BIG PHARMA Review for PlayStation 4

Let’s be honest—tycoon games are criminally addictive. Twice Circled charmed me with their aquatic hit, MEGAQUARIUM, so I took on its predecessor, BIG PHARMA for PS4, with equal enthusiasm, which I later recanted. Although the potential is there, bubbling underneath the surface of the chemical vats, this plays more like an interactive textbook than a game.

As a tycoon connoisseur, I make no bones about my uppity discernment with every aspect of these titles. First impressions with this one—not the best. No matter how many tycoon games you have under your belt, the initial tutorial sets the stage for the player’s future experience and can easily deter any real commitment, rendering the game doomed to forever exist in the lonely abyss of abandoned games in your library. In the spirit of honesty—a spirit I am well acquainted with—had my gameplay experience been for the sole purpose of entertaining myself and not to educate you lovely readers, step one of the tutorial would have resulted in me catapulting my console out the window, violently possessed by gruesome flashbacks of the merciless biological psychology courses of college past. Too much information too soon. If this were an educational game, I would alter my statement, but as a title intended for pleasure, the amount of information given at once is just insane.

Nothing about this game is terribly intuitive. Tabs seem devoid of an organized sequence and information is not so much categorized as it is just…everywhere. I imagine the actual pharmaceutical world to be quite similar to this, so if that is indeed the case, bonus points for realism. A reference guide or ‘quick tips’ codex would be of great benefit to this game to keep the player on more of a guided journey, rather than a chaotic information overload.

I almost hesitate to classify BIG PHARMA in the tycoon category—and that’s actually a fairly innovative idea. The developer calls this game “part business sim, part logistics puzzle,” which sets it apart from its contemporaries. I enjoyed strategizing the configuration of the chemical belts in each scenario/mission because it was an instant tangible success—or failure. Critics of tycoon games lament the lack of immediate gratification, but with these types of puzzles, you know exactly if your drug du jour is being compounded properly.

I appreciate the humor Twice Circled has snuck into BIG PHARMA that livens up an otherwise dreary, no frills industry. The drugs have goofy names and political jabs are clever and artfully woven. The color scheme is about as drab as the interior of a hospital, but it’s done with a poetic intentionality that says “we get it, dull right?”

BIG PHARMA is definitely an intelligent game and for that fact alone, I have to give praise. Whether you are a conspiracist or a pharmaceutical representative, this game is not without its merits, but unless it is a personal mission to tackle every tycoon game on the market, you can skip this without regret.

Rating: 5/10

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