Oil Enterprise
- April 19, 2016
- Crafty Studios
- 7h median play time
Get on SteamOil Enterprise is a simulation game where you build and manage an oil company. You explore for oil, drill wells, refine crude oil, and sell petroleum products to meet demand. The game features a dynamic economy, detailed machinery, and realistic production chains. Your success depends on your strategic decisions, efficient operations, and ability to adapt to market fluctuations.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game has a nice concept and captures the essence of the oil business, focusing on optimization and management.
- It offers a decent tutorial that helps players understand the basics of gameplay and mechanics.
- The graphics are decent for the style, and the game provides a nostalgic feel reminiscent of classic tycoon games.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and crashes, making it unplayable for many users.
- There is a lack of depth and content, leading to repetitive gameplay and limited building options.
- Contract management is frustrating, as players can fail contracts due to random events or production drops, even when they have oil in storage.
- graphics14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many praising the stability and decent visuals, particularly for the chosen cartoony style. However, some players feel that the graphics are too simplistic and may detract from the immersion expected in a business simulation. Overall, while the visuals are consistent and enjoyable for the intended aesthetic, there is a consensus that they could benefit from further polish and refinement.
“Stability and more than decent visuals.”
“People seem to be complaining about the graphics, but the designers made a choice to make it cartoony, and the look is consistent. I'll say the graphics are pretty good for the style they went for and give it a pass on that front.”
“The relatively dry gameplay gets spiced up by some cute comicish artworks and an excellent tutorial.”
“There's some cons (graphic artifacts, some unnecessary menu clicking, maybe a bit too cartoony for the subject) about it as a game, and it does look like it could use a little more polish.”
“Graphics are really meh.. the English used within the game is well borderline English.”
“Oil enterprise is a fine little gem of a game, of course there is room for improvement when it comes to graphics quality or animations.”
- gameplay12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay primarily revolves around building and managing oil industry infrastructure, with mechanics that are easy to grasp but challenging to master, offering good replay value and upcoming multiplayer features. However, players may find the initial learning curve steep due to a lack of immersive tutorials, which can detract from the experience. Overall, it is a solid business strategy game with engaging elements, despite some limitations in gameplay variety.
“The gameplay mainly consists of building a pumpjack, refinery, pumping station, and storage unit.”
“Some neat mechanics later on where you can buy licenses to drill in other countries with different biomes and real-world perks like cheaper labor and construction costs.”
“But the bits and pieces fit together nicely; the mechanic is rather easy to understand but not that easy to master perfectly, and it has a very good replay value with all the scenarios and especially with the upcoming multiplayer.”
“But figuring out game mechanics is not the same thing as figuring out best practices or world/game exploration.”
“Instead, it forces the player to not only learn the basics of the industry themselves, but also the basics of the game mechanics, which breaks the immersion and creates an almost hair-pulling experience, especially compared to so many other involved games that have a proper tutorial.”
“Gameplay is limited, and there's not a lot to do after the demanding start.”
- story6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's story lacks clear protagonists, featuring a campaign with 20 scenarios that vary significantly in quality and complexity, leading to a disjointed experience. While some missions can be confusing, the addition of more campaign missions and a free play mode enhances the overall value, despite the developers' reliance on German as the primary language.
“The game has a campaign of sorts, yet its 20 scenarios (19 missions and 1 tutorial map) vary significantly in terms of budgetary constraints, objective complexity, and deadlines.”
“More campaign missions and a free play mode are now available, adding a lot of value to the game.”
“No good guys in this story.”
“The game has a campaign of sorts, yet its 20 scenarios (19 missions and 1 tutorial map) vary significantly in terms of budgetary constraints, objective complexity, or deadlines.”
“So don’t expect continuity from one mission to another.”
- music5 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players finding the soundtrack relaxing, while others describe it as repetitive and akin to "elevator music." Additionally, there are complaints about annoying sound effects, although players appreciate the option to mute the audio. Overall, the audio experience seems to lack depth and variety.
“The soundtrack is pretty nice and relaxing.”
“Apart from a few repetitive sound effects and an equally light soundtrack, there are no other audio files to be found in Oil Enterprise.”
“The music is very annoying too (okay, it can be muted but still).”
“The music is the techno equivalent of elevator music.”
- stability4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The stability of the game is highly inconsistent, with some users reporting a stable frame rate and no glitches, while others experience frequent bugs, crashes, and unplayable scenarios. Overall, the game appears to have significant stability issues that hinder the experience for many players.
“The game maintains a stable frame rate, with native resolution scaling and no glitches or crashes in sight.”
“I appreciate the consistent performance; it really enhances the overall experience.”
“The stability of the game is impressive, allowing for smooth gameplay without interruptions.”
“I cannot put into words how bad this game is... let alone all the glitches.”
“Lots of bugs and glitches, thus making the game unplayable. I have yet to get more than 10-15 minutes through any scenario before either a bug, glitch, or game crash happens. Only scenarios work for me; anytime I try starting a game of a different type, it never works. It won't let me choose what country I want to start in; it just doesn't want to do anything.”
“A little buggy but not bad.”
- optimization3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, users report that the game's performance is solid, with no significant issues affecting gameplay. However, some note that optimization is complex, as the performance metrics for different segments do not align seamlessly.
“Regardless of these minor issues, I still took some pretty screenshots, and I can’t ever complain about having any problems with the game’s performance.”
“Basically, it's a condensed location to see the condition, performance characteristics, and operating costs of each building in the region.”
“Optimization is not a simple accomplishment, as the measurement of each processing segment doesn't match with adjacent pieces.”
“Basically a condensed location to see the condition, performance characteristics, and operating costs of each building in the region.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and time-consuming, often requiring excessive hours to achieve progress, making it suitable primarily for those looking to engage in mindless gameplay.
“It is an okay game if you want to waste a couple of hours with mindless grinding.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is derived from its absurd premise, highlighting the irony of players fighting over a resource that is essentially ancient decomposed organisms, which adds a comedic layer to the strategic gameplay. Overall, while the humor is appreciated, players note that technical issues, such as crashes, detract from the experience.
“It’s the ultimate strategic resource; men have killed or died for securing large quantities of it, and it’s also hilarious when you consider that it’s little more than the decomposing remains of organisms from millions of years ago.”
“The game is funny and would be great if they fixed the crash error.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game offers good replayability due to its well-integrated mechanics and multiple scenarios, including a tutorial, though only a limited number are currently available. Players find the mechanics easy to grasp yet challenging to master, and the promise of upcoming multiplayer features enhances its replay value.
“The mechanics are easy to understand but challenging to master, providing excellent replay value with all the scenarios and especially with the upcoming multiplayer.”
“The game offers a variety of scenarios that enhance its replayability, making each playthrough feel fresh and engaging.”
“The upshot of this is that only a handful of scenarios are playable, including the tutorial.”
“Once you've completed the main storyline, there's little incentive to go back and play again.”
“The lack of diverse endings makes replaying the game feel redundant.”
