Customer Reviews

Capitalism 2

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Capitalism II is a simulation of running a corporation, with you acting as the CEO. You make the decisions about what products to produce, where to sell them, how much money to spend on research, how much to spend on advertising, who to buy raw materials from (or to harvest them yourself), where to build your stores/factories/headquarters, and so on. It one of the most complex games I've ever played, and undoubtedly the most thorough business/economic simulation available to the general public. Every variable is controllable, from the amount of dividend your stock pays out to the price of eggs in your grocery store.

Many scenarios are available for you to play through, and it is also easy to make your own victory conditions, or just play an open-ended game. In addition, there is a multiplayer mode so you can compete against other human-operated corporations instead of the usual AI-operated ones (although human opponents are currently few and far between).

As you might expect, Capitalism II has a steep learning curve. Even after playing through the entire tutorial campaign, there were things I was unsure about. I then read through the User Manual, which unfortunately is small, repetitive, and lacking an index. Next I did a web search to see if I could find a web site with some hints or a FAQ. No such luck. Only after playing a few open-ended games and experimenting a lot did a feel that I had a good grasp on how to win at the game.

The technology of the game is acceptable, but not what I would call modern: The music is annoying (don't worry, you can shut it off), and the few sounds are repetitive (especially the farm animals -- cute idea, but tiresome). The graphics are very pretty, but low-resolution (feels like 640x480). The interface feels clunky at first, but once I got used to it I found it efficient. Fortunately, the type of person who plays this sort of game is probably not a person who will be too concerned about graphics/sound quality, so long as they don't interfere with the gameplay.

Overall, I give Capitalism II a 4 star rating due to it's originality, enjoyability, and surprisingly low price. It has some areas where it could be better, and it is probably not something you will still be playing a few months from now, but the simulation is excellent and I imagine many economics and business classrooms will find it to be a great learning tool.

There are almost as many different ways to make money in Capitalism 2 as there are in real life. The game models the complete manufacturing chain -- from raw materials such as coal and iron, to intermediate goods such as steel and plastic, through consumer products such as PCs and leather jackets -- for over 80 different products. You can buy products from other companies and focus on retailing, or get involved in any or all stages of the manufacturing process. (Of course, the biggest profits can be had by seeing a product all the way from raw materials to the retail checkout counter.) There's a stock market, commercial and rental properties, and three different advertising media.

The game's economic model is highly sophisticated. There are a number of factors that determine how well a product will sell. Of course, the price and quality of the product relative to its competitors is very important. Product quality is based on a combination of the quality of the input goods and the quality of the technology involved in the manufacturing process. (You can open research centers to improve your manufacturing technology levels and can also buy and sell technologies with your competitors.) For simple products such as bottled milk, the quality of the inputs (namely, milk) is the dominant factor. For high-tech products such as mobile phones, the manufacturing technology is much more important.

Other factors in the economic model include brand recognition (which is increased by advertising and also increases naturally over time if the product sells well), brand loyalty, the location and type of the store (there are about 16 types of stores ranging from mega-warehouses to specialty boutiques that only sell a few products), and the overall economic climate of the city (during a recession, luxury items will suffer but people will continue to buy staples such as food items.)

I'm sure I've failed to mention a dozen cool features of the economic model, but hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite.

As impressive as the economic model is, the true brilliance of the game lies in the interface. The game presents you with a staggering amount of data about your corporation, your competitors, and the markets in which you're competing. The complexity could easily become overwhelming, and it does take a while to familiarize yourself with all of the reports that are available, but the information is organized in a way that makes it easy to quickly hone in on problems that require your attention. Although the game features enough numbers to warm the heart of any accountant, the most important information (profitability, supply, demand) is also presented in graphical form. You can quickly flip through all of your businesses and read the vital signs of each business with just a glance. If you detect a problem, you can dive deeper into the vast ocean of data to determine the cause.

The only minor complaint I have about the game is that the AI is fairly weak. In particular, the AI companies aren't aggressive enough about acquiring natural resources. For example, you can easily buy up all the iron deposits in the game world and lock your competitors out of the lucrative steel and electronics markets. Also, the AI companies never seem to buy media firms, which are extremely powerful because they effectively allow you to advertise for free.

Nevertheless, even if the AI doesn't present much opposition, it's still fun to see how much money you can rack up. The game features a "Billionaire Scoreboard" that compares your personal fortune (and that of the various AI personalities) with real-life tycoons. It's very satisfying to knock Bill Gates out of the top spot.

Although the graphics are fairly good, all cities, from Beijing to Boston, are depicted using the same generic city graphics. It would've been a nice touch to have different architectures for the different cultures, or at least throw in some distinguishing landmark for each city.

In summary, I heartily recommend this game to anyone who's even the slightest bit interested in business-oriented simulations.

