Customer Reviews

Airport Tycoon (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In this age of 3D-accelerated EVERYTHING....very few people actually stop to notice the older, cheaper games that populate the market.

Airport Tycoon is one of them. The graphics are horrible, the sound is mediocre, but MAN, is it fun. This is not a game where you can jump right in and start building a thriving airport: you will undoubtedly fail in your first few attempts. But as you learn the ropes, this game becomes increasingly addictive. From choosing the site of your airport, to the layout of the terminal, this is one of those PC games that will whittle away hours of your time.

HOWEVER...there is a tragic, tragic flaw in Airport Tycoon: the graphics. What you see is not reality; the running of the graphics does not correlate to what is recorded on the data tables. For example, the graphical representation of your airport may show two planes landing in a single day, whereas the data table (that can be accessed through a menu) will show about 20 flights passing through your airport! The poor graphics are a horrible misrepresentation; do not take them seriously. On top of that, the layout of your airport REALLY doesn't matter...I've had vending machines in my terminal that have been shoved backward against a wall...and they still manage to generate profit.

If you're more into the math and statistics of a simulation game, Airport Tycoon may be for you. But if you're more of a graphics person (like most gamers are) then stay FAR AWAY from this crazy game.

Good game! I got hooked on it the first day I played it! The only problem is that the first couple times you play it you will probodley fail! Don't give up once you start exploring you will figure the game out in no time.

The first tycoon game I played was Ski Resort Tycoon 2, which was fabulous. I wanted then to try another tycoon game, so I installed this game. I read a review from the PC section of [website] and they said this game was terrible. I thought to myself, "You get to build your own airport, how bad can that be." Evidently very bad. The graphics are worse than horrible-very pixely. When using the tutorial, you have no control over the game, so basically, the game is completing the tutorial for you. So, I tried playing the actual game. I got as far as buy land for my airport. After that, I tried to set down the first piece, but they wouldn't allow me to do that. So, I tried all of the other pieces, none of them worked. I then went back to the tutorial and found out that it would take literally about 20 min. until the tutorial got to the place where I need the help. Well, I could go on all day about how awful this game is, but I won't. The only good thing about this game is that the IDEA of building an airport is cool. They just failed to make it playable. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!

A bad execution of a good idea. This game has some major limitations:

You are limited to four runways, and if you want to upgrade to a longer runway, you have to clear all the old flight contracts off the old runway. This sounds easy, but you can only change/refuse contracts at their annual renewal. Thus, you have to go through a year of game time refusing all new contracts for the old runway and moving or cancelling the old contracts. TEDIOUS!

You eventually run up against a cap on the number of objects in the game. You also run up against a cap on the number of airline/flight/retail contracts in the game.

Construction is basically dumping the correct items in the correct areas. Layout doesn't matter (i.e. the game doesn't care if the fronts of two check-in counters are sandwiched together so no one can get to them). Many items don't seem to do anything anyway.

So why two stars instead of one?

The game was somewhat fun in the early stages of airport development. But I wanted to grow my airport into world-class status (e.g. JFK, O'Hare, or Heathrow). You just can't do that in Airport Tycoon. But without the goal of seeing how big you can make your airport, the game loses a lot.

The game is horribly designed. One of the first things you must do is place the airport runway, and you are required to do this without being able to zoom out far enough to see the ends. It gets worse from there.

I loved this game! You get to make an airport and stuff like that! That just amazes me of what you can do at one time!

I thought this game would be a very good simulation game but it isn't. It's very hard to figure out how to make planes land at your airport. I thought it was the worst simulation game ever. Soave yourself money and pass this one by!