For a long time I have been obsessed with progression bars. I always love trying to get to 100% on whatever task the game gave me. Completing these progression bars and unlocking skins for my weapons is pretty much the only reason why I play Call of Duty multiplayer from time-to-time. And it is this reason and a few others why I recommend the game Tiny Rails.

For those who don't know, Tiny Rails is a train management game in which you are a part of a mom-and-pop train company tasked with delivering goods and people around the world. Along the way, you get money that can be used to buy new train cars and get upgrades for either your train or the stations that you go to.

Before the game came to Steam, I played a lot of the game on my phone. My interest in the game eventually faded away due to the fact that I am never attached to any mobile game I play, but I knew that if the game came to Steam, I would hold an interest in the game. Well, the game came out on Steam, and surely enough I still hold that interest in the game. The version on Steam is mostly the same, but their are different mechanics put into place as well as a ten dollar price tag while the mobile version is free.

At first, I was skeptical of the price difference between the Steam and mobile versions, but ten dollars isn't that much, and the differences between the two makes the ten dollars worth it. The removal of microtransactions and wait times on upgrades, the different method of getting and upgrading train cars, and others make the investment worth it.

As for the game itself, the enjoyment I have for the game is still there. Like I talked about previously, my enjoyment for the game comes in large part from the progression in the game. Anything from the upgrades of my train to the filling of resource demands at each station satisfies my want of a game with progression bars. Going around the world buying supplies and selling them where needed has given me a lot to do and has me coming back to the game daily. But their are other aspects as well that I like. The management aspects of the game are pretty light (just the way I like it), the collecting of train cars fills a secondary need of trying to collect everything, the game is great for background use, and other aspects make this game one that fills up a good deal of my time.

This game does have imperfections though. The game is still in early access and has some bugs to it and the story is not worth following. Also, the game can be boring if you are only focusing on the game. But like I said, this is a background game, and I think doing something else while playing this game is better than putting all of your focus into it. I know that this sounds a bit contradictory to what I was saying earlier, but I can still enjoy filling progress bars while listening to a podcast or watching something.

I'm not going to say that this game is for everyone. This game isn't a game pour hours into on one sitting with no distractions in your way. Rather, I would say that this game is perfect for someone looking for a light management game, a game to have on while doing other tasks, or someone who has that need to 100% complete a game. If you fit the description of what I stated below, then this is a game that I recommend.

P.S.: If you know of any game that has a good sense of progression similar to unlocking skins for unlocking weapons in Black Ops 2 multiplayer or the progression similar to Tiny Rails, please put in the comments below. Like I said, I am obsessed with progression bars and completing them, and I am always on the hunt for new games to fill that obsession. Thank you.

After reading the blog i tried it out on mobile and when i woke up bought it on steam because i don't like staring at my phone.
I'm enjoying it on steam but i don't know if i like the progression of the cars, I liked the randomness of the mobile version i had a taco car and a muffin one!
all in all still enjoyable!

@themist997: I'm playing on my phone, I like having it on the go, as you can just set a destination and benefit from that a couple of hours later, or keep the app open and do some more micronagament, hunting for specific comodities etc. What broke my game a bit though is their progression: you can spin a vending machine for a new car every now and then, for the ingame currency, which yields a normal level vagon with 10% chance of uncommon one, or you can spend the premium currency (bought or earned by completing challenges or watching ads, standart mobile stuff) to get the uncommon one guaranteed. That's all fine, but then there are a day or so long promotions, like the current one: pay a flat fee (premium) for three vagons of the best quality, which is a level above of anything you get from the vending machine. This cost 150 gems, for three vagons. One vending machine spin cost 50 gems and that gives lower level cars (random). Therefore I bought the set 4 times in a row (took watching ads during one afternoon while I was doing something else) and replaced all but 2 cars in my current setup. This nearly doubled all my stats and rendered the normal progression moot. To upgrade, I now need to wait for another promotion, I guess, or spend gems on incremental speed/capacity/etc. upgrades which are indenpendent from the cars themselves. I opened up Europe yesterday so I am going to explore that territory now, just to see how they make the land look in my home continent and then see if this is worth keeping in my phone.

That said it's more interesting than let's say Egg inc., which I have on my phone and I am keeping up with for over a year now, in spite of its simplicity. Still working on them 1 Billon chicken trophies!

EDIT: In Tiny Rails, I'm in January, year 2, started playing a week ago.

Looks pretty neat. I'll add it to my wishlist and buy it when it's out of early access.