Whether it's manufacturing, or retaling, mining or farming, or focusing in real estate or media, this game has proven to be perhaps the best business simulator of all times. I, myself, have been searching and looking everywhere i nthe web for a decent game that could bring strategy, real economic life and fun alltogether, but I was never able to satisfy my search. Yet this December, a new game publñished by the same company which published the first series, I found myself immediately buying the product which turned out to be outrageosly fabulous. The financial engine is magnificent, the graphics are incredible, and there's a number of details that will make you wish for this as you read: You may build mansions, you may take control of the nespapers the television the radio, you may buy and sell land, build headquarters, build houses and buildings and rent them, you may even hire a team of professional executives who will charge you for jobs such as Chief operating officer, chief marketing officer, chief technical officer, etc.. This game has taken me into a worl of finance no other have ever done, if you are reading this review to make up your mind about this product, I hope I may have been of some help on giving you the opportunity to invest in this.
This is far beyond any other product ever seen in the market open for everyone!

It has been said that the difference between work and play is point-of-view, and nowhere in the Computer/Video Game world is that better demonstrated than Capitalism 2. Graphs, stock prices, manufacturing concerns, research and development: Is it an exciting game of running business empires or a dull training program for future suits?

Answer: That depends.

I got this game when it first came out (after playing Capitalism Plus for a while) and really just couldn't get into it for many months. Rather illogical: I had played and enjoyed the first game quite a bit, and Capitalism II is Capitalism Plus, only more so. Greater depth, better graphics (there's an almost pointless piece of praise), and more, More, MORE! depth of play.

But I just wasn't in the mood for a business sim. Boredom can set in in any game if you're not in the mood for it, but one feels especially absurd simulating WORK as recreation. So, I backed off, determined to come back later when the mood struck me, to see if it was just me, or if there was something in the game itself that made it less playable. I'm happy to report, it was just me. If you're in the mood for a business sim, this one can keep you happy for a long, long time. (At least as long as the mood lasts.)

Let me reiterate this point, however: You have to enjoy this kind of game at the get-go. If you find business sims boring or too complex, this isn't going to convert you.

Capitalism 2 allows you to make money through: retail outlets, manufacturing consumer products, manufacturing industrial products, raw material procurement (mining, crops, livestock, logging), stock market shenaningans, real estate and even a CEO salary (you have an alter ego who can draw a salary and buy a mansion, as well as running your business). You can specialize in a variety of retail areas (footwear, food, computers, leather) or try to obtain de facto monopolies. (You can't stop competitors from entering a field, but you can make a product so superior that they are unable to sell their own products. You can also leverage the money from your monopoly to enter other fields and steal market share by dumping products. The former is a nice fantasy; the latter, of course, is how one famous software company works.)

No business simulation is perfect, nor even particularly realistic, in the sense of an average consumer thinking: "Yes, this is the price that I'd pay for a product and this is how I'd buy it", and Capitalism II has its own quirks. (Setting aside for a moment some essential game quirks, like retail outlets offering a maximum of four products.)

For example, most of my games turned into vertical conquests. If I want to dominate computers (the goal of the first non-tutorial scenario), I would expect to be able to buy electrical components, plastic, steel and silicon, so that I can focus my efforts on building a better CPU (and later, building better electrical components) since that is the element with the broadest effect on my products.

But in the very first scenario, where your big edge is a high level technology in palm computers, you'll find there is no silicon for sale (nor even silica, which you could at least use to make silicon). So I had to start by building a silica mine. (In fact, I may have even had to build an oil well to get plastics, I'm not sure now.) That seems like a bad way to start players out.

By the end of the game, I had an iron mine and a coal mine to boot, to build my own steel. Really, how many computer companies own their own iron, steel, silica and oil resources? I also owned quite a few retail stores and was selling most of my own products.

This game would probably be especially fun in multiplayer, where you could pair up with people to focus on horizontal markets. In fact, it'd probably make a great and fun business class exercise with eight-lpayer teams. I'm not keen on putting up company-specific network code on my machine (I don't do Battle.Net or GameSpy, for example), and I don't think much of Ubisoft in particular, so I never bothered to try to find anyone to play on-line against.

There are two "campaigns": The first is a tutorial, and it's a campaign in the sense that each scenario builds on what you learned in the previous one; the second isn't a campaign at all, it's just a bunch of unrelated scenarios which appear to be roughly in order of difficulty. And the first scenario of the non-tutorial campaign is significantly harder than the last scenario of the tutorial campaign, possibly leading to early frustration.

All-in-all, though, this is a really good game. Dizzying in its depth. Substantial learning curve. As a business sim/game I would give it five stars except for a few missing interface features:

* There's no way to tell at a glance which resources you can buy. (You can find out what your opponents are selling, but the only way to find out what's available at seaports is to check them all out manually.)

* When hiring people to work for you, there's no way to sort or filter those with a particular skill. You have to look through them all.

* Navigating through the multitude of screens is not as easy as it should be: There's a back button which allows you to toggle between two screens, but it really isn't adequate. Also, when you right click from some screens to go back to the main map, the game seems to send you to a home position which has no relation to where you left the main map.

