Industry Giant II

"Why settle being a billionaire, when you can make something of yourself?"

I was wandering around my local Walmart electronics section when I saw three games: The Sims Unleashed, Industry Giant 2, and Sim Theme Park. Well, they were all sim/tycoon games, so, I judged them all, and I chose Industry Giant 2.
I installed it not to long later, and lost a whole day of my life to this game. Well, onto the review, I guess.

Graphics 10/10
Very very few sim/tycoon games have nice graphics... because they focus mainly on gameplay. Somehow, JoWood managed to pull graphics up into a 10/10! The intro movie is simply amazing, not the BEST, but it is really good. The game map is alive, full of random creatures (some are even funny) walking and flying around, cars zooming around on your roads, trains on the railroads, and boats in the water. As yes, the water, of all games that EVER show water in them, this has to be THE BEST. Water is nicely animated with waves, animals, beach shores, very nice. Towns are also alive, too. Buildings being built, lots being bulldozed, all sorts of things going on.

A small downfall is no ability to rotate the camera. This can be annoying at times, but the prettyness of the game makes up for it. Oh! The game is fully skinable too! JoWood's website allows you to download skins for the games, allowing you to change that stale normal one. Finally, all the products you can produce look very realistic, and some of the foods are even appetizing.

Gameplay 8/10
The gameplay is very very original. While in some games, you are a boss of a roller coaster park, and some a boss of a family. Here, you're the boss of those two, and even the boss of that boss. Wait a sec, You're EVERYONE's boss! You rule! Are you sure you're not the president? Well anyways, being a big CEO Boss president like guy, you can do a lot. First, you can build your own mansions! Oh wow, you say, who cares? Well, you can build all sorts of luxery buildings next to your mansion, like a music place, and a theme park. Now, to get this wonderful mansion campus like area, you'll need money. You could sell milk and become the next Kemps, or maybe sell Fruitjuice and become MinuteMaid!

Now, you are not limited to those! Maybe you like paper, newspapers, books, comic books, or cardboard! Cards? How about a teddy bear! Meat? Can you say Wool? Wow, it goes on and on! So, this sounds so great, you can do EVERYTHING you ever wanted to do, own a house, own a business, create the sweetest city, and guess what, even make a railroad!

Now, it gets better. JoWood releases new levels all the time, for you people that just hate the defaults, and even some ''fun'' levels to get you thinking. Now, what about that 2 points knocked off? Well, that not rotatable thing does get annoying when placing roads, and not being able to make levels can make the game get VERY hard if you want just a simple water level, but not a resourceless Hawaii. Plus, the game's AI for cities is a little stupid, making double roads, having houses develop right into your industries, making you have to move farther away. The few oppenents they give you also don't let you have a 4 play game and have 3 easy oppenents. The upside of all this is: The game lets you COMPLETLY get rid of things, like weather, economy crashes, and even MONEY! Its sandbox mode +1!

The game is split into two forms, endless and campaigns. In beginning you are given a load of endless levels, and 3 campaigns. As you beat campaigns, more become available, but sadly, you have to download more Endless games.

Sound 9/10
The sound in this game is VERY good. You'll remember them, thats for sure. They range from things that would remind you Los Angeles, to things that remind you of the Wild West, to even your everyday Hike in the woods themes. Theres about 10 songs that repeat in random order, but they are VERY long, making them seem like 20. A few songs will stick with your for a while, they are just that good.

Sadly, there isn't much sound options. I can't find any mute buttons (no need I guess if you have speakers), nothing to pick your own song orders, and noway to import music (ok, I guess I'm asking for too much).

Replay and Buy/Rent 10/10 and BUY!
Ok, these two fields are so tiny, I combined them. First off, its a tycoon game. What do you expect? These games are almost BUILT to be pure replay. Theres many campaigns, many levels, downloaded levels, and a soon to be addon(s?) for more products, music (I hope), and well.. stuff! JoWood definatly thought of making this very replayable with all the stuff they add!

As for buying and renting.. well.. renting is almost nil since its a computer game, and I'm not to sure if many of your sport loving friends will have a Industry tycoon style game, so BUY! If you are STILL unsure, JoWood offers a demo (lured me into the game) that features a small doce of things you can do, and the tutorial missions.

Overall
This game sucked up a lot of time, and it was worth it. Expect to play this a while, not only to figure it out (it is pretty complex), but to just enjoy it! Its different from other games, and it is refreshing. I recommend it to all of you that like Sim/tycoon games, and if you play Capitalism(1 or 2), you'll definatly love it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/02, Updated 10/14/02