes up again and again: "Everything you need for your digital model railway." Reviewers single out modular stations, freedom over track layouts and the ability to slow or pause the date; one player liked that "the date speed being adjustable at any time means you can chill in any age you want". The early era has its critics, with one review warning that "The 1850 start is brutally difficult because the various means of transport are so slow that they have trouble turning a profit."

Relaxing and easy to lose hours inMedium

Reviews call it "a chill, relaxing mostly stress free game", and others say they "seem to lose hours playing this game."

Steam Deck, controller and Linux playLow

A small group praises how well the game runs on Steam Deck, Linux and Mac. One player who had found the Deck controls too clunky tried again after "they announced full controller support".

Where players are split

The campaignHigh

The campaign comes up in 22.6% of longer reviews, and it divides people. Fans enjoy its historical settings and stories ("The campaign is lengthy and full of interesting stories."), while others find the objectives hard to read: "The campaign is fun but some of the objectives wording can leave you scratching your head." Critics describe vague bonus objectives that need a web search, missions that fail to register completed tasks, and money that stops mattering after the first few missions. One reviewer said plainly that "the campaign sucks and is not fun to play".

Comparisons with Transport Tycoon, OpenTTD and Railway EmpireMedium

Transport Tycoon, OpenTTD, Locomotion or Simutrans come up in 14.4% of longer reviews, and Cities: Skylines, Railway Empire and Railroad Tycoon less often. For some, the game fills an old gap ("Its like a modern Transport Tycoon Deluxe."), and some players who tried Railway Empire say this game suited them better. Others, often long-time OpenTTD players, find the 3D presentation better and the simulation weaker: "But the game mechanics are vastly inferior." They point to missing AI rivals, less flexible train routing and a simpler production model.

A sequel or a remaster of Transport Fever 1?Medium

The first Transport Fever comes up in 11.4% of longer reviews. Some returning players call this a clear upgrade, with modular stations as the headline change ("biggest change is configurable stations, which are a game changer"). Others feel too little changed to justify a new purchase ("Same machanics, just upgraded graphics.") and miss features from the first game, such as auto-replace. Some reviewers who first left a negative review at launch later edited it to say the game had improved through patches.

Price and buying on saleMedium

Players who bring up the price often suggest waiting for a discount, especially if you already own the first game: "Worth the full price if you don't have TF1, but get it when it's on sale if you already have TF1." A few also question the Deluxe upgrade, saying the Workshop already offers more vehicles and maps.

Transport Fever 2 after Transport Fever 3Low

A smaller group mentions the sequel. Some went back to Transport Fever 2 for its mod library or recommended buying it cheaply in a bundle ("just wait on a bundle or discount to buy it"), while a few suggested skipping it for the new game.

MusicLow

The soundtrack draws occasional comments either way: some players like it, others turn it off, and one simply called it "interesting".

What frustrates players

Stutter and lag on big, busy mapsMedium

Frame drops as cities grow and vehicle counts climb show up in 6.6% of longer reviews, usually from players with a lot of hours on large maps. They describe slowdowns that point to CPU limits: "Stuttering usually sets in around 1915 or so, which is annoying." A few reviews report trouble much earlier, such as one that saw the game "dropping to sub 60 fps whenever you enter build mode". Some reviewers advise choosing a map size your PC can handle, and some write that later patches improved performance.

A tutorial that tells you what to do without explaining howMedium

"Tutorial gives you tasks without explaining how to do them", one player wrote, and complaints like it appear in 6.0% of longer reviews, skewing toward players with few hours. The opening missions assign tasks without showing which tools to use, and one reviewer said "the tutorial has put me off this game instantly". Other players mention a steep learning curve and say they learned from YouTube videos or the wiki.

Crashes, broken saves and update problemsMedium

Reports include random crashes, launch failures, error messages that end a save, a VRAM leak on low-memory graphics cards, and updates that break mods or older saves. Some of these reviews were later edited to say the issue had been fixed: "No more crashes, game is fun and definitely an upgrade of the first game."

An economy that gets too easy, with no rivalsMedium

Once a few profitable lines are running, money stops mattering, and some players say that leaves no challenge and no AI competitors to push against: "it's so easy to earn money. There is no challenge." Another wrote: "Everything makes tons of money, so there's no win/lose condition." Other complaints here are distance-based payouts and towns that only ask for two goods each. Some players don't mind, since they treat the game as a building sandbox anyway.

Fiddly track building and a clunky interfaceMedium

Track and bridge placement fights some players ("Building train tracks and roads is pure pain." and "Building bridges is finnicky and annoying at times."). They also describe collisions that block construction, no undo, and many clicks and windows to set up or edit a line. Interface complaints come mostly from players with only a few hours in the game, and several reviewers recommend mods that fill these gaps.

Train routing, platforms and signalsLow

A smaller group struggles with how trains use the network. They report trains that pick a busy platform over a free one, lines tied to specific platforms ("the route make you pick a specific platform which it will always try use even if it's busy"), and trains stuck at signals. One review notes that an update added secondary platforms for stops on a line.

Cargo that won't load, with no explanationLow

Some reviews describe cargo or passengers not loading, "no path" errors, or industries that stop producing, with too little feedback on what went wrong. One reviewer warned: "You will waste a lot of time figuring out why the conditions didn't trigger, why the station isn't working or counting towards the goal".

Missing features: auto-replace, multiplayer and moreLow

Smaller groups ask for things the game lacks: automatic vehicle replacement, which the first game had ("Why did they have to remove the auto replace feature (from TpF 1)."), multiplayer, timetables, a day/night cycle and weather, and bigger maps. Road traffic and town street layouts also come up, mostly as a side annoyance.

3. The player conversation

Reviews are often personal. Some players write about growing up with Transport Tycoon or SimCity, others about years with OpenTTD or the first Transport Fever. Positive reviews often still list caveats: the tutorial, the economy, performance on large maps. Critical reviews include newcomers who bounced off the tutorial and interface early and genre veterans who wanted more challenge, rivals or routing control. Interface complaints come mostly from reviewers with little time in the game, and tutorial complaints lean the same way. Performance and crash complaints come from players running long games on large maps, and Workshop talk leans toward long-term players.

Some older reviews in the set were edited, and some of those edits record the game getting better after patches (crashes fixed, performance improved, platform options added). After Transport Fever 3 came out, reviews began weighing Transport Fever 2 against its sequel, and some suggested picking it up at a discount or for its mod library.

4. What the developers could do

Rebuild the tutorial around the tools. Newcomers say the opening missions give tasks without showing which buttons and menus do the job, and some players quit over it.
Improve late-game performance on large maps. Long-session players describe stutter as cities and vehicle counts grow, and several limit map size to cope.
Explain why cargo isn't moving. Players lose time to lines that won't load, "no path" errors and stalled industries, and they ask for clear in-game indicators of what is wrong.
Add optional challenge to the economy. Veterans say money stops mattering once a few lines run, and they ask for AI rivals, tougher payout models or goals in sandbox mode.
Bring undo and collision-free building into the base game. Players call track and bridge placement fiddly and point to the Workshop mods that fix it as must-haves.
Make campaign objectives clear and reliable. Campaign critics describe vague bonus objectives they had to look up and tasks that didn't register as done.
Restore automatic vehicle replacement and loosen platform assignment. Some players miss the first game's auto-replace for large fleets and want trains to use any free platform at a station.