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eCS
Software |
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Game Review |
Entrepreneur
for OS/2 |
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Year:
1998 Homepage
Link: Click
Here Additional
Maps/Markets/Editor Download
Entrepreneur now! |
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Entrepreneur is a real time multiplayer or single player strategy game in which you must build a global corporate empire while competing against ruthless opponents. Create new technologies, manufacture them faster than your opponents, and try to make sure your marketing can fend off the nasty rumors your competitors may spread. (2) Installation: After extracting the contents of the .zip file simply run ent.exe to begin playing Entrepreneur. The newest patch has been installed and all the expansions have already been added. As always, this is the full version, so nothing to do but play! (3) Startup: As you can see from the picture below, there are nine choices when you get to the main screen
Oddly enough there is no “options choice” from the main menu screen, this will only be found while playing the game which we will go over in section 4. For now, lets go over a new single player game.
You are now dropped into the Map and you see your little man (CEO), your factory, and your little plot of land...oh...and no less then 18 buttons to press.
Ok...so time to have...humm...fun!?!? (4) The Program: Remember I said the options menu is only when you start playing the game? Well, if you look at the bottom of the Entrepreneur game window you will notice a gray keyboard, that you can barely see. Clicking on it will show a new window:
As with many games I have played from Stardock, the sound is pretty “choppy”. I did try and play the game with both sound and music but it got really unbearable so I just kept the SFX option checked and killed the music. If you want to listen to music, there are a million better options since the Entrepreneur “music” is one song in a continuous loop, and it's horrible. Go put a CD in or music from the Internet. The only thing you might also do is adjust the Game Speed. If I am focusing on the game I crank it up to 4 or 5 and if I am working, then I moved it to 1 so nothing jumped up on me. Play unfolds on a large map of the world that is divided into regions. You and the competition are trying to secure a dominant share of the market in these regions, and the player who achieves a monopoly in computer manufacturing wins. This is done in a number of ways. First, you research regions to determine what elements they like to see in their computers. (Do they prefer ease of use over reliability?) You control a single region at the beginning, and here you build your main offices and facilities. Five structures can be built and upgraded: research, production, marketing, sales, and recreational. Using sliders, you hire and fire people to work in these buildings, and they in turn produce whatever you need. Engineers, for instance, conduct research into a wide area of product improvement areas, like cost, production speed, operating system, keyboard, monitor, and so on. Marketers create either positive or negative marketing campaigns that you send into other regions.
The idea is to improve product and tweak prices, then send salesmen and marketing strategies (which are represented by icons) into other areas to help maintain strong sales. Other players are doing the same thing, with the result that you have to continually monitor regional sales and needs to ensure you maintain a monopoly. Along the way, you and other players receive special action cards that can tilt the odds. Some improve worker morale and production, others harm the competition or give you a one-time boost.
The various elements and basic premise of Entrepreneur are strong, but the details and the integration of these elements is somewhat lacking. For starters, there seems to be no real-world economic model. "Money" is very abstract and markets fluctuate rapidly and without true cause. The game makes no claim for economic realism, but why make an economic game where the economics are just window dressing? The particulars of taking over a market seem vague. Why am I succeeding or not succeeding? There are some charts and tables, but they don't provide enough feedback to allow you to fine-tune your approach to market dominance.
I found that to enjoy this game you cannot rush it. I honestly was very bored when I played my first two or three games, it was hard to understand and it was just slow to see anything interesting. But when I actually paid attention it actually because interesting to see how my numbers changed monthly, especially after I changed the price of my computer. Stardock has always been know for an aggressive AI and this game does continue this legacy. I was impressed on how the game would try and wrestle away market share especially in the latter part of each game. Another plus side, is the strong and easy Internet play (via STARDOCK.NET).
Not surprising, there was only one person with a game. I tried join his game but Entrepreneur froze on me every time. Starting my own game is just like single player, where you can play against the computer but humans can also join. Because of that, I always play this way but no one ever showed up. Honestly this is not surprising, being a thirteen year old game. (5) Final Thoughts: Entrepreneur's interface doesn't come together as a fluid, functioning whole. There's too much screen hopping in order to change settings and not enough information on the main screen. The manual is also littered with spelling, grammatical, and factual errors that had me scratching my head. Another thing to bring up is the window itself that you play in. I am not sure why, but Stardock decided that there are only two screen formats to play in. The small window that allows you to also do things in the fore/background, and full screen mode. There is no way to adjust window mode so if you have even a medium sized screen you will be squinting at much of the text. Putting the game into full screen mode makes things easier to see but it is really ugly. Besides the normal sound artifacts, I never had a crash and the game worked well with other programs. The idea of creating a real-time strategy game in which you conquer with sales instead of tanks is novel. If you can get over the slow build up to the fun, the fussy interface, and nebulous economics, there is much to like about Entrepreneur. Make sure to get the full game at the top of the page. Entrepreneur is worth the download, and hopefully more people will want to get online and play again! (6) Updates after the review: 03-06-11 : Added a new link for this review for downloading additional maps and markets. There is also an editor so you can make your own markets! |
