Car Tycoon (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.1 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Andrew Park
• Reviewed on: 01/16/2002
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 01/04/2002
• Originally published on GameSpot: Car Tycoon (PC) Review

Chances are, you've probably never actually dreamed of being a "car tycoon." In fact, you've probably never even used the words "car" and "tycoon" in the same sentence. Fishtank's economic strategy game isn't really based on some childhood dream that we all had when we were very young. Instead, it's more likely a tardy attempt to cash in on the phenomenal success of RollerCoaster Tycoon, a management strategy game from Infogrames that was released over two years ago, yet still enjoys consistently high sales. So does Car Tycoon manage to be as engaging and addicting as RollerCoaster Tycoon? Not really.

At a glance, Car Tycoon looks like a legitimate strategy game. Most of the game takes place in an overhead view of the large city in which you do your business, and the city itself is represented fairly well with somewhat plain but otherwise clean and colorful 2D graphics. The bottom of the screen is occupied by various icons that act as shortcuts to open up small, unobtrusive menus that display clearly color-coded information and data in simple graphs. The game takes place in real time, and several in-game minutes roughly equate to a month of game time. Most games play out over the course of several years, though you can accelerate time or pause whenever you wish. The game doesn't really have any sound effects to speak of (other than a few simple clicking sounds to confirm that you've clicked on a shortcut), but its music is actually pretty decent. Car Tycoon's music consists of a few different upbeat synth tracks that can get repetitive but otherwise aren't that bad.

Unfortunately, once you start playing, you'll see Car Tycoon's facade fall apart. You'll start to notice minor details, like the fact that although the game lets you zoom in and out of the city view, the zoomed-in view serves no useful purpose, and it doesn't even look good, since the further you zoom in, the blurrier the game looks. Also, though the game features some 20 different scenarios and 20 different free-form games across a 50-year period (from the 1950s to the end of the 20th century), and allows you to build old-fashioned Thunderbirds and modern-day coupes, you'll never be able to customize any of your cars other than choosing from a simple set of components, including the chassis, engine, interior, and body. Since you choose to play as one of four color-coded companies, you can't even choose the color of your cars or their parts--if you're the yellow company, all your cars are yellow. It's just as well, since you'll never really get to take a close look at any car you build. Car Tycoon's cars are all represented in miniature on the map, and that's all you'll ever see of them, so if you're interested in really getting into the nuts and bolts of building and designing detailed custom cars, you'll be sorely disappointed.

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