Cartel Tycoon

Cartel Tycoon goes all in on the drug cartel leader fantasy and mines the setting for as many concepts as possible. The management game is good, with a mix of mechanics and with clear challenges for players to work through. I like the look of the game and most of the writing fits well with the ‘80s Latin American world it is evoking. The mix of two narrative-driven campaigns alongside a sandbox and survival modes is a solid one. But the development team at Moon Moose could have been less classic in their approach to core game concepts. There’s nothing here that the management game space has not already tried. Cartel Tycoon is well-suited for anyone who already likes the genre or the setting but it does not innovate in any meaningful way. Review code provided by the publisher.

73%Game Brain Score

gameplay, story

grinding, stability

73% User Score Based on 2,270 reviews

Critic Score 71%Based on 4 reviews

Platforms

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About

Cartel Tycoon is a single player city builder game. It was developed by Moon Moose and was released on July 26, 2022. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

"Cartel Tycoon" is a strategy simulation game where you build and manage a drug cartel in South America. Expand your operation by constructing clandestine labs, recruiting workers, and battling rival cartels and law enforcement. Navigate a complex moral landscape as you balance the pursuit of power and wealth with the well-being of your followers and the community.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+22

Skip User Reviews

73%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,270 reviews

gameplay110 positive mentions

grinding86 negative mentions

Cartel Tycoon offers an engaging set of stories that complement the typical supply chain and logistics gameplay, making it enjoyable and complex.
The game features a unique theme that immerses players in the world of drug cartels, with a vibrant art style and a captivating soundtrack.
The developers are responsive to community feedback and actively work on updates, showing commitment to improving the game.

The game suffers from significant micromanagement issues, making it tedious to manage logistics and resources effectively.
The AI for rival gangs and law enforcement is underdeveloped, leading to a lack of dynamic interactions and making the game feel unchallenging.
Many players find the tutorial insufficient and the overall difficulty unbalanced, leading to frustration and a steep learning curve.

