Airline Tycoon

"Possibly the simplest game I ever liked."

I spent quite awhile debating with myself over what to put in that ''Synopsis'' line. Over a year after its U.S. release, Airline Tycoon is still on my hard drive...in fact, I just played it a couple of hours ago.

Anyway, for those of you who couldn't figure it out from the title, Airline Tycoon is a management simulation from Monte Cristo Games and Spellbound which puts you in the role of one of four airline CEOs (a setup that absolutely begs for a LAN, but I'll get to that later). You have two planes and $1.5 million dollars and you have to turn it into the biggest and strongest airline in the industry, buying out your competitors in the process. At least, that's the plot in the ''free game''.

The game also comes with a pretty nice pair of campaigns, one (the simply titled ''1st Campaign'') serving as a sort of ''step-up tutorial'', though not on the same scale as similar ''tutorial campaign'' sequences as seen in Capitalism II and Patrician II. You'll learn about order flights in one scenario, try out route networks in another...it's the kind of ''learn as you go'' that's standard in strategy games these days.

The other (just as simply titled ''2nd Campaign'') sequence drops you into a situation where you have to do some pretty neat tricks with the knowledge you've gained. You'll rescue airlines from the brink of bankruptcy, provide cargo flights to earthquake-torn areas (while still trying to make enough money to stay in business), and finish with the obligatory ''space race'' type of scenario...which must be played to be believed. It's pretty screwy.

All the above information, however, still doesn't explain why it's still on my hard drive. After all, an airport can be a small world after awhile, especially since if you've seen one, you've literally seen them all. There are no different characters or rooms whether you're in Tokyo or Johannesburg or anywhere in between. So it can't be ''international flavor''. You'll face the same three competitors wherever you go, so it can't be the ''new villain effect''.

What I think does it is that your strategy will often change based on just where you start from (even some of the campaign scenarios play a little different because you've got to branch from one place to another), and you'll also have the opportunity to set your own goals in the free game. Maybe you don't care what those other three competitors are doing with their airlines. Maybe your whole goal is to build the biggest and best airline you can with what you're given. You might even want to cover all 130-plus routes in the game, making chump change on some and millions on others. It's open-ended and just varied enough to make it worth a lazy afternoon's play. I think THAT'S why I'm still playing it.

On to the scores:

GRAPHICS: 7
Nothing special, although check out the hairstyle on the guy from Phoenix Travel. His hair looks like ash on a cigarette butt. Comical, especially if someone on your LAN does a good Beavis and Butt-head schtick. The airport's easy to get around, and you can always tell what's what with a single glance. It's all you can ask from a strat game.

SOUND: 5 with the music on, 7 with it off
Ambient airport sounds are as they should be. The MIDI music is annoying. Put on a CD, or play the ''rename file'' game with any decent MIDI music you might have (I can hear chants of ''yeah, right'' from the crowd...), you get the idea. The voice acting is good, you can click through dialogue to avoid time wasting...all told, it's average-to-above average sound.

CHALLENGE: 7
More sevens than a jackpot on a slot machine...I told you this game was inexplicably enjoyable. If you're trying to take over all three competing airlines, this game is extremely challenging. If you're just trying to make a few bucks and create a nice little airline, it's very easy. The campaigns aren't all that difficult, but that second one isn't a cakewalk, either. All these factors come together to produce a seven.

CHALLENGE X-FACTOR: LAN PARTY
Got three friends who like management sims? This game's about as cutthroat as they come when you get other humans involved. Whereas the AI tends to behave predictably when it comes to competing with the player for the best order flights, the game gets ramped up to whole new levels of difficulty where other humans are concerned. It becomes a lot harder to make money when the competition's actually competing with you as fiercely as humans tend to.

REPLAY VALUE: 9
Nine and not ten because ten is Civilization II. So many ways for a creative mind to get into this game that you'll have no trouble finding something to enjoy no matter how thoroughly you might think you've beaten this concept to death.

OVERALL: 7
The game is simple. It's not Capitalism II, it's not Railroad Tycoon, and it certainly isn't Neverwinter Nights. But for what it is, it's very good, and I heartily recommend picking up a copy if you can find one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/02, Updated 10/19/02