Industry Giant 2

by JoWood

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067K09
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 17, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,279 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #64 in Video Games > PC Games > Arcade

Product Description

From the Developer

Industry Giant II will release your entrepreneurial spirit by placing you at the start of the industrial revolution. It's your job to successfully guide your company through the 1900s and beyond the information age.

In Industry Giant II, like in life, your success is based on your decisions, and you have lots of choices--everything from the perfect vehicle for the job to the next product to manufacture. Big or small, all your choices will impact your company, workers, and working environment.

Your management style matters as well. A company can quickly sink with an insensitive tycoon at its helm. However, increasing philanthropic activities and local sponsorships can help any dictator's image.

If all these choices seem daunting, don't worry. Industry Giant II has a revolutionary new intuitive interface that gives budding entrepreneurs the ability to activate and exit detailed information with a simple click of the mouse anywhere on the screen. Choose to play as a beginner or a professional against the computer or against friends.

Product Description

Begin in the year 1900 with little money but large ambitions and through skilful decision-making you can build up an enormous business empire. Make critical decisions on which of more than 200 products you should manufacture. Become the greatest power in the industry!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the Quirks, Get Into It, and Have FUN!, December 8, 2003

By 

W. G. Jones "would-be Renaissance Man" (The Heart of Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Industry Giant 2 (CD-ROM)

This game is a little quirky, as someone pointed out, but it was created by a German software company, so it's not going to be perfectly "intuitive" for an American mind. In general, the Germans have a different mindset than the typical American. Case in point: the HVAC controls in a Mercedes-Benz. I am a fairly logical person, but it still took me a while to get a handle on which control did what on an old 190 I had a few years ago.

That said, I have not stopped playing this game for a year. I wish for a less grid-like field of play (a downer on most simulations, I think you'll agree), but the game has a lot of bright points, and the play is engaging for a mind that's interested in production analysis and efficiency optiimization.

The graphic representation of the playing world is excellent - bodies of water vary in color (by depth), wildlife, and human vessels (although they are not exactly to scale). You can turn the clouds and their shadows on or off. Cities grow and metamorphasize over time. There are numerous kinds of trees and terrain in any one scenario.

There are a good number of vehicles available in each of four transport choices: truck, rail, ship, or air, and each has its own cost and benefit makeup. Upon its introduction to the scenario, each vehicle stars in its own animated sequence; the animations are well-done, and the vehicles seem very true to their prototypes in the animations.

There are also something like 100 different products available to manufacture, ship, and sell. You have to build the supply chain to support the creation of each type of product. Most follow this model: raw materials to a mill for processing into useable supplies, to a manufacturing facility that transforms these into final goods, to a retail store to be sold to the end user.

You control all the factors of production from gathering the raw materials to the finished product. You have to manage the level of production and set labor rates at each step in the process. You have to maximize your profits by managing the sell prices of your goods in each store, and keep an eye on which products are seasonal in demand - it varies by quarter.

Overall, this is an excellent offering, especially for the price asked here on Amazon. I am rating it 5 stars because I am still playing it after a year, and not many sims can make that claim in my house. Check out the Gold edition also available here - it includes the upgrade pack with more missions (hopefully harder ones, since I agree that the missions tend to be easy to accomplish), vehicles, etc, which I need to get myself! As I said, ignore the quirks, get into it, and have a blast!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Little Fun, a Little Quirky, January 13, 2003

By 

Scott Belie (san Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Industry Giant 2 (CD-ROM)

Industry Giant II is a good, but not spectacular, game.

The game play is simple enough. I suggest reading through the tutorial, as some of the user interface actions are far from intuitive.

The game is a little short of challenging as all the scenarios, easy, normal and hard can be beat quite handily.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars business learning, December 17, 2004

By 

Jonathan G. Curtis "game player and book reader" (Worcester MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Industry Giant 2 (CD-ROM)

Great way to get students interested in business. Learn how the products you buy are really a collection of natural resources that have gone through a long series of processes. Learn how our economy was created, even the negative aspects to our economy.