These and a few other similar interface issues may seem like minor annoyances, but they're (barely) enough to knock my score down to four stars. Overall, though, a good experience for armchair moguls.

Ever wanted to run your own business? Like business simulations? Then this is the game for you!!! This is the best Business simulation I've ever seen. Start-up 2000 and The Corprate Machine do not even compare. Capitalism 2 is extremely cusomizable and has very few unrealistic limitations, which makes it one of the most realistic Business games ever. You can be a manufacturer, a retailer, a real estater, or invest stock on your other componies, or all ok it!!! This game is so in depth you'll confuse it for reality. You can make a custome game, or play a game with an ultamite goal, such as reach a profit of $20,000,000 a month in 10 years. The compeditors are usually agressive a cunning, but sometimes make dumb mistakes, like everybody does. Unlike most games out there, you can sell almost anything you can think of. From Canned Corn and Ice Cream, to Stereos, DVD players, and Cars. You can even sell what your compeditors make, as they do to you. So everybody makes money. You can also invest stock, decide how much to pay yourself, set divendins, and have other people buy your stock and your compeditors. It is imposible to tell you how realistic this game is. A little advice. Start building and sellinh simple at the beggining of the game. Palm Computers take a lot to make and take a while before they make money. Start with small stores selling seaport imported products and products you can make simply.

Pros: REALISTIC, CUSTOMIZABLE, SMART AI

Cons: AI sometimes, yet rarely rediculously dumb, You'll be adicted forever!!! Muhahahaha!!!

Final Verdict: Currently the closest thing to a real business for a dirt cheap price!! BUY IT TODAY!!!

This is one of the more addictive games I've played. The tutorials are great. You can learn everthing you need to have success in this game. Once you know pretty much everything, you will find yourself busy creating your own empire at 3 o'clock in the morning. ^_^ It's true that everything becomes a bit repetitive after you establish your empire in farming, manufacturing and retailing. But, still, this game can bring you many hours of fun. One minor issue, the AI sometimes seems pertty dumb. For example, my competitor built an apartment Right on a gold mine in the very beginning of the game. As u may already see, the company didn't go too far because it ran into cash probelm quickly. Also, the NPC company tends to build their factories and retail stores on the existed properties at the downtown. Therefore, the once beautiful downtown will eventually has like 25 department stores and it sure looks Ugly. The stock market seems a bit unrealistic too and can be abused. Buying majority(more than 50%) of other company's stock at the beginning will almost ensure you will have total domination later.(since you can take over the company anytime you want later). Anyway, this game is pretty unique itself. You will have lots fun playing it. ^_^

Really! business games have never been a real thriller for me. I play mostly flight sims, adventure games, space sims, and a few shooters like Wolfenstein. So, I decided to try something different. And boy! did I make the right choice. This game should be played by Graduate Business School students, as it would definately benefit their studies. The sim is that realistic and beneficial to business lovers and money managers. The game has taught me a lot about money management. I have Money 2001 for my personal financial management and I wish now I had more of it, so I could actually do all the things in the game for real!

So, for all those business people out there...run, don't walk to your nearest computer store and play this game.

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Capitalism 2 is probably my #1 favorite of all time with the Zelda games at #2 and Grand Theft Auto #3.

NOT FOR EVERYONE! This game takes a tremendous amount of time just to learn, about 3-6 hours just to go though the tutorials. If you do not have a background or intrest in business and the fundamentals behind running them it might not intrest you and be a little hard getting started.

It has a tremendous amount of options, from it's own stock market to buying mansions for your player.

If you are intrested in business and like sims game this should be one of your favorites. Puts Monopoly Tycoon to shame.

This used to be one of my favorite games back in the old Windows 98 days. It does work on my Vista 32 PC though it always crashes when it closes, which isn't a big deal because I'm closing it anyway. It easily restarts and runs smoothly in the same Windows session without a reboot after the quitting crash. It does minimize and restore without failure for those who have more in there lives to do than just play games.

For me it's one of those "Civilization" style just one more minute kind of games - not Civ in that it's turn-by-turn because it's not - it's a pausable RTS game - I just meant that it's hard to want to stop.

10 years ago I would've given it 5 stars but now it's just a little too dated for new initiates. For those who used to love it back in the day, it's still the same fun little distraction and it does run well enough on a modern OS.

Some people just don't get it. There is nothing that will really get you to stand up and point this game out to anyone else. There is nothing here that you can do that would impress your friends or what not.
Think of the game as a school course, or sim city will just the money and business part.
I find the game fun to play, but I also love the idea behind business and creating one.
If you don't know numbers, if your looking to take over the "world" or blow something up, this is really the wrong game for you.
Now if your looking for how to set up a business, or how to run a corperation then I would say this is a rather good game to start with.
From building a farm, to a factory. A retail store or a market you can get a good idea of how it is done.
Expect to spend 3-6 hours just LEARNING the game, then you will enjoy it.