Wednesday, 08 April 2020 17:08

Hands-On: Drug Dealer Simulator

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Buying drugs, selling drugs, becoming the number one low-life of all time... Does any of that sound appealing to you? Then this game is for you. Of course, this is only the demo and there is much, much more Byterunners Game studio can do to increase the enjoyment of this game. Since it’s not the final project I don’t want people to feel as though it’s being hated on. For me though, it was too beefy. A simpler interface would garner a higher rating.

THE GAME AS A WHOLE

The game does deliver on its title. You do become a drug dealer and move up to bigger and better things. Keep in mind, the Cartel is always monitoring what is going on, and believe me, you want to stay under their radar. You start as a low-level dealer. You get your supplies from one character and it is up to you to find the people that will be purchasing your drugs. Keep in mind that communication is key. If you don't spend time contacting your supplier it gets harder to advance to the point that you'll get to use "Shady Comm," the thing that allows you to stay connected to your supplier and your customers. Once you have accomplished the small time stuff you move on to bigger and better things. You'll have to choose when to tag and how to hand out "free samples." Thankfully, you choose the price so you can increase at a steady pace, or keep it low to acquire more customers. I prefer the slow mode of gathering a lot of customers and then start the price increase very slowly. It seemed like I retained more customers by doing this instead of raising prices right away. You also have your own drug lab so you can play Walter White and mix your own drugs (make your drugs stick out from all the drugs out there). This is where things got hazy for me. In its basic form, it really is a game of popularity, and I'm never popular. You need to impress people with your drugs, make sure you keep your supplier happy with your numbers, stay under the Cartel's radar, and, overall, move up to the big time.

FIXING THE PROBLEMS

The most prevalent of problems to fix would be to allow the player to use a game controller. It would make the game so much more entertaining, at the same time, it would be more seamless and even effortless.  Maybe if I had a better graphics card, I would have a different opinion on this game, but the game seemed to lag, which displaced the fun of running/selling drugs. Also, let's take a minute and talk about the lack of audio. It's like watching a film that hasn't been scored yet, there's no anticipation, no build-up. It’s obviously not ready for the public at large, but it was nice to be part of the demo group. Once the bugs, glitches, audio, and gameplay are polished up this game could go up in its rating and would for sure be something to buy.

MEMORY PROBLEMS

If you're around my age (35, thank you very much), you might remember a Drug Dealer Simulator that was on a graphing calculator when you were in high school. I was so excited to play this game, hoping it would be similar, but unfortunately, this game isn't close to the graphing calculator's version (and that was text based). If you go to this game for nostalgia, you're not going to get it. This is way more advanced than the calculator's fun. There was also a text based game that seemed to influence this game, which is a good thing, but if you're pining for a simple click and/or text and play the game, it's going to be more complex than that.

4

The Verdict: Flawed

Passable, playable, even enjoyable at some points. This is a great game. Why the low score then? Because of the advanced nature of the graphics and tasks for the platform, it's being played on, I was hopeful that it would be more than fetch missions, and had an overall feeling of a cheaper Grand Theft Auto. There need to be some big updates (especially adding the choice of using a controller). We're talking audio, interface, and accessibility. I have faith in the people at Byterunners Game studio and know they can turn this demo into something more. I await the day when my rating will go up, but until these problems/glitches are fixed, my rating will remain low.

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sarahdarling

SARAHDARLING (otherwise known as Sarah) has been writing since she was five. She won an award for a short story in kindergarten and has been hooked ever since. In her free time not only does she game but she reads a lot. She also writes (mostly fanfic). Sarah is a mother, a pet lover, and adores the whole Marvel-verse (including comics). In short, Sarah is a nerd, and she’s okay with that.

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