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Since the first man on the moon was American, it was only natural that this space management game hit US stores way before the UK and Europe. The second half of it’s title seems to dominate the game stores these days, with a tycoon for practically every aspect of life. However, the concept of a “Sim City in space” is one with great potential. The question is: Does it offer something fresh and exciting, or is it something Armstrong would be ashamed of...?
Gameplay:
Moon Tycoon is, put simply, a game in which you can build up a space colony on the moon. It has got all the usual sim elements. The game is split in to three gameplay modes: a standard game, campaigns, plus a tutorial.
The tutorial does a fairly decent job of getting you in to the game, from simply getting you to navigate around the lunar word, to building up your city. Brad McGann is a character who acts as your advisor, to speak you through the tutorial. He will read through your task, reading the text that appears next to his image. The tutorial does a good job in getting you to grips with the main elements of gameplay, and lets you play at your own pace.
The standard Moon Tycoon game plays just like all the other tycoons. The objective of the game is to build up a city, starting with an empty patch of moon land – complete with craters and rocky hills. This actually causes problems. Although the rocky surface of the moon is suitable and realistic, it requires the gamer to flatten out the ground, square by square. This process can become tedious and makes you realise there are far too many bumps and hills to be fun. The first thing you've got to do, after flattening out the ground, is to build a Control Centre. This is the heart of the city, providing all the basic functions. Once this has been placed down, you will be able build housing, power stations...etc – you know the drill.
To ensure all buildings in your city are powered up, they must be connected with Connection Tubes. These act like paths do in Rollercoaster Tycoon, allowing guests to get around the map.
Whilst buildings like accomodation and shops help to build up the population, you can only go on for so long before you run out of money. An original touch to this game is the fact that you can mine materials from the ground, to make money. You can place Mining Probes anywhere you wish on an empty square of land, and find out the amount of raw materials in that particular spot. There are different amounts of helium and uranium for example in different places. You will need also to build a warehouse in your city, which is where mined material can stored, and later sold on to make a profit. Another original feature in Moon Tycoon is that if the morale in your city is high, the Space Agency provides you with additional money. This is an incentive to build up your colony with the best attractions.
There are three main campaigns in Moon Tycoon, each separated into missions. The campaign storylines are well thought out, and whilst you are playing and building up your city, you will be presented with a number of different messages from characters in the game. The conflicting views between these characters adds good humour to the game, and the detailed storylines make a nice change to what you would normally get in Tycoon-type games.
When you first go to the campaign's menu and choose the mission you want to play, the mission is explained and objectives are given.
The main problem however is that when you are actually in the game and playing the mission, you cannot see the list of objectives to complete. Nowhere is a list of objectives to complete, say one at a time. It would have made gameplay a lot easier if this was the case, and missions were ticked off one by one as you completed them. Likewise, whilst characters are there to offer you helpful advice to get you through the campaign, these messages come and go quickly, and there is no message log kept where you can go to check any messages you missed whilst building up your city for example. Without a list of objectives, or a message log, the gameplay in the campaigns can become some what confusing, and you are sometimes left to ask "what next?".
Unlike other management games, in Moon Tycoon you can’t see the visitors and guests in your city. You are informed that the population is 50, but you can’t actually see these 50 people walking around your city. This poses questions like “where do my guests actually come from?” and “how are they surviving if there aren’t any power stations or accommodation yet”. This element of the game doesn’t seem to have been thought out properly, and is one of the problems that is created when producing a game set in an unfamiliar environment.
Graphics:
Moon Tycoon was possibly the first proper 3D sim game, and for this reason alone it deserves a heads up. Navigating the world is easy, and whilst a lot of sims are 2D, you can rotate around the moon 360 degrees using your mouse. It is an easy, smooth process.
Out in space, it looks quite different to the world you and me call home. In the distance, there is a large Earth rotating slowly. Flying buses, floating astronauts and space ships which fly around the screen really bring the game to life, and help to set the scene.
Although there’s some nice touches, there isn’t much variety, and when you look around you realise there isn't that much to it. There are no trees or scenery items, which is great if you want a large area to build in, but it doesn't help to make the game look particularly impressive.
Although the 3D game engine is nice for a game of this genre, and makes actually building your city simple and straightforward, the actual aesthetics of the game is not that high. Anarchy have chosen to keep the graphics simple.
Sound:
The sound in Moon Tycoon fits well with the space theme. There are different backing tracks to choose from, under the categories Ambient and Techno, which are suitable and work well. However, these tracks are quite short and repetitive.
Character voiceovers are provided, simply reading out the text, which you can see on the screen.
The overall sound in Moon Tycoon is peaceful, relaxing and atmospheric, and doesn’t take over the game completely, but doesn't stretch further than adequate.
Conclusion:
Overall, Moon Tycoon is a fun management game with many original touches which come with the unique idea of a sim game set in space. The idea is good, and generally it has been well implemented, but there is room for improvement, such as the frustrating rocky surface which you have to build on, plus the confusion that comes about due to the lack of explanation in campaign mode.
But despite this, it is still an impressive sim, and it will appeal to fans of God games in particular. When at first it seems like an average Tycoon with little more to offer, it takes a few plays before you notice the original touches, and appreciate the detail that has been put in. You have to give it to Anarchy for doing something different with the management genre.
