Reviews / previews
I'll readily admit that most gameplayers find economic
simulations about as exciting as Jack Kemp, but the
idea of a simulation that lives and breathes in real
time does have intriguing possibilities. Add
unorthodox AI, a cutthroat environment, engaging
events, and lackluster graphics, and you have a pretty
good idea what Entrepreneur is about.
The game is played on a world map divided into
dozens of sales areas. You and your competitors
(from one to seven, in single- or multiplayer mode-the
latter via LAN or Stardock.net) share a single goal: to
control a winning percentage of the world market on a
given product. You begin with a small manufacturing
base-a garage, in fact-and gradually expand it into a
factory, adding recreation centers and offices for
sales, research and marketing.
Meanwhile your opponents are doing the same, and
that's why research is vital in Entrepreneur. You'll
need to hire expensive engineers and make decisions
about what features to research for each part of a
product, and marketing is essential. A marketing
campaign can be click-dragged into a map area where
it functions like a high-powered sales team, promoting
your product or, if you've developed a negative
campaign, wounding your opponent.
Comparisons to Capitalism Deluxe are inevitable.
Both products play in real time, and both demonstrate
a startling lack of visual imagination. However,
Capitalism Deluxe offers a more open-ended approach
to corporate competition, with a stock market and
multiple products featuring their own distinct
production/distribution chains. There's no stock
market in Entrepreneur, and although there are
several potential products to choose from at the start
of each game-each with its own spin on marketing,
production, and research-you have to choose one and
compete in a single-product universe. It's certainly
less realistic, but for some players the more tense,
claustrophobic atmosphere (especially if you set the game to run at higher
speeds) lends an extra dash of excitement.
With its recent 1.3 upgrade, Entrepreneur adds
several new products (including-shades of
Microsoft-the Web-browser market). There are
also plenty of new world maps, and most
importantly, double the number of Direct Action
cards. These function as player-generated
events that run the gamut from sudden research
breakthroughs to bribing government officials
into declaring an opponent in breach of
child-labor laws. You begin a game with three,
and acquire one for each year thereafter.
All industries have their own set of Direct Action cards, and each card
requires some combination of five resource types that are randomly available
in different map areas. If you have the largest market percentage in an area at
year's end, you accrue one token of whatever resource the area commands.
Complicating matters further is the fact that less than half of all map areas
actually contain resources. In multiplayer mode, it's as if a wicked session of
Diplomacy was dropped into the middle of Wall Street Report.
Entrepreneur's computerized opponents
shouldn't be patronized, however. The AI is very
good: it's not a single set of rules but a large
grouping of sets, each with its own killer
strategy developed by different testers. As a
result, you never know what your electronic
enemies are going to do from game to game.
Capitalism Deluxe may deliver the goods as far
as creating a detailed, realistic corporate
environment, but Entrepreneur is the more
exciting game-equally strategic but more intensely competitive.-- Barry Brenesal / GamePro
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