gameplay
406 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
63%
10%
The gameplay of Cartel Tycoon is characterized by a mix of engaging mechanics and frustrating design choices, leading to a steep learning curve and repetitive gameplay. While players appreciate the unique themes and strategic elements, many criticize the lack of depth, clarity in mechanics, and the overwhelming micromanagement required, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. Despite its potential, the game suffers from balancing issues and bugs that hinder the experience, leaving it appealing primarily to dedicated fans of the genre.
- “It was a fun journey of learning how to use each build and mechanic in this game in order to make tons of money.”
- “Interesting gameplay mechanics, fun and challenging to set up proper routes for whatever product you want to smuggle.”
- “The gameplay mechanics and progression system provide moments of strategic satisfaction.”
- “The mechanics are simple and half-baked, and I lost any motivation to play after 4 hours on account of tedium.”
- “Once players grasp the core mechanics, the gameplay loop becomes predictable and monotonous.”
- “Overall, the game's deceptive appearance and lack of depth in AI and gameplay mechanics left me thoroughly disappointed, prompting my request for a refund despite surpassing the two-hour playtime limit.”
story
398 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
75%
9%
The game's story mode has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it lackluster and repetitive, often reducing missions to tedious tasks like transporting goods. While some appreciate the engaging dialogues and character backstories, others criticize the mode for being overly linear and buggy, making it feel more like a tutorial than a compelling narrative experience. Overall, while the story has potential, it struggles to maintain player interest and often feels disconnected from the more enjoyable sandbox mode.
- “Really enjoyed the storylines in campaigns, interesting supply chains and research tree as well, great buy especially on sale!”
- “The storyline is engaging and keeps the game rolling for the start of the map at a good pace.”
- “The developers put a lot of thought into the features and it goes much deeper into the story than I expected it to.”
- “Having played through the tutorial and a portion of the story mode, I found it lackluster and not compelling enough to continue.”
- “The story mode is buggy, confusing, and terrible.”
- “I tried to like this game but it feels soulless, the story isn't interesting, the economy is simply broken, and what's worse is that sandbox buildings are locked behind the most boring campaign I've ever seen.”
music
130 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
42%
6%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising the soundtrack as immersive and well-suited to the game's theme, enhancing the experience of managing a cartel. However, some players criticize the music for being repetitive and lacking variety, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. Overall, while the soundtrack is often described as excellent and atmospheric, there are calls for more original compositions to elevate the experience further.
- “The soundtrack adds to the overall ambiance, enhancing the sense of being a powerful cartel leader.”
- “I would like to mention that the soundtrack is a masterpiece, it perfectly fits with the game and has a very relaxing vibe to it.”
- “The art style is awesome, the soundtrack is phenomenal, this game is on the right track.”
- “The music is very repetitive and does not really change outside of 'mexican music #1' to 'mexican music #2'.”
- “I paid extra for the music, no one even sings, boring and soulless.”
- “Edit: I forgot to mention that the music is okay but it's so repetitive that it grates my ears after like 15 minutes.”
graphics
108 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
38%
6%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the vibrant art style and hand-drawn visuals that effectively capture the game's atmosphere. While some players find the graphics charming and appealing, others criticize them as outdated or lacking depth, particularly in more complex gameplay scenarios. Overall, the visuals are generally considered good for an indie title, though they may not match the polish of larger productions.
- “The hand-drawn graphics and vibrant colors create a distinctive aesthetic that captures the essence of the game's setting.”
- “The artwork, graphics, music are amazing.”
- “Great graphics and artwork, great music and sound, and really fun gameplay.”
- “It offers decent gameplay with some cool and innovative mechanics, though the experience is somewhat held back by its graphically outdated, typical indie presentation.”
- “While the visuals leave much to be desired, the core game is solid enough to warrant a look if you’re into the genre.”
- “The graphics are still a tad bland.”
grinding
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
4%
93%
The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for its excessive micromanagement and repetitive tasks, which detract from the overall enjoyment. Players find the need to constantly manage resources, deliveries, and character loyalty tedious, especially in the mid to late game, leading to a sense of frustration rather than fun. While the game starts with engaging mechanics, it quickly devolves into a grind that feels more like a chore than an enjoyable experience.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Anyway, the game felt great and had a cool concept in the beginning, but quickly falls apart once you get into the mid to late game with so much tedious micromanagement that it becomes a chore, stripping away all the initial enjoyment you felt.”
- “In essence, it doesn't matter because every quest in the game boils down to 'bring x goods to location y.' It gets tedious after 5 minutes.”
- “The most tedious part of the game is the constant micromanaging that is needed for keeping your production chains in working order. If a warehouse is too full, you generate terror, so you constantly need to change your production in order to adapt.”
stability
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
5%
77%
The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, particularly in the tutorial and story modes. While some users noted that the game runs smoothly after extended playtime and praised its visuals, others found it too buggy and unfinished to recommend at this stage. Overall, the game appears to be in need of further polish and stability improvements before it can be fully enjoyed.
- “Visually pleasing, absolutely bug free, tycoon game with a nice amount of sand added in how you do things.”
- “There's a lot of deep gameplay, great graphics and the game after twenty hours is remarkably glitch and bug free.”
- “Runs great, appealing visuals, lacking some depth and content but that is to be expected.”
- “It's a buggy mess of a game with so many issues, some making it impossible to play; I can't even complete the second story as it either does the mission twice or something bugs out.”
- “Too unfinished and buggy to recommend at this stage.”
- “The tutorial is buggy and limited, and just a big mess, but I'll get to that later.”
optimization
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The game's optimization is generally criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues as they expand their cities and build more structures, leading to slowdowns and stuttering. While the user interface and logistics for production chains are well-optimized, other algorithms, such as resource distribution, are lacking. Overall, players feel that the game requires further optimization to enhance performance, especially under heavy load.
- “Gameplay feels smooth with nicely optimized UI and logistics for any production chain.”
- “This game is a decent management simulation/resource chain optimization game.”
- “As this game is all about setting up a smooth production chain, do not overproduce and over-expand, and manage limited resources, with depth in optimization (easy math, but very versatile) and layout planning (location, roads, supply chain inter-connections).”
- “A little underoptimized; it can get really slow when you build a lot of buildings.”
- “Not optimized game; the tutorial is too long. If you don't speedrun, you won't be able to refund the game. Buildings are not distributing the right packages to the right places (unless you micromanage everything), which causes your police heat.”
- “I think the game also has some performance issues, as even in the lowest settings, my computer is crying for some ice.”
replayability
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
60%
11%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while many players appreciate its depth and potential for varied experiences, the absence of a multiplayer mode and some repetitive elements can limit long-term engagement. Players enjoy the randomness and different starting points, which enhance replay value, but some find the endgame tedious and the gameplay can become easy and redundant after mastering the mechanics. Overall, the game shows promise for replayability, especially with future updates.
- “This game has huge depth and replay value.”
- “Amazing game, very replayable and love the recent updates to gang relations.”
- “Overall, it's a lot of fun, challenging and has tons of potential, with a decent amount of replayability (the map is the same, but you can choose where to start - some areas are harder, some easier etc).”
- “The absence of multiplayer mode limits the game's appeal and replayability.”
- “End game is a bit tedious and the replayability for me is low, but getting there is a lot of fun and a good challenge.”
- “The only thing that's frustrating to me is once you learn the concepts, the game quickly becomes pretty easy, redundant, and boring.”
humor
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is often derived from its poor coding and frustrating logistics, which players find amusing rather than annoying. Many appreciate the witty dialogues and storylines, while others highlight the absurdity of game mechanics, such as managing "dirty money" and the humorous situations that arise from them. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with gameplay, making it an enjoyable experience for players.
- “Good game, the AI can get funny at times, but there's always a solution.”
- “+ Humor and good dialogues/storylines.”
- “The game is so badly coded it's actually hilarious; you will find logistics incredibly frustrating and stupid just because the code is really bad in this game.”
atmosphere
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive art style, polished sound design, and exceptional soundtrack, which collectively enhance the overall experience. Reviewers highlight the effective storytelling, even in sandbox mode, and note that the visuals and audio work together to create a captivating environment. Overall, the atmosphere significantly contributes to the game's appeal.
- “The game's visual style and atmosphere contribute to its immersion.”
- “The graphics are great, soundtrack, atmosphere.”
- “Something that really impressed me was how polished the sound design was; I could click on things all day, and the music is actually phenomenal. It really sets the atmosphere of being Gus Fring managing a meth empire.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization aspect of the game is currently minimal, resembling a mobile game experience without ads, which contributes to its addictive quality. However, players feel that the game still requires some refinement.