Sweet Transit PC Review

Had enough of violent shooters and action-adventure games? Sometimes we crave a relaxing game that doesn’t revolve around fast-paced hack and slash or destroying your enemies.

Sweet Transit (Early Access) is that kind of a game. If you want to sit back and relax after a tiring day, not wanting to get wrecked by a 9-year-old in Call of Duty, and want to unwind to a straightforward and simple game, then Sweet Transit is the game for you. The indie genre is well-known for introducing aesthetic and soothing games; Sweet Transit is no exception to that.

Sweet Transit is a game you’d want to play while sitting cozy on your gaming throne, sipping a cup of tea. It is a logistics and strategy game in which you’ll be creating villages and converting them into thriving cities while using a carefully constructed railway system to transport workers to their workplaces and resources to warehouses.

While it’s in early access, I didn’t spot any bugs in my playthrough; while I could sense that there is room for improvement (which I will discuss later on in the article), it’s still a pretty decent game, considering it was created by a solo developer, Ernestas Norvaišas and published by Team17.

Although, in early access, the game did not launch incomplete or buggy (I’m looking at you, Cyberpunk 2077). Sweet Transit is a strategic simulation game in which you’ll be expanding small towns and villages into large metropolises by inter-connecting them with the help of railway systems.

I got the chance to play the game pre-release, and I noticed little to no bugs in the game (which is a solid plus). Without any further ado, let’s wake our inner Sheldon Coopers and jump right into this Sweet Transit PC review!

Blow Off Some Steam

Let’s start off with the main reason why I enjoy Sweet Transit and why I endorse people to give this game a shot. Sweet Transit (like any other indie game) takes a risk that no AAA game dare takes – creating an evidently ‘boring’ game.

Now, what do I mean by boring, you might ask? I mean, there are no baddies you will be slashing in half or shooting down other players, followed by an intense session of T-bagging. Sweet Transit takes a rather relaxing approach; it’s not boring in the conventional sense.

Every once in a while, we want to blow off some steam after a tiring day at the office or school (my fellow gamers with full-time jobs/classes can relate). Sweet Transit is a game that can help you unwind without any violence.

The game is strategic, though, so you will need to use your brain as you progress, keeping in mind the happiness of the workers and spending your resources wisely.

Choo Choo! Ain’t that a useless intersection?

The game starts off as easy and welcoming, but it will require more strategic thinking and quick actions as you progress and expand your network across the map.

You will need to keep your resources in check and make sure all trains are following the right path, carrying the right cargo, and are operational. While also keeping the railway in check with proper signals and diversions to avoid collisions between multiple trains following the same path.

There is a small notification box on the left side of the screen that will highlight any problems that need fixing to make sure operations are running smoothly, so you won’t need to keep a check on everything manually.

Some indie-game developers compromise on the soundtrack to allot the budget on another aspect. This is a foolish move because even a bad game with amazing music will catch a player’s attention to some extent. The most prominent relaxing factor of Sweet Transit is the amazing soundtrack. Let’s talk more about that in detail, read on.

Soothing Tracks

The soundtrack for Sweet Transit is composed by Ely Robins. It’s a mixture of rock and roll and jazz with hints of country. You can get the official soundtrack separately directly on Steam right here! I believe that pleasant game music has a significant influence on a player’s enjoyment of a game.

It is typically the music and the overall soundtrack that allows us to feel completely immersed in a game’s universe. It wouldn’t be wrong to state that music has a significant impact on our moods. If there is no good music in a game, you’ll likely feel cheated out of the whole gaming experience and lose interest in the game.

Far Cry 3 is still well-known for its iconic “Kick the Hornet’s Nest’ mission in which you have to burn the weed crops while ‘Make it bun dem’ is playing in the background. That one particular mission played a role in the success of the whole series, showing the importance of a good soundtrack in a game.

Sweet Transit captivates you from the beginning with amazing music one after another. To assist players’ progress, many well-designed portions of the game include separate soundtracks, for example, via multiple game levels or distinct places and parts of the game world.

You will notice a slight change in the tracks as you progress in Sweet Transit. Using music to enhance a game’s storyline may also help the user connect better with the characters (or trains, for that matter). Music in a video game is an important part of the experience for the player. Without music, a game might become boring.

The music in Sweet Transit is well-composed and sets the unwinding mood brilliantly. The music transitions as you phase from the steam age to the industrial age, evolving as you progress. The enticing soundtrack is highlighted positively by numerous players that have played Sweet Transit.

