HANDS ON - Is Cartel Tycoon The Fix You’ve Been Looking For, Or A Bad Trip?
Grease those palms.
By Byron Woodland
22/03/21
Previewed on PC.
Early Access build provided by tinyBuild.
Cartel Tycoon sees you play the part of an up and coming Capo in a fictional South American Isle. Your goal, as the name suggests, is to build a thriving cartel while avoiding all the pitfalls that come along with the territory.
The game begins with your character, low on funds and down on his luck, answering an ad for a business partner in a newspaper classified ad. A conversation follows that sees you partner with a mysterious individual in the flower selling business. How are your opium poppy growing skills?
As with many tycoon/city builder type games, you begin with some start up capital which you need to invest. Buy some poppy farms and warehouses to store your product, set up local businesses to launder your ill gotten gains and bribe local officials for a smoother ride. Hire some lieutenants to protect your assets, deliver your shipments and help you expand your empire. All of the tropes that you would expect in this setting are present, and for better or worse there are no surprises in terms of the cast of characters and the plot.
The graphics are simple but good, and I really enjoyed the hand drawn art style of the cut scenes. I just wish there were more of them! Most of the dialogue and story progression is in the form of text boxed telephone conversations, which after the introductory artwork was a bit disappointing.
In the story mode you are led through some simple beginning missions to learn the various mechanics of the game and build the narrative and it was here that it fell a bit short for me. The pacing of the early missions seemed a little slow and I felt like I spent too much time waiting for things to happen and accumulating resources/money. Whilst that is inevitable for this kind of game I wanted a faster pace in the beginning to hold my interest and get the hooks in, and it just wasn’t there.
It is worth noting that even though it’s in Early Access, it feels very polished. If you are a fan of the tycoon style games and like the idea of your own drug empire with none of the risk, then this is a very solid foundation to build from and is likely only going to improve from here.
That being said, if you are looking for something new and innovative perhaps this isn’t the game for you, at least right now. The storyline and mechanics bring nothing new to the table and whilst both work well and are entertaining enough, nothing stands out. However, there are quite a few features and mechanics that are in the roadmap for future updates, so hopefully these will bring the variety and depth that Cartel Tycoon needs to take it to the next level.
Respect the stash. In every sense of the word.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
