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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.

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.)

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.

I enjoy it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I play games of all types. Being disabled and homebound the majority of the time, I spend all my waking hours on my computer either online or playing a game, sometimes both at once.

Reading the other reviews I am seeing people who bought the game thinking it was something it wasn't. It is exactly what it said it was, a business Sim game. You build your businesses, if you get enough of the same kind then you build a headquarters and you make money. No, you can't lose money, I like that, it means I don't have to search the web for cheats so I'm able to actually get enough money to build at the pace I want instead of cheating to get it.

Complicated games are fun if you are young, have a med free mind, etc. I am 50, am on many different meds for various incurable auto immune diseases and Fibro which all cause intractable, chronic pain. Pain meds get the pain gone, but can make it hard some days to concentrate for any length of time on something. Games like this one fill a need, for people like me who want a fun game to play that has an easy learning curve and that you can win without having to cheat.

For those having problems with their video, it sounds like you need to upgrade your computer's video card. The new games coming out are so graphically intense, you need a top of the line video card in order to play them. You can find one for under 200 if you are patient and look around at different sites online, but I've gotten the best deals right here on Amazon for the last 2 I've bought. I expect when I need to upgrade again in a year or two, I will be right back here to order again. :) I buy ATI's, which have always been the best for the sim and shooter games I play.

I'm sorry some of you didn't like the game, but I'm of the opposite view. I love it and am having a lot of fun laying out my town, fixing up my parks, watching the wild Halloween parade you get with the first area you build LOL and deciding how I can best decorate the front of each business that will please the customers the most (the game will tell you before you put a choice down).

Things have sure come a long way in gaming since I got that first pong game and attached it to my TV when I was young. The one cool thing about being my age, I've had the joy of watching it all grow thru the years and I was hooked from day one when I got Pong, then Atari, etc., to my homebuilt gaming computer of today. Enjoy the game for what it is and it will bring hours of fun.

Now I'm off to change over to my other window under this one, which is of course, Tycoon City New York. Haha, seriously, I was playing and decided to write this here and give my thoughts on the game. Sorry if this is kinda long, I wanted to cover all the previous posts as well as possible.

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.

Almost revolutionary:

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The basic premise that surrounds this game is almost inrivaled in the world of tycoon games. They really spared no effort creating a game that was full of variations. There are tons of buildings to choose from, and several different regions of Manhatten in which to build, all of which are unique. I started playing this game with extremely high expectations.

And those expectations were dashed. There is no challenge to the game, and dispite the numerous cool graphs and charts that detail earnings in many different ways, all of this information is irrelevant. My citizen's desires are irrelevant. It doesn't matter if my citizens are happy or not because it doesn't effect me. It doesn't matter if my newly placed building matches the needs of a neighborhood or not. None of the cool side effects really have any effects on my city whatsoever.

Once I got past the initial thrill of this game, I came to to the conclusion that there just is no substance. After all of the irrelevant but neat graphs and menus have lost their allure, all that is left is a game where all I get to do is plop down buildings and upgrade them while I watch the cash roll in.

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.

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.

It's The Experience, Not the Gaming

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As tycoon games go, this one's pretty mediocre, all right. However, what's really fun about it is not the recreation, but instead the re-creation, in loving detail, of Manhattan Island.

Is New York the quintessential nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there? Perhaps so.

It was fun decorating Liberty Island. It was fun opening businesses in Greenwich Village. It was fun until it became repetitive, boring and not much fun any more.

The downside of any tycoon game, I guess, is when you keep needing to do the same stuff with no real challenge left. The cumulative challenges of this game just did not materialize and ends up leaving the player cold.

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

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