The music is calming and helps in relaying a soothing vibe while you game, giving Sweet Transit a different approach than other city builders.

The graphics and soundtrack are the main appealing factors that catch the eye, but as you progress, you’ll come to enjoy the strategic gameplay. I’ve always believed that a game’s soundtrack should match the gameplay or the vibe that the creator wants to relay to the players, and I think Sweet Transit excels at that.

Being an indie game without any large investments from huge organizations, I think they nailed the soundtrack aspect of the game. Another major highlight of Sweet Transit is the graphics of the game; how does it hold up graphically against other modern games? Read on to find out!

At-track-tive Graphics

Many people prefer graphics over gameplay or gameplay over graphics. I am picky, and I pick graphics AND gameplay. While I enjoy playing retro games, and I choose to ignore pixel graphics because of nostalgia, why would I tolerate bad graphics in a modern game to which I have no childhood connection?

The ideal word to describe Sweet Transit’s graphics I’d use is ‘tolerable.’ It’s not the best-looking game out there, and neither is it the worst. The graphics look appealing and attractive from a zoomed-out view, but as you scroll in and observe the environment and NPCs in detail, you’ll notice the lack of attention to detail.

Zooming in to the crowd, you’ll notice the horrors of faceless pedestrians

The graphics are smooth, though, and frankly, you don’t expect much in terms of graphics from indie games. The game is not high-end GPU or CPU demanding, and it can easily run on a budget gaming PC. Here are the minimum and recommended specifications to run Sweet Transit on your computer.

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	Intel Core i3-540, 3.07 GHz or AMD FX-4350, 4.2 GHz	Intel Core i5-3470, 3.2 GHz or AMD Ryzen 3 1200, 3.1 GHz
Graphics Card	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 512 MB or AMD Radeon HD 6670, 1 GB	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 2 GB or AMD Radeon HD 7850, 2 GB
RAM	6 GB RAM	8 GB RAM
Operating System	Windows 10 64 Bit	Windows 10 64 Bit

Even with the minimum requirements, you will get 60+ FPS on low settings which is pretty impressive for a game released in 2022. Read on to find out the gameplay of Sweet Transit.

Trains, Trains, Trains!

Sweet Transit, in a nutshell, is a city-building simulation game with train/logistics building elements.

You will need to select between two locations, Paris or New World. (I believe additional locations will be added in future updates). If you choose Paris, you’ll get an already established small settlement and a railway system, while in the New World mode, you have to start from scratch. I started my playthrough with the New World location, as starting from scratch makes the game more fun in my opinion.

Firstly, you need to create a warehouse to store your resources and then start a village by creating a village hall. You need manpower, and for that, you need to create labor residences. Each labor residence houses 5 laborers that will start working at the nearest workplace available!

It can get a bit confusing when you’re starting the game. Even though I played the tutorial, I still needed to Save and exit my game, check a specific portion in a tutorial again and then continue my Single Player mode. While tutorial popups are available during playthrough but they are not as descriptive as the tutorial itself.

One thing that the game didn’t highlight was the distance between the residence of workers to the workplace you want to assign them to. If you want workers on the docks, create residences near the docks. You will also need to join the residences with the workplace and the village hall with the help of dirt roads in the beginning. While railway tracks can help workers reach long-distance facilities.

The gameplay is smooth and I honestly enjoyed it in the beginning when it is less hectic. As you progress, you will notice a lot of things require your attention but you can only solve one problem at a time. This is why a Multiplayer mode with a much larger world would be amazing for Sweet Transit.

As soon as you put these folks to work, they’ll start generating resources for you. If and when your town or world expands, its residents will want more access to a wider range of products and services in order to improve their own situation. Sweet Transit provides three ways to navigate around the map: Pressing the scroll wheel, moving the cursor and the WSAD keys. I found the WSAD keys to be more accessible to navigate the huge map.

The happiness of your workers is a factor you need to keep your eye on, as happy workers are more efficient in their workplaces and produce more resources for you to use.

These workers and their cursed demands! All I ask is you work 24/7 in my coal mine without pay and I’ll install a water tank near your residence, Sound good?

If you give them what they want, you’ll have a motivated and happy staff that will help you develop your world and expand your network. Your whole manufacturing process will be slowed down if you don’t provide them with what they need. These greedy workers want everything! From fresh water to markets to buy to purchase household items, what’s next? Basic salaries?!

In order to thrive, you’ll need to have access to a variety of resources. Your civilization’s advancement depends on the utilization of these resources, which may be utilized to construct new structures, improve existing ones, keep your railways running, or all three.

