Game Review: Game Tycoon 2

(originally published 27th April 2017 on DVS Gaming)

A DVS review of Game Tycoon 2, the second installment of Sunlight Games Game Tycoon series which was originally released in 2006.

Games Tycoon 2 was released on Steam on the 9th of April 2016 and Sunlight Games say that “you find yourself in the middle of the big players. Get into the act and experience the fascination of the game development. Reach your goal and become the Game Tycoon!”

Story and Atmosphere

The storyline is quite basic. You’re a “Game Tycoon” – owner of a game company that is set to make the next big game.  There are two modes available (“Campaign” and “Endless”) as well as the usual Tutorial mode, which I do recommend running through before starting.  The tutorials gave a rather simple overview of each of the sections of the game, but for some reason your “guide” doesn’t speak English! The text tutorial is written in English, but I’m unsure why they could not have the little guide speak the actual words.  I’m not sure what language he was speaking, if indeed it was a legitimate language that was being spoken.  It just seemed confusing having the tutorial speak complete jargon.

Campaign mode was fun, but simple. It gave a series of challenges that the player must work towards. Endless mode is self descriptive – the player start off in 1980 and progress through the years, researching, developing and acquiring new gaming technologies, contracts, investments, shares etc. The atmosphere sometimes has a sense of “urgency” especially in regards to contracts and loans. But otherwise, it was a nicely paced game.

Appearance-wise, the game looks unpolished, with outdated looking graphics and plain scenery. Nothing really struck my eye when I opened this game, it just felt bare.  The models for the “tycoons” that I could choose look outdated and not at all “professional” looking. However, as I quickly discovered, it really didn’t matter which “tycoon” I chose. I never saw them during gameplay anyway.

Music

Unfortunately, the first thing I did when I started the game was turn the music off. I usually enjoy listening to a game’s music and sound effects, but unfortunately in this game I honestly didn’t enjoy it.

Hardware and control

Available on Steam with basic system requirements, Game Tycoon 2 doesn’t require any sort of high-end system to run the game.  The controls for the game are quite confusing. I could either right click anywhere on the screen back to the map or click on the icons on the top right hand corner of the screen. I didn’t see the point in having two different ways and occasionally right clicking would freeze the screen and I’d have trouble getting back to the map.

Gameplay and Mechanics

The gameplay of Game Tycoon 2 felt a little confusing and didn’t really flow.  To be able to go to different places, you could either right-click until you found yourself on the map and then select the building you want to go to (such as the Bank or Office), or you can click on the icons on the top right hand side of the screen.  The interface just felt confusing, and needlessly switching between rooms became tedious after a while.

The gameplay didn’t feel smooth, as you constantly switched between areas of your map, or the office.  You start off in both the campaign and endless mode in your office circa 1980 making your game, but you don’t have any staff members.  So, you have to go back to the university and find staff members to develop it. Then you are able to go back and start “making” the game.  But then you don’t have any technologies researched or bought, or any engines or licenses.  Doing things in the wrong order can definitely lead you to bankruptcy and having to start the game again. It felt rather bizarre that I didn’t start with any staff members to develop my first game, but confusingly I could research technologies without any staff members being employed yet.

The entire game play did not feel smooth, natural or fluid.  The game didn’t flow nicely and progress in a manner that you’d expect a simulation game to progress. Everything felt unnecessarily slow and cumbersome, and having to renew contracts before I had even had time to produce games became a frustrating and costly exercise.

Replay Value

I restarted this game a few times, and even though I had worked out the order that I had to do particular parts of the game (for instance hiring staff, getting loans, obtain contracts, etc) nothing new came out of it. I found that nothing new and exciting occurred whenever I produced a new game. After only about 8 or so hours of game play, I found that I was done playing the game and got everything that I could possibly get from it.  There wasn’t really much more to do then switch from building to building, click on random computers or signs, make a game, hire a person, rinse and repeat.

Conclusions

I do love simulation games, having spent hundreds of hours on this genre.  The idea of Game Tycoon 2 seems fantastic on paper, but the game isn’t executed well as a whole. I found it ironic playing a sub-par game about creating the biggest best seller you could. I don’t believe the game is worth the price of $14.99 on the Steam store. Maybe if this was an under $10 title I’d be much happier to pick it up to play around with.