This is an excellent game. I was already a fan of trading sims and this is a must-have for fans of the genre. Although it has a bit of a learning curve, it is not that steep, and a few (still fun) failures will leave you with sufficient knowledge to start wiping up the competition.
You start with a single freighter in a major port. Also, not very much money. This is where the learning curve starts, because there is no tutorial. However, anyone familiar with trading games of any kind will understand that there are a few basic things which can be done: BUY, SELL, and MOVE.
This is an excellent game. I was already a fan of trading sims and this is a must-have for fans of the genre. Although it has a bit of a learning curve, it is not that steep, and a few (still fun) failures will leave you with sufficient knowledge to start wiping up the competition.
You start with a single freighter in a major port. Also, not very much money. This is where the learning curve starts, because there is no tutorial. However, anyone familiar with trading games of any kind will understand that there are a few basic things which can be done: BUY, SELL, and MOVE. The rest of the buttons are things which can be picked up later. Once I was got those three
actions understood, I soon found out that there was an important fourth action. REFUEL. Hmm… I suppose that was my fault for not figuring that one out beforehand. But, I eventually understood it.
The second thing that is difficult is that it takes a while to understand the range of prices and which ones are good. After a few failed attempts, I discovered the ‘common exports’ and ‘common imports’ icons, and I was ready to start earning some REAL money.
Just thought I should note, the game has a working stock market, although your own company is not on it, thus eliminating the chance for insider trading. It would have been a completely different game if I could buy a huge number of shares, and then execute a beautiful business deal and watch my own fortunes skyrocket, then plummet when I get disgracefully thrown in jail. Unfortunately, that it is not part of the game. But the stock market is a good aspect, which I would suggest engaging in for the times when your ships are making their way across the vast oceans.
Some other key options which I discovered later: Freight business. They give you free goods to deliver and pay you a set rate when you get to the destination, this can often be quite lucrative, however, if you don’t deliver the goods on time, the fines can send you into bankruptcy, so be careful. You can also ‘forward business’ which means that you send a certain number of goods to a destination, and the price that they will be bought for is agreed upon ahead of time. This is beneficial, especially in turbulent times when you don’t know what the prices will be shifting like.
There are a few random events in the game, and they mostly bad. But they happen very rarely and so they don’t affect the game in a very negative fashion, although, if they never happened then the game would be pretty unrealistic.
That’s not to say that it IS realistic. Simply that it could be MORE unrealistic.
It’s a great game. Download it.
The graphics are static, but they are beautifully (hand drawn I believe) rendered, and they strike exactly the right background for the game. The warm colours and artistic images show that the game is not uber-realistic and not goofy all at the same time. More games should have graphics like this.
The sounds do not occur that often, and are not necessary to the game, however, the sounds do appear moments before the graphics on the random events, and so, the ominous music tells me something bad will happen, and it helps to soften the blow a little.
