Developer: Sunlight Games
Publisher: KISS ltd
Platform: PC, Mobile coming soon.
Tested on: PC
Game Tycoon 2 – Review
The latest addition to the growing sub-genre of game development simulators is Game Tycoon 2, fresh out of early access. Now don’t get confused, this is not the sequel to the much loved Game Dev Tycoon by Greenheart Games. This is the sequel to a much older game, made by German developers Sunlight Games, where you are thrust into the shoes of a start up games company in the 1980s. You must evolve with the times to invent new technologies and build award winning games to build your reputation as the greatest game development company in the world. Building on the previous title, Game Tycoon 2 aims to bring greater complexity and action to the world of producing video games than ever before.
Story
As is generally the case with simulation games, the story takes the back seat and it is up to the player to create their own goals and storylines from the events that unfold around them. The only “story” per se is presented by your odd looking avatar, during the tutorials and campaign mode where he/she explains the games and sets you simple goals to meet. These goals, such as “Sell 35 thousand copies of a game”, help introduce you into the game but do not actually provide much in the way of a story.
Graphics
This where the game begins to let us down. The UI itself is extremely clunky and unseemly, not to mention painful to use. The strange gargoyle-like avatars are surprisingly terrifying and even some of the nicer styled areas, like the world map, are very cluttered and confusing.
It isn’t all bad however; each location has its own unique backdrop that often look stylish and interesting and are always full of interesting little details that help to bring out the individual character of each room.
Unfortunately this is not enough to make up for the strange animations, the truly painful UI aesthetic, or whatever hellish demon has possessed the face of your poor avatar. Whilst it may be argued that graphics are relatively unimportant in this particular genre, they should still enhance the experience enough to allow you to be slowly seduced and absorbed into a game. That way you can play for 30 minutes before glancing at the clock and exclaiming “Holy crap, when did it become 4am!?” Instead, the graphics of Game Tycoon 2, in particular the UI, are more likely to jar you back to reality and leave you wondering what you are still doing here.
Sound
Some effort has been put in to improve the character of each major location by giving them each their own little soundtrack. However all the tracks are relatively simple and continuously loop, so don’t be surprised if you are slowly driven insane by the repetitive polyphonic pings and jingles.
This is especially apparent upon playing the tutorial where you are trapped in one room listening to your avatar waffle on for large amounts of time, while the same jingle repeats over and over and over. We actually had to turn off the music briefly at this point. It was that, or start bashing in skulls with a hammer.
Gameplay
Gameplay is what traditionally defines the quality of a simulation game, and we have to admit that Game Tycoon 2 has pulled out all the stops when it comes to complexity and depth. In most games within this genre, you are limited to making up game titles, specifying where to concentrate on (ie Story for RPG games), and researching new technologies. Game Tycoon 2 takes all of this and builds upon it.
Want to decide what your games box will look like? Want to create a collectors edition? Want to decide how many copies to make and how much to sell them for? You can do all of this and more. You can even buy shares in other games companies and buy out the competition.
Whilst all this complexity sounds fantastic for the hardcore simulator lovers, it comes at a hefty price. Every single action is massively overcomplicated. There are a plethora of tutorials to break you into the intense complexity of the game, but provide very little other than a basic introduction, without explaining much. We also had several problems with bugs, leaving one of the tutorials completely unplayable and us unable to proceed.
Speaking of bugs, one of the campaign missions challenges you to reach an 80% score for a game from critics. We made a simple text game that scored 53 yet also managed to win the challenge, as well as getting #1 in the charts and winning the game of the year award. The box that contains the game (which you also have to name) also managed to come in 2nd in the charts, leaving us completely baffled.
The act of making and selling a video game, the supposed purpose of the game, seems to take a back-seat behind all the madness and complexity of playing the stock market, or buying furniture for your completely useless home. So you actually want to make a sports game? Alright well you put all the effort in, you juggle the awful UI, visit several different locations to hire your staff, design the game and inexplicably have to enter another room to be able to tell your staff to make it. You design your games box and order a shipment to your warehouse. At least that’s what you hope is happening. It’s hard to tell what many of the buttons are actually intended for, and the information to explain each button is often in badly translated English.
But you did it, you have 100,000 copies manufactured and delivered to your warehouse. Finally, you’re ready to release your masterpiece! But wait, you’re not allowed. Apparently you need to have a distribution contract. Whoever heard of self publishing anyway? OK well, you better get down to the town hall to hire a lawyer (yes, you actually have to do this), and have him find a distribution contract for you. Except, each contract demands a certain platform and genre and there isn’t a single contract for a sports game on your platform at the moment. So now you have almost bankrupted yourself filling your warehouse with 100,000 copies of a fantastic game, that you are inexplicably not allowed to sell. The insanity never ends.
Conclusion
Game Tycoon 2 attempts to take a tried and tested formula and expand it to give a much greater depth and complexity than ever before, and for that it should be commended. Unfortunately however, it really lets itself down in the execution. The game feels very much untested and severely lacking polish, which could be forgiven in early access, but is no longer acceptable now that the game has been fully released.
The complexity, which should be a unique selling point, has instead become a huge negative as you are forced to navigate a maze of rooms and locations to be able to fulfil the simplest of tasks. If you can look past the considerable negatives and explosions of lunacy that the game currently offers, you may actually find yourself having a really good time, but nevertheless expect to be equally confused and frustrated at every turn.
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