Cities in Motion reviewed on PC by Harry Neary. Game supplied for review by Paradox Interactive

Genres come and go but tycoon games remain ever popular. You only have to look at the success of Farmville to see this type of sandbox construction working its way into people's lives despite the continued chart dominance of dumb shooters.

Paradox Interactive's Cities in Motion is the latest entry into the genre and it feels very familiar right from the start. Not - I hasten to add because it feels derivative - more that it wraps much of its newness within a cosy GUI that harks back to the classic days of Microprose games rather than trying to look like some native Windows 7 shiny window.

The premise is simple - run a successful transportation company. There are four cities available - Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin and Amsterdam and the player can manage their transport network over a period of 100 years. During this time you'll be met with economic, demographic and technological changes.

There is a tutorial available but this is perhaps the weakest aspect of the game. Cities in Motion can become somewhat bewildering at times and this is often due to a lack of knowledge of small issues that could have been easily resolved in a better tutorial. The included lessons teach you how to do a few things but don't really explain why you should do them in a particular way or what the consequences are.

So the learning curve can be a little steep initially and for example you'll find yourself getting confused while trying to lay out bus routes and wondering why you can't select stops on your route because the interface isn't clear. Spend some time and it becomes more clear and you get on with creating bus routes, laying tram lines, digging metro tunnels and trying to balance the budget.

And it's here the game gets very good. Perhaps it's my age - I'm old enough to remember when toys looked better than videogames graphics - and Cities in Motion feels like a great big train set that my dad won't make me pack up when the news comes on the telly.

The graphics are very attractive, cute and detailed and full of character. One of the most pleasing aspects of the game’s design is the detail put into the cities’ citizens. Watching these numerous little workers, students and dropouts go about their business is very entertaining - especially as their anger gives a more urgent impetuous to solve problems than a few numbers on a flashing interface.

Cities in Motion can be tough - especially when fiddling with railway lines. Often it’s hard to work out why a metro line won’t work - why a station won’t connect properly with a line. They also cost a fortune and a few hours successful gaming can be destroyed by financially crippling your company making a new rail system. And while the core game is fun - one can’t help but feel that fighting a balance sheet and given objectives isn’t quite as fun as being given AI transport companies to play against would be.

This is one of those games where you’ll get bogged down quite a bit early on thanks to a lack of feedback. Planning routes is tricky - you just have to go for it and hope the money isn’t wasted. And while many angry people waiting at a busstop is a clear piece of feedback there are few other ways to work out why a route is failing. Some sort of planning system would have been welcome - a way to try ideas with graphical feedback - and help prevent wasted time and money.

But once things begin to click Cities in Motion is a really fun game. The cute graphics, the “just one more go” teasing gameplay, the triumphs, the complete distasters. These all blend to create one of those games that robs hours from your life. And best of all, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a train-set hobby.