Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon, by A2 Softworks and Ultimate Games S.A. published by Ultimate Games S.A., is a base building game that focuses on managing an oil rig ensuring that you gain a profit at the end of the day. This makes the gameplay a little bit more focused on management which appeals to a certain set of players who will thoroughly enjoy the game. As for the music, it has to play a vital role in these types of management games to convey a certain atmosphere. The atmosphere that needs to be conveyed is tricky as there is no long-term story as the game only provides small scenarios to the player. Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon is a base building management game that builds upon the base building genre taking it in a unique approach that the medium has not seen too often.
There are few base building games that focus on economic management with some notable exceptions dominating the market, with some caveats. Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon leans heavily on the economic aspect of base building as the player takes the role of managing an oil rig. This forces the player to hire employees who will need to be paid daily as well as find and fulfill contracts in order to avoid debt all together. Moreover, the oil rig will need to have additional building to house employees and support buildings to ensue the survival of the rig in the long run. After all the player is running a business that needs to be profitable in the end to progress through the game itself. There are several games that tackle the economic aspect of base building but very few that use the theme of an oil rig as the backbone of the game’s inspiration. Furthermore, the base building games that do focus on an economic aspect use it contextually in their games as additional gameplay elements. One game that comes to mind is, Stellaris that has a gameplay feature based upon trade which allows for more interaction based upon the galactic economy and between individual empires. While Stellaris is about galactic conquest there is still a focus on improving an empire’s overall economic and material wealth to ensure long term survival. This is to show how, even a gameplay feature can be developed into a full-fledged game like Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon with all the bells and whistles including music.
The music presented in Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon is repetitive, but the kind of repetition in music that works great as background music when doing a difficult task. Making a soundtrack that is supposed to feel like apart of the background is quite remarkable as the composer had to make sure not to disturb the thought process of the player. This is somewhat of a standard in various base building games such as Stellaris, Planet Base, and Lego Battles with music that has to convey a certain monotony. However, in regards to Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon, by having only one soundtrack only accompanied by small sound effects, really hurt the overall experience of the game often making long play sessions of about 5 hours feel boring. In terms of conveying the job experience of an oil rig manager the music has it down pat. Aside from the music, there needs to be some elements of a story or a baseline set of objectives that the player needs to complete.
The story needed for managing an oil rig needs to be specific to ensure that the player remains engrossed in the game. Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon goes for set challenges to ensure that the player follows a certain set of rules for each scenario that feels limiting to the overall experience. However, for real life circumstances those limiting factors in game could be true to real life as there can be errors in logistics often inhibiting a manager’s ability to improve quality or quantity. In the case of the game, it is spot on, but due to the nature of being a video game it can take some liberties to improve the player’s enjoyment. There are very few games that focus on economics as the primary source of its gameplay with the rest often focusing on the player’s imagination to make the game fun. The only redeeming scenario is free mode that enables the player to explore their imagination allowing the game to be truly enjoyable for those that want more freedom.
A2 Softworks and Ultimate Games S.A. that made Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon a decent game conveying base management with a sense for economics. The gameplay is set on the foundation of base building with a focus on more of the economic side of things to ensure the survival of the player’s business. This focus on business is instilled in the music of the game where it is made for the background and on repeat allowing the player to focus on building up the oil rig and ensuring that they make a profit at the end of each day. By having the player adopt a more business mindset this allows for the challenges to be seen as meeting set criteria set by the player’s boss. Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon is a 7/10 game, in my opinion, with room for much needed improvement in order to boost the player experience and immersion by improving on the music and scenarios for the small challenges.
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Related: Reviews by Kyle Manila
I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.
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