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Tycoon City New York - Hands On Preview
Jon Wilcox
17/01/2006
TVG begins to build the Big Apple from the ground up in this preview of the forthcoming Deep Red title...
Think of city sims and pretty much every gamer's first answer will be Sim City, but with Monte Cristo's City Life and Tycoon City New York from Deep Red, Maxis' iconic franchise may be in for some tough times ahead. Based around the prospect of building the city that never sleeps, Tycoon City New York aims to develop the idea of a city simulator in a tycoon mould with a range of objectives, buildings, add-ons, upgrades, and competitors - this is one game that aims to give players a high level of control.
From loading the game, players are given two options: Build New York, or Sandbox. We'll take a look at Sandbox a bit later on, but first let's build the Big Apple. Following a tutorial by virtual 'New Yoiker' Luco, players are presented with a blank map of Manhattan save for the first area of the city to build on: Greenwich Village. A popular area for students and bohemians, players are presented with a bank balance of $500,000 and with the objective to fulfil the needs of the populace, in this case building some clothes stores, bookstores, and internet cafes. Progression through the game is generally achieved by fulfilling set objectives, from adding enough accommodation for 500 students to making sure than a certain percentage of the population is content with the number of bars or restaurants. Clicking on open ground players can select a building type from an ever-increasingly variety unlocked as the game progresses. Categories such as Accommodation, Retail & Services, Food & Drink, Entertainment, Work & Recreation, and Culture & Tourism are then broken down into specific buildings: different types of offices, theatres, shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants to name just a few. Once you've selected the desired business you're just one click away from building your empire.
Where Tycoon City New York stands out from the rest is the ability to upgrade your companies with an increasing range of options. Build a bar and players will be able to upgrade it with new signage, seating, menus, lighting, even 3D rooftop advertising; develop a park and you'll be able to add everything from playgrounds, statues, and fountains, to swimming pools and mature trees. Every development will have its upgrade limit represented through a designated number of upgrade points with every item 'priced' accordingly. It does mean that careful thought does have to be made during the planning stages - do you want a Sandwich Board person or an extra set of table and chairs outside? Each property will have its own boundaries broken up into a grid and it's up to players to make the best use of the space though you can of course remove mistakes. Upgrades are broken down into four main areas, with each company assessed on each: Appeal, Satisfaction, Beauty, and Sphere of Influence, with player satisfaction coming from seeing 'customers' walk into your business and spend dollars. Such levels of detail sound neat at first, but it does raise one issue in particular - an over emphasis on micro-managing.
Beginning with a single district of New York may mean that players feel relatively in control of every one of their businesses, but what happens by the time Manhattan is part of a full fledged global metropolis? The ability to please everyone has long been regarded as an impossibility, and with up to 60,000 inhabitants, it's going to be especially difficult in Tycoon City New York. Surely by the end of the game players will just feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information they have to read, and every business they have to check? Potentially compounding the problem is the ability for players to click on any member of the population and instantly discover their opinions on the city from what they like to what they need. On the one hand, gamers will undoubtedly find this a useful tool to judge their performance and where they'll make the next step, but doesn't such functionality also increase the amount of micro-managing to an incredible level? Having said that the ability to literally read the minds of the local population does bring a sense of personality to the game, making them seem less like drones; see where they've come from and where they're going, their needs, and what they think of the area they're in. In short, players can get a very good idea about what is right and what is wrong with a particular area from those who matter most.
Understanding how well New York is doing under your city planning can be achieved by accessing the rafts of stat breakdowns available in the game. Though the thought of being confronted with reams of information may sound daunting, the fact is that it never gets out of hand - players can access the desired information quickly when they need to. Various maps in the game allow players to identify rival companies, their own businesses and their spheres of influence, altogether helping players decide on where to build their next internet café, hairdressers, or dive pub. But players won't be alone in their quest to rule the streets of New York - there are others trying to cut their own slice of the pie.
Competition in TCNY sees gamers racing against AI controlled tycoons and 'The City' to earn the most amount of money in the Big Apple. This means that whilst you may be building a new comedy club in one area, an AI rival may be upgrading theirs with features that appeal to more customers. The race is constantly on to bring satisfaction to the populace in an attempt to be the biggest and richest tycoon in the city, although how this dynamic works by the end of the game when all the land has been taken and all the shops have been upgraded, is yet to be seen. Players can buyout a competitor's business, but it'll cost more than it would to build, but at least it's one way that gamers can gradually control all of the companies in New York.
Away from the competitive streak that runs through the game, Tycoon City New York features a range of landmarks from the Big Apple including the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Licensing issues have meant that certain landmarks have had to undergo a name change, so that the Empire State Building here becomes the United States Building and the Chrysler Building becomes the Motor Building, but if anything thing this just adds to the style of the game. Building landmarks wholly relies on gamers acquiring 'Landmark Points', which are awarded for various accomplishments including a growing population and the completion of objectives. Designated building sites on the map, the landmarks in the game are distinguishable in their incomplete state with a billboard featuring an 'artists impression' of the finished structure.
One of the more important aspects of a game like Tycoon City New York is a user-friendly interface, which not only allows easy access to the different stats, buildings, and other such information, but is also as clutter free as possible. All the menus are collapsible, and also branch into the various sub-sections easily; clicking on an undeveloped patch of ground will bring up the building menu with its own set of sub-menus, whilst clicking on a company will bring up a menu full of stats as well as access to the upgrade menus. It's a difficult balance to attain but at least Deep Red have tried to create an interface that will appeal to newcomers and veterans of tycoon titles alike.
Away from the main 'Build New York' Mode, gamers can also choose to play in the Sandbox Mode, which sets out the whole of New York to build upon from the outset. It's a blank slate, aside from the landmarks which are already in position, enabling gamers to create a very different city. The mode breaks free from the restraints of the main game, allowing players to decide on their opening bank balance, the number of opponents, and the opponents' building rate. Creation through the Sandbox mode lacks a strong sense of coherency, purpose, and engagement at this stage and doesn't feel fully realised - though it will probably come in handy in the classroom where I'm sure it'll be used during geography lessons...
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