Developer: Skatanic Studios
Publisher: GSProductions Ltd.
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
RPG Tycoon – Review
With the release of RPG Tycoon we were immediately intrigued as RPG games are often intertwined with great storytelling and heaps of exciting battles and loot rewards, while many of the tycoon games often revolved around a plethora of building options, where you create your own empire, be it giant metropolises, amusements parks or even hospitals or game companies. While we were eager to dive into this combination of two great genres, it soon became clear we got our hopes up a tad too high, as the developers decided to skip out on the many items that make both respective genres great. Welcome to a mediocre adventure with no plot and hardly any diversity.
Story
Even though the tycoon games aren’t known for their captivating storylines, as there is often none to be found, it’s quite sad that this game did not adhere to its RPG side of the coin, as there is sadly no storyline to be found. The only snippets you’ll get are simply that you are competing against other kingdoms to create the best running society as humanly possible as well as the small texts that pop up in the middle of some of the quests your heroes partake in, which eventually get rather repetitive as seemingly there are only a handful of different situations per quest.
While it was to be expected that a storyline in a game such as this would not blow us away, it feels like a missed opportunity that there is next to nothing when it comes to story value. It would have been great, especially with the rather colorful visuals, to have a light, witty and humorous story, especially at the beginning of the game.
Graphics
Graphically RPG Tycoon is a colorful mess, albeit with a few small charms of its own. While the overall design is rather bland, the colors tend to add some life to the otherwise rather dated whole. Perhaps dated is not the right term, but uninspired might be better suited for this game. Even though the developers added a few charming buildings to the equation, there are too many buildings that are identical to one another, but simply have a different store sign attached to them. This makes it rather annoying to see which building you already have or not, when browsing through the building menu.
Even though simplicity is not a bad thing, given the low amount of original character models and buildings this game has to offer, it would have been nice if they were of a higher quality, especially seeing the map you can build on is very small. The heroes themselves luckily offer a bit of diversity, but end up contributing hardly anything to the entire whole of the game. Again, for a game that wants to revolve around the RPG genre, it misses a certain punch to draw in fans of said genre.
Sound
The soundtrack is probably the only thing that is truly exquisite, as it lifts your spirits just enough to keep trying RPG Tycoon. The music is rather tranquil, but still cheery enough to keep you rather happy. For a game like this it’s quite important that the music itself doesn’t become too repetitive or has enough charm to be great background music, but never become annoying and overall this game succeeds with flying colors. The only minor issue when it comes to sound are the rather generic sounds when purchasing building and placing items, but that’s about it.
Gameplay
RPG Tycoon is a typical simulation game, albeit with its own quirks and attempts to make it into something original. As the developers try to combine some aspects from RPG games with the principle of the tycoon games, you’ll still be doing your best to create your own world (a kingdom in this case) and have heroic figures you can recruit to do quests for you, earn money, experience and get the trust and loyalty of surrounding settlements. While the overall premise sounds simple and easy, things quickly tend to get frustrating.
This game follows the standard formula of having to build up a city in a barren land, albeit with clutter here and there, and you’ll have to start with nothing. You’ll have to begin with getting your city a hero, who can rake in some cash while doing quests, while you design the rest of your town, by adding roads and shops, which will earn you money from the people your town attracts. At the same time, your true inhabitants, the heroes, who live in their respective homes (after you recruit them) actually cost you money. Sadly, even on the easy difficulty settings, things get rather expensive rather quickly, especially when it comes to the general upkeep of things. If you do a wrong move at the beginning of your campaign, it’s nearly impossible to regain your leadership positions and you’ll fall behind of the other kingdoms in ridiculous proportions making your playthrough one long road of suffering.
The quest system is rather silly especially when it comes to the ‘quick quests’. These quests are often menial tasks where you’ll have to transport goods, host a party or even babysit small children. While you won’t see any of the things you’re doing, you will always have to pick six supplies to take with you on the task at hand, and if you pick the right ones you’ll get bonuses in terms of money and followers that will pledge their allegiance to you. Of course, picking the wrong supplies will get you penalties and that’s the thing that makes it all annoying. Seeing you’re forced to take six items with you and at the beginning of your campaign you only have about eight available, you’re often getting penalties at the start of your journey. Epic quests are the second variety, which take longer and allow you to take extra heroes with you. These quests will allow you to unlock new supplies, gear for your hero or other loot that will aid you in the creation of your own society. These quests also present scenarios from time to time, in which you’ll have to ‘roll the dice’ to emerge victoriously but you’ll often roll too low and thus another frustration is forged.
While all of this is ‘straightforward’ to a certain extent, things get very annoying when you notice that you can only turn buildings in two directions, you can’t zoom out properly, you can’t even turn your map and selection is buggy as hell. All of these items combined make for very broken building mechanics in a game that’s all about building. For example, due to the selection bug and the fact you can’t turn your map, you’ll often find yourself deleting something you didn’t want to, which ends up costing you a lot of money to replace it, as there is no undo function. There isn’t even a dialogue window that asks if you’re sure when you accidently click demolish on an expensive building. The Building menu itself is pure rubbish as it closes every time you create a building, and the same can be said for the upgrade windows of your shops, which all make for frustrating and tedious management options, while competing games in the nineties already had better mechanics. Truth be told, we’ve never encountered a game before that actually messes up in the order the buildings are presented in the tiny show window, where you can hardly see the buildings as your cursor invokes enough pop-ups in front of the available options to make sure you become increasingly annoyed. It’s quite strange that the order of buildings changes half of the time when opening the menu. In all honestly, there are simply too many small bugs to mention, which all hamper the otherwise original and decent concept.
Conclusion
RPG Tycoon could have been an amazing title but eventually ends up leaving its early access state way too soon, with a too expensive price tag attached to it. The game presents you with mediocre graphics, no storyline and more bugs than there are building possibilities, thus eventually ends up annoying you more than is good for you. Of course, the game still shows some promise if certain aspects get improved, patched and perhaps reprogrammed but as it stands now only the true tycoon enthusiasts will find their pick of the litter. This undercooked title should be shoved back in the oven.
No Comments