OpenTTD

This is useful if you like planning, economic simulation and optimising networks. It fits with long play sessions in which you improve step by step. If you are looking for quick action or a tightly told story, then this open simulation is less directly connected.

Start with a simple bus or train route and pay attention to cost and demand. Learn the basics of signals before putting a lot of trains on one track.

You can play locally without sharing your world with a public server. With multiplayer, player name and communication become part of the server environment. Keep personal information out of names and chat. Check with additional game content which maker and version you use, especially if you want to open a saved game together.

The many networking possibilities require exercise. Additional content and multiplayer worlds can have their own settings and requirements.

A network can crash due to a wrong signal or route choice. In case of trouble, change one part at a time. Additional content can affect the rules and compatibility of a saved game. Save the corresponding content and an older save before you significantly adjust an existing world.

OpenTTD is especially attractive if you like to design transport networks and gradually improve them. You connect places and industries with transport and need to balance capacity and costs. The depth is in the coherence of routes. An additional vehicle does not solve a jam when the layout of your network is the actual restriction.

This game suits those who enjoy analyzing and adjusting, even when a network is already running. Start with a small connection and see where waiting, maintenance or capacity influence the yield. Anyone looking for direct action will find a different kind of challenge here. A working simple network gives more grip than building a complex rail node.