As a result, industrial facilities must be established across the globe in order to acquire resources. You’ll also need to create storage facilities and other supporting infrastructure along with the coal mines and fishing docks.

Workplaces are useless without workers. You will need working staff in your workplaces to start generating resources. Your workers need proper transportation to travel to and fro their workplaces and their residences, which is aided by dirt roads and trains.

All of the game’s travel between various destinations and transportation of materials is done by train (duh?)

Between your communities and the numerous manufacturing facilities, you’ll develop a network of tracks. Building a solid network of tracks is essential for your manufacturing facility’s ability to operate at its optimal efficiency.

I love the You will need to create these train tracks in such a way that there is no collision between them. The signal system is a great way to avoid collisions between multiple trains using the same railway track. Wish someone told me that before I spent an hour wondering why my trains aren’t moving!

The central idea of the game is to utilize trains and keep the supply chain operational. You will need to ensure that your railway system is at maximum efficiency so you can progress quicker. You will need proper planning and strategies to progress and expand your settlements.

Getting raw materials and resources from one place to another is essential in this game’s supply chain mode of operation. The efficiency of your rail lines will be critical to the overall prosperity of your world.

The game sucks you in as you expand your train network with new manufacturing facilities and villages. It took me by surprise how long I was invested in playing Sweet Transit. I’m not gonna lie; I craved more and more as I progressed; this game is very addicting!

You feel accomplished when you find a solution to transport commodities and employees in an effective manner. It is so satisfying to create a functional and efficient railway system with trains traveling from place to place. The use of signaling lights to minimize traffic congestion is particularly important when designing efficient rail lines.

What’s an easy way to tell if a train just passed? It leaves tracks

In my experience of playing Sweet Transit, I didn’t find a single factor that can make you lose the game; you either upgrade quickly or slowly progress to the max.

In order to build the most efficient and prosperous world imaginable, you must keep expanding. It’s satisfying to see your world grow and settlements expand with railway networks. I loved watching trains passing through the cities I created to transport workers and resources from resource facilities.

The tutorial can get a bit boring, but I strongly advise you to go through it before you start your playthrough as the game can get very confusing. Trust me on this; jumping directly into the game without playing the tutorial first won’t work out for you well. Don’t get me wrong, though; Sweet Transit is easy and fun to play; you will still need to learn the ropes before jumping into the actual thing.

To understand the game’s mechanics and controls, you’ll need some background information. Without any guidance, you’ll have a difficult time mastering everything from the many menus and shortcut keys to the sorts of structures you’ll need to make.

The tutorial does an amazing job, making you aware of even the most basic controls of the game, which comes in handy during the actual gameplay.

Closest Alternatives

Sweet Transit’s Early Access version allows you to design complex, rail-powered production lines. Sweet Transit is a great choice for anyone searching for a train simulation game that will keep them entertained for hours on end.  Here is a list of games similar to Sweet Transit which you can also enjoy if you love train simulation and City builder games:

• Rail Nation
• Railroad Tycoon 3
• Train Fever
• Train Simulator
• Mini Metro
• Train Valley 1 & 2
• Steam: Rails to Riches
• Train Sim World

Pros

• Sweet Transit doesn’t require a high-end PC to run.
• The mechanics of the game are great.
• Amazing soundtrack.
• The game is extremely relaxing with no violence
• Lots of elements to keep you glued to the screen for hours on end.
• The UI is great with lots of information.

Cons

• The game has decent graphics, but they could’ve added more attention to detail.
• The map doesn’t fully zoom out in ‘Build Mode.’
• There are no goals or missions other than expanding your settlements.

Sweet Transit Review – The Verdict

Rating: 7/10

Although I enjoyed playing Sweet Transit, and I will continue playing it, there are no goals in the game or any way to get a victory. You develop towns, create railways, expand your network, and evolve as time passes, but there is no winning or losing in this game.

The game has tons of elements so playing the tutorial is a must before jumping directly into the game, as you will most likely get stuck if you think you can wing it without playing the tutorial. The required specifications to run the game are not that high, and you can easily run this game on a budget PC which might explain that the graphics aren’t that appealing up close.

Initially, steam engines are used in the trains you run on the railroads, but as you progress and expand, you can upgrade your trains to diesel engines, so there is a limited progression system in the game. The goal of the game is to create and expand towns while also keeping the residents/workers satisfied with necessities.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, and I think you should give it a try if you love strategic simulation games. I hope you enjoyed reading this review; make sure to check out the blog for some amazing posts!

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