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Just garbage

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 16 / 22
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I orginally had a different review, but then I decided to play the game some more, to see if maybe I was a little harsh. And on the contrary, I now think I was too generous when I wrote the last review. This game is crap. There is no chalenge, and there is almost no customization in the game. You build businesses which just sit there and make money. You can do missions but those are all pretty much the same with some numbers changed, not that the first one is fun anyway. The businesses can't be customized other then putting some flags on the building or something simple and stupid like that. It is impossible to go bankrupt to my knoledge. (I actually tried, you can't actually loose money from your businesses)

I previously said this game might be good for a kid, and I am sticking with that, for someone ages 8-10 this game might give some moderate entertainment. I will also say, the graphics are pretty good, though I would switch them for incredably worse graphics if the game was actually fun. I had been looking at this game for a long time (almost a year) and it just turned out to be garbage.

Its OK

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you are into City Building Sims, you will enjoy this game. Otherwise, don't bother. There is absolutely no challenge here. You build businesses and houses, but the worst thing that happens is you make no money. A failing business or empty house does not lose money. Even though you own the business, you cannot set prices, either. Furthermore, you are given missions, some of which the computer players will complete for you. There is no time limit on any of them. Progressing through the game unlocks different neighborhoods until you have all of Manhattan available; even though I finished the game, I never figured out what causes the next neighborhood to unlock. The manual is useless. There are a few bugs, such as missing textures (my doormen appear as grey boxes and some of my pennants say "default texture" on them.)

Money doesn't grow on trees

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 35 / 37
Date: March 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you've played a tycoon simulation before, you'll find Tycoon City: New York vaguely familiar. You know, you're the boss, and you'll be fully responsible for how your business grows. In Tycoon City: New York, the business is to build an empire in the city of New York. And to a certain extent, it provides quite an entertaining experience of doing so, even though the effect isn't quite as lasting as it could've been.

Before you begin, you'll be asked to choose a mode of play. Seasoned tycoon gamers, or those who simply want a more open-ended quest, can choose the "Sandbox" mode, which basically gives you the entire island of Manhattan, and the freedom to do almost everything with it. Almost, because some of the famous landmarks can only be built if you manage to achieve certain status. The Sandbox also allow you to turn off competition completely, but that's hardly what you want to play a game for, is it?

The "Build New York" mode is more structured, since it's actually the main campaign mode of the game. This offers tutorials on the various aspects of the game as you progress, as well as some missions along the way to keep the interest going. Missions come in the form of "opportunities", and fulfilling them will help improve your standing as a tycoon. An opportunity, for example, could be the influx of students into your district. To satisfy these students, you'll need to build street fashion retail shops, internet cafes, burger joints, and so on. Doing so will rake in the profits, which will in turn allow you to build more businesses. To fully complete an opportunity mission, however, you'd still need to achieve the objectives given by the game, which usually require you to hit a certain percentage of certain ratings. These are not difficult to achieve, but some level of multi-tasking is required to truly excel.

The rewards of completing a mission could be new items in your Build menu, or even Landmark Points, which you can use to build prominent landmarks. At the time of writing, I've built the Greenwich Church and the Greenwich Courthouse Library, which is not too bad for a few hours of play, I guess. Having landmarks in a district greatly increases its rating, and soon after you build them, you'll find yourself unlocking new districts where you can further strengthen your empire.

The strength of your empire is measured by your total earnings. It's therefore important to identify the needs of the people in the districts, and build businesses to satisfy them. Each business has a sphere of influence, which basically shows you how far its reaches in terms of fulfilling needs. You can also upgrade a business by improving its appeal and satisfaction level, but you'd need to accumulate upgrade credits to do so. Each business also has a fixed amount of upgrade limits, so you'd need to juggle between your resources, as well as each business' limitations. This could turn out to be quite a challenge. Also, if you fancy a competitor's business, you can always buy it over. It's usually expensive to do so, but the takeover could still proved to be fruitful if it's raking in profits by the truckload daily.

Tycoon City: New York is primarily focused on business, rather than infrastructural expansions. Sure, you create buildings all the time, but they only take a few seconds to be completed, letting you go straight into enhancing the businesses right away. Unfortunately, the game gives very little control over your finances. Apart from earning profits, and the odd sale of existing businesses, you won't get much opportunities to further your earnings. The game would have appeal better if it allows some level of business micromanagement. For example, after adding an advertising billboard to increase an appeal of a building, it'd be more fun if you can actually sell the advertising space for cash. Nonethelss, this is not a major issue.

The main issue for Tycoon City: New York is the limited gameplay. You'll find yourself clicking on empty plots of land, and creating new businesses. And that's basically it. Even with opportunities and expansions, what you'll effectively do over the course of the game is to click on empty plots of land, and create new businesses. This is exactly why the game gets old very quickly, even though it has the potential to be highly addictive.

Presentation wise, Tycoon City: New York is definitely a looker. The infrastructural models look solid, with great details on each type of building. A sense of appropriateness also comes into play for the upgrades, since you can add display items for your shops so that they look better. So, a restaurant may have an additional seating area outside the shop, a retail shop may have a bargain bin, and a night club may have a bouncer. All these add to the variety of graphics, and you can't help but stop and admire at these additional details from time to time.

