Masterplan Tycoon
- December 3, 2018
- Anton Bravin
- 10h median play time
Get on Steam
Get on itch.io Store"Masterplan Tycoon" is a management simulation game where players build and run their own detective agency. Interrogate suspects, gather evidence, and solve cases to grow your business and reputation. Balance resources, staff skills, and office layout to optimize investigations and profits. Engaging narrative, realistic cases, and variety of challenges keep players immersed in the world of detective work.
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Reviews
- The game offers a fun and engaging simulation experience, allowing players to build and manage intricate supply chains.
- The minimalist design and soothing soundtrack create a relaxing atmosphere, making it enjoyable to play for extended periods.
- The game encourages creativity and strategic thinking as players must optimize their resource management and production lines.
- The gameplay can become repetitive and lacks depth, with limited replayability due to the fixed campaign and linear progression.
- There are significant quality of life issues, such as the inability to rotate buildings, delete resources easily, and a lack of comprehensive production statistics.
- The tutorial is overly long and restrictive, often dictating exactly what players should build, which can detract from the overall experience.
- story70 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 86 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimalistic and often ambiguous, reflecting themes of European colonization and trade, but many players find it lacking depth and engagement. While the missions provide a structured gameplay experience, they can feel repetitive and linear, with limited choices and a focus on resource management rather than narrative development. Overall, the story serves more as a backdrop to the gameplay mechanics rather than a compelling narrative driving the experience.
“Do not discount the spartan looks, as there is both a story here and surprisingly elaborate gameplay.”
“This particular story mirrors European efforts to colonize new continents and commence trading for new wares and raw materials previously unknown to the old continent.”
“Anyway, my initial presumption that there isn't any story of consequence in Masterplan Tycoon was shattered upon investing quite a few hours within this game.”
“By design rather than omission, many story elements are left ambiguous.”
“It's just one preset map and the plot is the tutorial.”
“The resources you can't take with you mean that most of the mission is just duplicating the first part of the game over and over again.”
- gameplay48 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by intuitive mechanics and strategic depth, appealing to fans of tycoon and management games, though it can become repetitive and lacks diversity over time. While some players appreciate the relaxing and educational aspects, others criticize the bland visuals and performance issues that hinder the experience. Overall, the game offers a fun distraction with engaging mechanics, but it may require patience to fully grasp its underlying systems.
“With its intuitive mechanics and strategic depth, it's perfect for fans of tycoon games.”
“The balance between growth and challenges keeps the gameplay fresh and enjoyable.”
“Really nice and calming gameplay with pleasant music in the background.”
“Painfully repetitive in graphics, music, and mechanics.”
“Extremely repetitive from the start with no gameplay diversity whatsoever.”
“On the other hand, its performance falls off as the game goes on causing its already finicky controls to become unbearable, its visuals are bland, its gameplay never really evolves over the course of the game, and it lacks UI niceties to help track what's going on within your giant factory/civilization.”
- graphics27 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally described as simple and aesthetically pleasing, with a clean and minimalistic art style that enhances the gameplay experience. While some players appreciate the relaxing visuals and smooth animations, others criticize the lack of depth and the blandness that can lead to repetitiveness. Overall, the graphics are considered serviceable and effective for conveying gameplay, though they could benefit from optimization and additional visual effects.
“The art style is good, and the animations and connections are smooth.”
“The aesthetic is very clean and easy to look at, and although it does eventually turn into flow-line spaghetti, it's really pleasing to watch the little dots fly around the lines.”
“Its fantastic graphics and immersive gameplay will keep you coming back for more.”
“Painfully repetitive in graphics, music, and mechanics.”
“On the other hand, its performance falls off as the game goes on causing its already finicky controls to become unbearable, its visuals are bland, its gameplay never really evolves over the course of the game, and it lacks UI niceties to help track what's going on within your giant factory/civilization.”
“Graphically it is simple and gets the job done.”
