One of the first games I reviewed for Game Over! (back in December 95) was Capitalism. Eighteen months on; and Interactive Magic have released Capitalism Plus - an enhanced version of the original game which adds a little here and there to the original although nothing particularly radical.

The Game

Capitalism Plus is a detailed and complex business simulation. It's one of those games which take forever to learn but which are really absorbing once you've made the effort. There are a series of instructional games to learn different aspects of the game and wading through these alone took the best part of a weekend! If this sounds negative, it isn't meant to be, but it is worth pointing out that this really isn't an instant gratification game. If however, you enjoy something to get your teeth into, read on....

Capitalism Plus casts you in the role of Chief Executive of a large corporation with a few million at your disposal and a bewildering array of different business opportunities to invest in. Start with a department store or two, buying your goods from a nearby port and concentrate on pricing your goods at a profitable but competitive level. You'll need to set up departments for each type of activity and link your sales department to your purchasing department, which in turn links to your supplier for each product you're trading. Once you've got the hang of that, consider building your own factories or farms to provide you with products to sell. The range of products and raw materials available are extensive and you need to pay attention to the markets you're going to sell in - what is the demand, what are the existing prices, what sort of quality are your potential competitors products and what is the strength of their brand(s). Each city in the game has different conditions - and as in real life you can run advertising campaigns to develop your brand image and loyalty. Pick your campaign carefully though, to make sure you reach the highest possible population of your target market to get optimum value for your investment.

You can improve your productivity by training your workforce, and you can set up R&D centres to develop new products or improve the quality of existing ones.

In fact you can do just about anything that you might want or need to do in a real business environment. Very clearly this has been designed to be as realistic a simulation as is possible - so much so that according to the game's web page, top US business schools such as Stanford & Harvard are using Capitalism Plus as a teaching aid for their students.

Visually...

The interface is sort of 'windows-like' and yet not quite Windows. It's well designed and perfectly functional but it would have been nice if the transfer to native Windows 95 mode had made better use of the O/S.

Essentially the screen is divided into four quadrants;

top left is a map of the territory you'r trading in

top right is a larger scale map to zoom in on a town or region

A couple of minor gripes about the interface - sometimes it seems that there are just too many buttons to click to achieve a particular task and it's not very forgiving if you get it wrong.

What do I mean by that? Well, for example if you've created a purchasing department in your department store and you want to link it to a supplier you need to highlight the relevant department, then click a 'link to supplier' button, then click on the main map to locate a supplier, then click on the larger scale map to pinpoint the particular supplier, then finally select the product you want to buy. Often I missed that 'link to supplier button' which meant that I had to go right back and start again. Also it's not terribly intuitive if you need to cancel a chosen action. Think you want to build a new unit but change your mind when you see the land price? There isn't a cancel button - nor an obvious process for backtracking. This is all probably nitpicking though - it isn't quite as intuitive as you might like and it confuses you a little bit whilst you're still grappling with an unfamiliar screen. But DO persevere because it starts to make sense after a while and frankly - at the end of the day - there probably isn't another business simulation quite like Capitalism Plus.

Complexities Aplenty

It's not practical to try to list every variable or feature of the game - but essentially this game is all about detail - here's a little example;

Suppose you recognise that one of the towns you have a store in, has an high average price for beer - but with a low quality. Excellent - here's a possible opportunity to develop a brewing empire. First thing you might do, is to check out whether you could just import a better quality product at a lower price.

Alternatively you might bring in an average product and promote the brand (which incidentally might be your corporate brand, a range brand or a unique brand - it's up to you - each has it's own merits). Or you could consider producing your own beer - if you think you can achieve a suitable quality and price.

If the available materials are poor - or just too expensive, you might consider growing your own barley or perhaps mining your own aluminium for the cans (but you must grow crops in the right climate for optimum quality, which means higher land prices which in turn will affect output prices). Distance from farm or mine to factory will also impact on transport costs.

Then again you might research new production technologies to get prices down and quality up.

Or indeed it may be sufficient to invest in production technology and equipment, to improve your productivity enough to make beer sales profitable.

Still can't make money? You could contemplate opening more outlets to expand the scope of your brewery - perhaps it just needs to operate at a higher volume.

Meanwhile you can add to your business success and your personal wealth by playing the stock market in both a personal and a corporate capacity - and you can play dirty if you like! Want to make some money? Right then - bomb some of your prices to lower margins temporarily, buy your corporations stock at a relatively low price, then resume normal prices / margins to improve the stock price. Satisfyingly easy and lucrative.

Web Site

It's worth having a look at http://www.enlight.com ...but sadly at the time of writing there's no downloadable demo - although they say they plan to put one up there to replace the 'Capitalism' demo they've withdrawn so check it out. Nonetheless there is some interesting and useful info for newcomers and aficionados alike.

Getting Started

Two things I personally look for with most games are a painless straight forward installation and (particularly important for a heavy duty simulation like this) a substantial, comprehensive, well written manual. Capitalism Plus scores well on both counts; the manual is excellent and the game installed and ran without any problems on both my normal review system and my Toshiba laptop. Definitely one of the best features of Capitalism Plus though is the set of "instructional game" tutorials which make the learning curve just that bit easier. An uninstall option is a welcome inclusion too.

Sound

All major sound cards supported - but I turned sound off most of the time. It doesn't add much to the game (actually hard to see how it could) and the music is a bit cheesy.

Plus....

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, Capitalism Plus is a development of the original Capitalism but if you're a Capitalism fan looking for major changes, you may be disappointed. Most significantly (in my opinion that is) Capitalism Plus now gives the option of a native Windows 95 mode as well as good old DOS for the luddites.There are a few more scenarios to pitch your wits against and apparently the scale of the maps is a little larger.

Conclusion

Not a game for everyone. It takes time and patience to understand and appreciate Capitalism Plus. It's a serious simulation which concentrates rather more on realism than game play. But if you've read this far and you like the idea of something which needs time to learn but conversely will probably still hold your interest in a year's time, Capitalism Plus is well worth considering. Similarly if you're looking for a training aid for budding managers or entrepreneurs (OK, not typical Game Over! readers, perhaps) this fits the bill.

I like this game - every time I play it, I find that I'm thinking about it afterwards - what would have happened if I'd ruthlessly ditched unprofitable products? Could I have cornered the market by mounting a takeover bid for my main competitor?

If you recognise and accept the fact that Capitalism Plus is heavy going for many games players but incredibly absorbing for those with the tenacity to get to grips with it, it's a must have for anyone in the latter category. Here's a thought...if Stanford & Harvard really are using this game to teach their business school students, the next Bill Gates may attribute his understanding of the commercial world to Capitalism Plus.

Colin Edmondson for Game-Over!