The audio presentation is a little weak by comparison. The music is rather boring, and the voice-overs (yes, you do get to see people talking) are bland. But at least Deep Red included a nice little identification jingle for each type of building. This is seldom seen in games of this genre, and is quite a pleasant touch to accommodate the slow gameplay.

Overall, Tycoon City: New York is an enjoyable game. It's straight to the point, it's visually beautiful, and to a certain extent, it may even have mass appeal - who doesn't like making money? What drags it down is its overly mundane gameplay, and the lack of a real challenge. If you're simply looking to enjoy a tycoon game without ever risking the chance of losing the game, Tycoon City: New York should just do the trick.

I'm a Critic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: May 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game stinks, if I could give it 0 stars, I would. It doesn't even work on my computer! And my computer is a Windows XP! Take my advice, and DO NOT buy this product, you're better off with the game Zoo Empire. Zoo Empire works great and is tons of fun! Again, Tycoon City: New York is a horrible game. Please take my advice, and don't buy this game.

Really fun, but just a few setbacks...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game about a month ago, and I'm having a blast playing it. It's as fun as as SimCity 4 Rush Hour, only you don't have to worry about utilities and transportation and stuff like that. It's more of a business game than a city-simulator. The graphics are amazing, and the New Yorkers are all unique, with their own tastes and dislikes. The street grid can be a little tricky when placing buildings, especially on curves near the rivers, but other than that, it's really easy to manage the controls. Once you get going, you can really see the skyline of New York City come together. I haven't really played the "Build New York" style of playing as much as Sandbox Mode, but they're both great in their own ways. Working with in the first mode is a great way to get acquainted with the game. The tutorial is really helpful, and Luco, the teacher of sorts, is really helpful as well. I like how Luco describes each neighborhood as you get there, and tells you about different things about the game as you go through. In Sandbox mode, the entire Manhatten Island is open for you, and with $5,000,000 in your pocket, it's not that hard getting started. I recommend starting from where it first takes you: Greenwich village. It's smaller than most of the other districts in the city, and it's got a really neat culture and vibe to it, just like the real New York City. Go from there, and you'll have your own Big Apple in no time. I enjoy this game very much, and I hope you will too. Great game.

If it doesn't work on your computer...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: June 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

...then don't write about it here. It's not the game's fault - it's your computer. You have XP but what about the hardware aspect of your computer? Figure that out first.

Anyway, the game is pretty good. It's oddly similar to Monopoly Tycoon, minus the Monopoly aspect. Great graphics to ogle at, but they could have put in a bit more into gameplay. Overall, I'm enjoying this game.

BORING

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: June 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game looks great, but besides that there isn't a single positive thing I can say about it. The camera control is atrocious, there doesn't seem to be a point to playing it, and it froze up even though my system surpasses the minimum requirements. Why bother building things when all you do is click on a plot of land, watch the building magically appear, and then if you want, add little touches like billboards or bushes? It's just boring. There's no kind of challenge to be found here; it's just click an empty space build a building. Completely pointless.

Pretty Good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: July 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

it nod a bad game but gets boring after a few days since there are no challenged and no matter what you don't lose money compleatly

Good sim game, not much challenge

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I enjoy Sim City and had passed by this game on the shelves for a while but finally figured I'd give it a shot.

In today's world most people probably know if they like simulation games or not. If you found Sim City a yawn, this is too. If you've managed to learn how to build entire Sim City regions without resorting to cheat codes, then you'll probably enjoy this too but it's not nearly as "challenging" as much as a "challenge" actually applies to either.

The graphics are great and I enjoy the detail and rather enjoy zooming in and watching people mill about my city. I followed along the "Build New York" mode but found by the time I got 1/3 or the city unlocked I was making money at such a pathetically high rate that I run the risk of being wealthier than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates combined. There's no real challenge here, and if you actually pay attention to your business chains and build up headquarters often the money will roll in faster than you can ever possibly spend it.

I really enjoy this type of game and am glad I got it. I will continue to play it for some time. But like so many sim games, it's relatively pointless beyond the rote of build, build, build and buy, buy, buy. Unlike Sim City there's no real life challenges like polution, and funding your education system, etc. In fact, it's very much like Sim City zoomed up close with all the cheats enabled. Just plunk down building after building. Still, sometimes that's just the sort of "game" one needs after a long day at work.

Problematic...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: August 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is cool, in and of itself. I love building in NYC.

BUT... the problem is that this game shuts down everytime the computer does any sort of automatic update. If Windows wants to update (or any antivirus programs... or any other plethora of programs that want to update every other week on modern computers) it shuts down the game and you lose anything you haven't saved yet. I shouldn't have to shut down ALL automatic updates everytime I want to play the game. I play other games, including Tycoon games, Sim games, and all sorts of others, and have NEVER had such a problem. It makes the game unusable... which makes it totally lame. If I could return this, I would.

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