- music13 mentions
- 46 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as soothing and pleasant, complementing the relaxing gameplay with a nice, unobtrusive soundtrack. While some users find the music repetitive, many appreciate its beauty and calming effect, suggesting a desire for a broader variety of tracks. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong point, enhancing the overall experience.
“The music is good.”
“Really nice and calming gameplay with pleasant music in the background.”
“Nice unobtrusive soundtrack that complements the relaxing tone of the game.”
“Painfully repetitive in graphics, music, and mechanics.”
“Soothing elevator music.”
“The in-game music is something!”
- replayability12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 42 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is considered limited by many users, with criticisms focusing on its static nature, lack of end-game content, and minimal options for varied playthroughs. While some appreciate the sandbox mode for added replay value, the general consensus is that the game feels too short and guided, resulting in little incentive to replay.
“That also means that if you're looking for something incredibly detailed with lots and lots of ways to play and tons of replayability, you will probably feel a bit limited by that very minimalism.”
“This is very clearly an intentional decision made by the devs, and I'm fine with that, but I do think that more options for players is usually a good thing, especially since replayability is important to me.”
“Having some manner of option/addon/upgrade that allows you to change (or even just reverse) these nodes at the cost of increasing the size, decreasing efficiency, or even just a one-time upgrade cost would give folks a bit more flexibility, leading to better replayability, as well as giving players more options when going back and optimizing early parts of their base.”
“In the current state, it's a bit short, lacks freedom/replayability, and has a bit too much hand-holding.”
“While the game is okay to sink a few hours into, there is little to no replay value as the entire game end-to-end is a static map and guided tutorial.”
“At the moment, not much replayability.”
- optimization8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, particularly in the late stages where performance drops drastically from smooth gameplay to as low as 2-15 fps, even on high-end hardware. Players report that the game's rendering and resource management become increasingly problematic, leading to frustrating controls and a lack of visual appeal. While recent updates have introduced some optimization options, the overall performance remains inconsistent and underwhelming.
“With the latest update, they give the opportunity to put nodes on planted areas and disable water animation, which helps with better optimization.”
“Needs some optimization as it doesn't seem to be maxing out any CPU core, and this game isn't graphically demanding (running i9-9900k and RTX 3080).”
“This game is not optimized yet; I have top hardware, but at the end of the game, I experience 2-5 fps.”
“It seems to have issues with background and on-screen rendering of processes and needs more optimization.”
“As I got into the late game, the performance has degraded into the realm of 'unbearable' (10-15 fps) whereas it was working perfectly fine (70+ fps) in the beginning.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 86 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly due to cumbersome production chains and resource delivery across maps. While the game starts off as a fun and streamlined experience, it quickly becomes overwhelming and monotonous, especially when dealing with the tier system and layout rearrangements. Overall, many feel that extensive grinding is required, making it less enjoyable over time.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The production chains do not look very nice, and even appear to be too tedious to build properly.”
“It is tedious to scroll around each map for delivering resources between islands.”
“Interesting at first (seemed like a streamlined take on Factorio & co.), but it gets tedious quickly.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is characterized as fun and engaging, blending complexity with a relaxing, cozy vibe that evokes feelings of meditation and tranquility.
“It was very fun, had a degree of complexity that made it interesting without losing the chill atmosphere.”
“Overall, it reminds me of the cozy atmosphere of relaxation and meditation.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is subtle and often arises from the absurdity of gameplay scenarios, such as the amusing sight of long chains of buildings interacting with a single storage box in a comical manner.
“It's kind of funny; often one of my longer chains is just five buildings stacked, consuming from and delivering to the same storage box.”
“The quirky characters and their ridiculous dialogue always make me laugh out loud.”
“I love how the game uses puns and wordplay to keep things light-hearted and entertaining.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Many idle games offer an option to remove ads for a fee ranging from $10 to $15, providing players with a choice to enhance their experience by paying for an ad-free environment.
“Plenty of idle games will charge you $10 to $15 to remove the ads if you're so inclined.”
“The in-game purchases feel excessive and often necessary to progress.”
“It's frustrating that the game is designed to push you towards spending money to enjoy it fully.”
