A Review of Eco Tycoon: Project Green
A PC Game That May Help The Environment But Lacks Fun
Jun 13, 2009
This game doesn't go beyond research and development, bar charts, and building prefabricated lots in a limited area. While this makes for a simple game, there is little amusement or education for the player.
The Story of Eco Tycoon
In Eco Tycoon: Project Green, the player becomes a political figure in charge of lowering the continent's carbon dioxide emissions, while trying to keep the people happy by supplying enough water, power and food. Along the way, advisors tell what areas need to be improved, such as working on reducing waste or sending aid after a disaster.
The key to improving the CO2 in the atmosphere is by researching new, cleaner technologies and implementing them. The game also provides some technologies to research that, in the grand scheme, are not beneficial to reducing CO2 and could even make the environment worse.
Every five years, a summit is held to review the player's work. Doing a good job earns the respect of peers; not meeting the goal results in a fine.
A Review Of The Game
The graphics are very good, and the music is a good match for the game. The gameplay is simple to pick up, but the player quickly realizes there is little more to understanding the game than learning how to read bar charts and line graphs.
Then, the player uses his or her current technologies to build buildings by choosing one and clicking one of a handful of spots, trying to balance out current needs with results. Once the gamer has mastered monitoring graphs, all that is left is to choose what to research next, then move on to the next year by ending the round.
The game might be forgiven for the lack of entertainment if it gave the player any useful information about the types of technologies seen in the game. Instead, each new technology, power sources, for example, is given a one-sentence statement of what it is, such as a coal power station, wind farm, or water turbine, followed by yet another chart detailing it's impact on the environment, either positive, negative, or neutral.
Since the game is based in a global scale, the planet turns. While this is a good thing in real life, it is annoying in the game because the player is only in charge of one continent at a time. That continent doesn't stay in the field of view for long without either zooming in so close that the player cannot see the entire playing field, or by entering build mode. Gameplay would be improved if the player's field didn't scroll off screen.
Technical Glitches in Eco Tycoon
In windowed mode, buttons appearing on the bottom of the screen could not be clicked because, if the computer's taskbar was at the bottom of the screen, the mouse pointer "fell" into the computer's taskbar before it came anywhere close to the game button. Placing the taskbar at the top of the screen does not allow the mouse to get any closer to these buttons.
This was only corrected by moving the taskbar to the side, and then that would cause problems with trying to get the mouse to select items from the game on the sides of the screen. These issues are cleared up by moving to full-screen, but in either mode, Eco Tycoon's mouse controls are sluggish and the music hiccups in strange places.
Overall, buyers beware. The game is not worth the $19.99 being charged for it. Someone who doesn't mind the tedium of interpreting bar graphs and performing the same actions over and over may find some enjoyment from the game, but most gamers will prefer a tycoon game with a more action.
